Week 7: Assignment 2: Applying Second Life and Multimodalities

While the open functionality of Second Life allows for virtual interaction, the fourth grade teacher I interviewed could not see an application for her 9 year old students.  She thought the platform had limited use for teaching an ELA lesson and felt the students would be disinterested with the lack of structure, control and manipulatives.   After brainstorming, we settled on one application that may meet ELA learning objectives while the students are engaged in Second Life.  Students, via their avatars, would engage in a treasure hunt to enhance a unit on new vocabulary words.  Prior to jumping into a Second Life virtual world, each student will be given specific and unique information like a definition, a synonym or antonym to a new vocabulary word, a sentence using a new vocabulary word, or a clue that will direct others to students who have the desired information.  Every student will be given the same set of five vocabulary words.  Their goal will be to enter a relevant Second Life scenario, collaborate with each other on finding the correct definition, synonym, antonym and sentence to each of the five new vocabulary words.   The students will have to use their knowledge and teamwork with fellow students to match all parts correctly.  This timed treasure hunt will be highly interactive, creative, fun, and, of course, educational.  The teacher can assess their understanding and performance when everyone returns to the real world classroom.  

While not as engaging as Second Life, the fourth grade teacher embraced the concepts of multimodality in teaching ELA.  The new program she (and every elementary school teacher in the district) includes a large amount of interactive SMART Board activities that help bring stories and nonfiction text alive through multimedia.  This includes expressive narration, highlighted words or phrases, detailed visuals with thoughtfully-selected contexts, and relevant sound effects to enhance understanding.  Not only do these different modes create a more effective learning environment, learners of different styles and preferences have access to information in various formats.   Additionally, the students have started weekly work on a Powerpoint presentation on what they are learning in fourth grade.  The teacher encourages them to using multimodality concepts to enhance their ongoing work. Students have already applied colors, different fonts and sizes, images and sounds to highlight and broaden the expression of what they have learned.  The students’ presentations will be presented to their parents in the Spring and will be a keepsake of their fourth grade school year.  

Here I am exploring a Second Life shopping mall.