Brief presentation of the paper submitted to EDEN Open Classroom Conference, in Oporto, Portugal, 2009

1. Angelina Macedo, Portugal Lina Morgado, Portugal EDEN Open Classroom Conference 09 16th October 2009

4. I. Second Life: what is it? 4

9. II. Learning to teach in Second Life 9

16. Learning to Teach in SL: Hands-on Workshop 16 We observed some workshops; Discussed best practices; Used a specific template to analyse and evaluate them which had been previously validated by a panel of teachers.

17. Learning to Teach in SL: Hands-on Workshop 17 Methodology: - participatory observation, followed by tutor’s and critical friends’ feedback (two peers would be our critical friends: observe the workshop, give feedback on the best practices and on what required improvement); Assessment: of the quality of the students’ learning experience and outcomes. Preparing a Hands-on Workshop

18. Learning to Teach in SL: Hands-on Workshop 18 Designing and implementing a Hands-on Workshop - Aim of the workshop: understand how prims work and create a table and a stool, just with one prim each. - By manipulating a tube and setting different parametres, participants would create a table and a stool. Finally, they would texture them.

19. Learning to Teach in SL: Hands-on Workshop 19 Preparation of the virtual setting: - Individual, well limited working areas; - Participants’ seats had a double function: keep participants locked in place (thus reducing lag) and allowed them to rise their hands when/if they wanted to ask any questions; - Examples of the objects that were going to be built – a table and a stool; - A folder with several textures and a poseball for the stool was given to each participant; - Notecards with all the instructions (important when the participants’ level of skills is different); - Notecard reader; - Asked a friend to test things in advance;

20. Learning to Teach in SL: Hands-on Workshop 20 While delivering the workshop Stated the workshop objectives at the beginning; Explained the task; Gave instructions both through chat voice and a notecard that was being shown on the notecard reader; Helped a less experienced participant through private Instant Messaging .

21. Learning to Teach in SL: Hands-on Workshop 21 At the end of the workshop All the participants managed to create a table and a stool. As some still struggled with the pose ball for the stool, we met in-world to solve this issue.