SL Reflection 3

Becasue our group decided to do vampire role-play for our final project, and we need a place, a castle to shoot our role-play video. I went search for castles, and found this place, a medieval Gothic castle with some vampire style decorations. Such as this blood fountain---

And I also saw many creepy ghosts floating around in this castle. I only know how to build an immobile object, wonder how to make things move in SL. I guess it would take me like years to get to know all the functions in SL! Anyway, I really think this is a perfect place to shoot our video, and I believe my group members would like this place like I do too.

SL Reflection 2

I went to Freebie Galaxy, and find this place is really cool! I've been to many Freebie selling islands, but I think this is the largest one I've ever seem. Each floor has different topic, such as hair style, shirt, pants, dress, body and etc, and it has this convenient function of teleport you up and down from floor to floor. And what I think the best about this place is that, almost everything here is free and has no bug! Last week I went to another Freebie island with Emma, and she had to buy clothes with lindens there. And when she tried to put on the clothes that she just bought, she couldn't find it in her inventory! I encounter no such problem in Freebie Galaxy, I successfully bought some new hair styles to go with my vampire dress. Hope our vampire role-play can be carried out successfully either.

SL Reflection 1

Icy and me went to Luskwood and see everyone here with costume of animal. I also see a man dressed like a vampire, hanging upside down on the street light. This give me the idea that maybe our final project we can do vampire role-play. But since the two other group members were absent today, we will ask them next week whether they think the idea is OK.

[19:54] Meimeiryo Littlebird: everyone here has a tail!XDDDDD
[19:54] IGY Spore: i think it's too complicated for me
[19:54] IGY Spore: ==
[19:54] IGY Spore: where did u get ur suit?
[19:54] Meimeiryo Littlebird: me?
[19:54] Meimeiryo Littlebird: i get my outfit at freebie
[19:54] IGY Spore: ya
[19:54] IGY Spore: whatz that
[19:54] Meimeiryo Littlebird: you wanna go there?
[19:54] IGY Spore: oh i see
[19:55] IGY Spore: no
[19:55] IGY Spore: i hate shopping
[19:55] Meimeiryo Littlebird: XDDDD i can understand
[19:55] Meimeiryo Littlebird: you see that fox?
[19:55] Meimeiryo Littlebird: the white one
[19:55] IGY Spore: where is the fox
[19:55] IGY Spore: oh i see
[19:55] Meimeiryo Littlebird: the very japanese one
[19:56] IGY Spore: ya
[19:56] IGY Spore: i am pm him
[19:56] IGY Spore: i want to ask where does he got his gear
[19:57] Meimeiryo Littlebird: did he reply?
[19:57] IGY Spore: no
[19:57] IGY Spore: guess he never want to reply me
[19:57] IGY Spore: hey
[19:57] IGY Spore: don't forget to shot some photo
[19:57] IGY Spore: in sl
[19:58] Meimeiryo Littlebird: OK! come stand beside that fox
[19:58] IGY Spore: am i in right position?
[19:58] Meimeiryo Littlebird: no
[19:58] Meimeiryo Littlebird: come here
[19:59] Meimeiryo Littlebird: see me?
[19:59] IGY Spore: damn
[19:59] IGY Spore: u r talking THIS fox
[19:59] IGY Spore: i just recognized a player as the fox u said
[20:01] Meimeiryo Littlebird: i took the shot
[20:01] IGY Spore: me too
[20:01] Meimeiryo Littlebird: see that vampire?
[20:01] IGY Spore: um
[20:01] Meimeiryo Littlebird: how about we do vampire role play for final project?
[20:01] Meimeiryo Littlebird:i remember vampire role play are very popular in SL.
[20:01] IGY Spore: i think it's fine. we can ask them next week
[20:02] Meimeiryo Littlebird: OK, wanna go to next place then?
[20:02] IGY Spore: ok
[20:02] IGY Spore: u go first then teleport me
[20:02] Meimeiryo Littlebird: OK

Article discussion

Designing Task-Based CALL to Promote Interaction:EN BUSCA ESMERALDS
by Marta Gonzalez-Lloret


Report of the article:

This article is mainly talking about nowaday all areas of education are undergoing some changes. It changes from teacher-centered to student centered, focusing more on letting students do the practice themselves. And also the increasing use of computers for learning, and net-working based teaching is a huge change. So L2 teaching is no exception in this shift. Computer-assist language learning (CALL) becomes more and more popular. CALL does not mean learning without the help of instructors, it mean that technology is one of the tool that teacher use to assist and promote language learning.

But although computers are useful and motivating for students' learning, but there are only few solid studies to support this learning method. So this article provides a research base to help confirm this argument.

It mentions about the advantages of using CALL activity for learning, such as allowing students to be immersed and actively involved in an enviornment. And students can access at any time from any computer. It is global wide. And it can integrate graphics, audio, and text together and etc.

Besides the advantages, there is another important point of CALL activity, which is to use the help of interaction to promote students in the area of L2 learning. Many scholars such as Long and Hegelheimer and Chapelle, state that learners are most likely to notice linguistic form during interaction

So by using CALL activity, student can learn L2 by interacting more with other students, and also by the help of the instructors.


YouTube videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evY4zv990z0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKx3gyQrqaA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcYyUwFLakQ



Summarize and Evaluate Classmates’ Ideas:

Question 1.Do you prefer this way of L2 learning based on multimedia, or prefer the traditional teaching method? What are the possible advantages or disadvantages of this method? Do you think the efficient of this method is good or not?

Answer: Yes I do like it. I feel it's more interesting than traditional ways of learning. I think the advantage of CALL is that it's fresh and free to students. In the past, some students might want to skip the class when facing terrible weather or the temperature is too hot or too cold. Now by using CALL, we don't have to go out to class, we can simply learn at home. I think it will help to lower the rate of skipping class. But when it comes to the efficiency, I think face to face learning is still better. Because it can save the time of typing and operating the computer.


Question 2.Do you have similar experience using this kind of device or join alike online activities? If you do, please share your experience with us, and tell us if you hold a positive attitude or not.

Answer: I've used Second Life to learn news writing before. I can teleport almost anywhere I like in this virtual world, and buy free gorgeous costumes to dress myself up. My group members and I also interviewed other players in this online-game about their attitude towards online relationship. Over all, it was an interesting experience, and I really did learn some interview and news writing technology through Second Life. So I definitely holds a positive attitude towards CALL.

TIME.com: Remind us the changes of times. Review 3

URL: http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/

Date of entries: 3/21

Topic of discussion: LightBox

Writing Style: Essay

Summary:

"There is a story behind every photo", do you agree? To photographers of TIME.com, taking photo is about telling the world the story they see in their eyes. When you enter the photo section, you can see a category called "LightBox". In LightBox, you can see many pictures collocate with short essays. It is sort of like a column. Through the essay, you can know more about what the photographer trys to deliver, and the shooting-background of the photos. And unlike a news, it is less formal and includes more personal emotions. You can also see people from all around the world to leave their comments, and understand different persepectives toward an issue.

Recently in LightBox, there are many articles about Japan earthquake and wars in Libya. After reading and looking at these articles, I really feel so sad for those who suffers from these disaster. However, one is made by mother nature which can not be prevanted, but one is man-made. I can not help but wonder that why we human can fight against each other just for power and money, especially when something like this just happened in Japan? We really should cheish more of what we got and people around us. Reading LightBox, what you gain is more than the ability of English, but also the ability of thinking.

TIME.com: Remind us the changes of times. Review 2

URL: http://www.time.com/time/travel

Date of entries:3/20

Topic of discussion: City Guide

Writing Style: Travel Notes

Summary:

If you are looking for a place to go and not knowing where, why not check TIME.com's "Travel" section? Here it provides many countries' informations. TIME Travel's articles include historicle and culture informations and is more specific and organized than other traveling website. You can see the ranking of the most popular destinations, it might give you a clue of where to go.

You can also click on a section called "city guide", and you will see a whole bunch list of cities on the left side.(Unfortunately there is no Taiwan's city)When you choose the city you are interested in, first it will show you the 10 things they recommand you to do in 24 hours in that city. It usually starts with that city's history background, and because it is about "10 things to do", not "10 places to visit", so it focus not only on scenic spots, but also specialties to eat, things to buy and events to participate in. Second it will show you 5 places to stay in that city, it is all very useful information, after reading it, you don't need to worry about the hotel issue anymore. Third, is the introduction of where to buy the perfect souvenir. Souvenir is very important when you are out on a trip, it usually carry with the momories about this trip. Fourth, it is the side trip. It is usually somewhere near that city, and also worth to visit. Last but not least, it is the need to know. Such as the map of airport, and and some etiquette you need to know and etc.

The Time.com Travel section not only can help you learn English but also very useful as a travel tool. And we all know that the quickest way to learn a language is to be in that enviornment, so this website can also give those who have planning to study abroad an initial understanding of that city too.

TIME.com: Remind us the changes of times. Review 1

URL: http://www.time.com/time/world

Date of entries:3/14

Topic of discussion: World News

Writing Style: News report

Summary:

As we all should know, a huge earthquake happened in Japan on March, 11, 2011, triggers great tsunami and caused many damages and lives loss. This is already a terrible disaster, but what makes me even angry and upset is that Taiwan's media seems to always looking for a chance to stir up trouble. I found nothing but reports that try to cause people panic and chaos.

That is why I decided to recommond TIME.com. In TIME.com "World" section, you can see important news from all over the world, combined with well-shot and touching photos. News from TIME.com is more impartial than media in Taiwan, and since TIME.com is in partnership with CNN, the news update really fast too. And because the website is all in English, pay a visit to TIME.com is a great way for people who wants to learn English and catch up with world's latest movement at the same time. As for this time Japan's earthquake, TIME.com quickly created a special category called "The Japan Quake" under "World" section, to organize all news and photos related to Japan earthquake and tsunami together. There are many touching news articles and stories, after seeing these, makes me cherish everyday I live more than ever.