Bringing the World of English to You!
Hi Students !
Today and tomorrow in Second Life is the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference. There are lots of interesting talks and exhibits which show what is happening in virtual world education.
Shiv Rajendran is speaking at 2:00am (PST) 10:00am (GMT) at VWBPE East.
Or if you would like to come and visit the Languagelab.com stand click here.
Hope to see you there !
Jessie Teacher
Hi Students,
How are you ?
This week Languagelab’s Shiv has been busy talking to teachers over the world. He has been talking at the International Academy, Essex Universities virtual space and showing teachers from all over the world how paintball can be used for teaching.
Why don’t you ask a friend or your teacher: Why is teaching in a classroom good and what are the advantages and disadvantages of it?
What can you do in real life that you cannot do in a classroom?
What can you do in a virtual world that you cannot do in a classroom?
The paintball event was a great success. Here is a short video clip so you can see teachers learning the vocabulary of inside a computer before they play the paintball game and start the shooting! Do you know what the parts of a computer are called?
Teachers learning computer vocabulary from Languagelabdotcom on Vimeo.
If you want to find out more about learning English in a fun and different way come and visit us in English City!
Hi Students,
Just a quick post to tell you a little about the DUCKLING project at Leicester University. Recently at Languagelab we had a team from Leicester University come in and watch our classes. These were all teachers from different countries who wanted to learn more about teaching in virtual worlds.
Here is a video of a presentation they made in Southampton last week.
Hi Everyone,
So 2009 is coming to an end and 2010 is beginning.
Some great things that happened in English City this year.
1. We had a fantastic student photo exhibition in our gallery.
2. An interesting BBC Reporter came in to be part of our chat show and talk to our students.
3. A flying squid escaped in the city, Lane have you found it yet ?
4. Students dressed up as Turkeys for Thanksgiving in the theatre with Pebbles.
5. Students meeting and making friends with lots of interesting people from all over the world.
6. The Michael Jackson karaoke tribute sing-a-long, what a great afternoon!
7. One of our students making a documentary about his life in English City – keep watching the blog for news.
8. Scary fun killing aliens in Dark Mines, I need to get a better spacesuit.
9. Amusing art discussions about Damien Hirst’s shark.
10. Jason playing his saxophone on the beach at Gertie’s beach party.
Here is a little video I found showing some of the highlights of the year. The music is by The Temper Trap a great band that I have discovered this year.
What has been your favourite moments of 2009?
Happy New Year ! See you in 2010 !
Jessie Teacher
BESIG, the Business English Special Interest Group of IATEFL are having a conference this week in Poland and our own Shiv Rajendran is there representing Languagelab.com.
He is going to talk about Business English in English City, have you ever been to a Business English class with Jazz Quinzet or Alastair Twine?
The conference is in Poznan and Shiv has told me it’s a nice city and he is looking forward to meeting all the people he has met already through Twitter! He will also be meeting some of our students who live in Poznan for the first time.
There is some information on one of our Business English City People below, Jazz Quinzet. If you would like to meet her come and visit her in English City.
| Name: | Jazz Quinzet |
|---|---|
| Age: | 35 |
| Occupation | She owns the local real estate office and sells and manages properties in The City including houses, offices, shops and land. She has worked in international property companies but now runs her own business. She is a very active member of business associations in The City because she is very interested in anything related to business, sales and business management. |
| Primary Location: | Business Centre |
| Objectives: | Jazz wants to help people in The City buy, sell and rent out their properties. Jazz is also a business advisor and helps people in the City with any questions relating to business. Jazz loves finding easier and more efficient ways to run her business and loves to share what she learns with other people who are also interested in business. She has a lot of contacts in the business and property world. |
| Language and vocabulary: | Negotiation, meetings, Business English, offers and requests, presentations |
See you soon !
Jessie Teacher
This Tuesday at 5pm PDT (1am UK time) Shiv Rajendran our co-founder at Languagelab will be presenting to an audience of educators at ISTE Island.
ISTE is the International Society for Technology in Education and is a collaboration of educators from all over the world interested in advancing
the use of technology in education.
This presentation is to give an insight on what works and what doesn´t when thinking about virtual worlds and education. The presentation will focus on what Languagelab has learned in 4 years of teaching in Second Life.
The presentation will be at http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/204/46/23.
Enjoy the presentation!
Hi Languagelab Students,
We have great news for you !
The welcome area has moved to a brand new and improved space for you to get technical help and meet the Helpers.
Click here to visit.
Thanks and see you soon in English City,
Jessie Teacher
Languagelab currently holds the record in Second Life for raising the most money in 24 hours for charity – over $1,000 USD and in total $2,000 USD. This was last year for the China Earthquake Fund. Some of our students and helpers wanted to help their fellow citizens and we had a great 24 party with singing, dancing and special guests. So this year we want to break our record for fund rasising and help even more people!
On Friday 13th we are having a fundraising event to raise money for the charity ‘Comic Relief‘. This is a charity whose aim is to help free the world from poverty.
This is a quote from their website:
“The money we raise is allocated to a wide range of grants and social investments aimed at delivering real and long-lasting change to the poorest, most vulnerable people at home and across the world; as well as informing the public and young people in particular about global citizenship and the underlying causes of extreme poverty”
Our theme is the circus so we will have fun, games and lots of music – dress up as the ringmaster, a lion or put on your red nose and donate for a good cause!
For more information on how you can help visit our welcome area or email info@languagelab.
We need your help – if you are a DJ in SL or have some great costumes you want to share come along everyone is welcome all day on Friday 13th at our Welcome area.
See you there,
Jessie Teacher
Languagelab would like to extend a very warm welcome to students of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) who are joining us at Languagelab.
The students are using English City as part of their study programme based in Second Life and will improve their English while exploring what it is like to study in a virtual world.
KAIST teacher Chris Surridge has made this possible and we would like to welcome them to our student community.
One of our students Energizer Aboma came to me a few days ago with a great idea – a writing contest. This is a great way to improve your writing and get critical feedback that can help you improve.
Many of our students have been writing on the English City News Blog a newspaper run by the students and Lane Jarman, reporter at the City News. If you would like to write something for the blog come to one of Lane’s activities or comment on another student’s article and we will get back to you.
Ok so here are the rules:
The words:
The deadline is 9th March and all submissions should be made on the English City News Blog or to jessie@languagelab.com
Good Luck !
