I Found My Tutor In Second Life: New Ways to Get the Help You Need

One of the fastest-growing uses within the virtual world, Second Life, is in the area of one-on-one and small group education. This makes sense, given the opportunities for role-play as providing on-demand streaming video, media, and simulations. Language Labs, cervantes, avatarlanguages.com, gofluent.com and other language instruction providers have group and individual training. Learning Tree is close to debuting their island which will provide technical training, primarily in computing and management. Other islands make it easy for teachers to schedule and rent a classroom and resources for lessons.

Podcast: http://www.beyondutopia.net/podcasts/sltutor.mp3

Online tutoring has been around for a long time. In the past, long-distance help ranged from having tutors review your papers and homework via email, to text-based chat. Later it evolved into web conferencing / video conferencing. WebEx, Adobe Connect, and Elluminate are some of the programs that have been used to do video conferencing. The future is changing, though, as virtual worlds and multiplayer role playing move from entertainment, training, and information to an actual live avatar-assisted learning encounter.

While universities have been offering guides and help in their virtual worlds, often in the form of guidance counselors, admissions officers, librarians, and virtual campus tour guides, new services in Second Life are springing up to help students who need tutoring services and feel comfortable in a virtual world.

Some are still affiliated with colleges and universities and may be a part of their tutoring services. Others may be part of tutoring services, such as SmartThinking.com. Still others may be offered as a part of student organization (Clover College’s Spanish Club) or an honor society.

* Language Tutors - Language Lab (http://www.languagelab.com )
Great way to get started in SL -- has a very nice orientation, plus a friendly greeter. All are English courses, which is a bit of a disappointment for the English language speaker. Language learning environment.

http://www.languagelab.com/en/

* Language Acquisition: Group Conversations and Interactions
http://londres.cervantes.es/en/default.shtm
Online language courses for Spanish.

Cervantes in SL:
If you're studying to be a teacher of Spanish or just want to review: http://cvc.cervantes.es/aula/didactired/default.htm

* Tutors in Second Life
Ad / video clips in YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7KYlfOyWZy4

Contact information includes the name of the tutors (SL name) and the location of the island (Vorlheim coordinates)

* Places to Practice Language /
Speaking a Foreign Language in Second Life (for free)
Video clip tells you how:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KKzkfyglJY8

http://www.avatarlanguages.com/freepractice

Learning languages in more systematic way:
http://www.avatarlanguages.com

* Learning English / Interactive
http://www.gofluent.com

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QzR3YrXH2ik&feature=related

*Place to go to find a tutor for your language course:
http://eslteacherlink.com/

English Village in Second Life --

Canadian living in Korea created the concept around 2 years ago. Since that time more than 2000 tutors and students have used the virtual classrooms

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XZHeL0TP4cc&feature=related
English Village:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=P4UuQUHvQ8A&feature=user

http://eslteacherlink.com/

* Security / Criminal Justice
Border Security - Second Life Loyalist College Canadian Border Simulation

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PCUWcpVPtMM

* Architecture Lessons / Architectural History

Bauhaus School of Design
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BxJcKQ7HRqk

* Occupational Therapy in Second Life
Jefferson Occupational Design

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TvhzHlrargU

* Fashion Design
MODA Modeling and Fashion School in SL
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9j-g5J7IkQU

* Individual Professor / Bromley College
Shimmer Island -- multi-use classroom for learning resource
Software design

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3WdCyreAsJQ

* Drama / Theatre: The Higher Education Academy (England)
Theatron 3: Building SL islands for the performing arts
http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/projects/archive/technology/tech23.php

Understanding Renaissance Drama using Second Life
St. John University
http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/projects/archive/technology/theatron/williams.php

Example: Outside the Theatre of Pompey - http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/projects/archive/technology/tech23.php#

Is there anyone who can help you?
Going to King's Visualization Lab
http://www.kvl.cch.kcl.ac.uk
at King's College (UK) can give you a sense of the potential for projects. While you may not wish to spend too much time visiting this area, knowing about what is being done to make theatre, literary studies, and the dramatic arts come alive may help you in research papers for your drama and literature courses.

Many of the projects to determine just how and where Second Life is effective in online education have been funded by Eduserv (UK)
http://www.eduserv.org.uk