Second Life

Second Life seems to be a great tool for students in an EFL environment as it would give them the opportunity to chat (text or voice) with native English speakers. The input would therefore be totally authentic, synchronous, and could quite possibly come with its own set of internally motivating factors (e.g.--interest in other cultures, ways of live, etc. or simply just getting to know a new person). While I am a novice myself at using Second Life, I have thought about using it in the course I am designing for the Materials and Curriculum development class as my class takes place in an EFL setting and it could be a good way to get those students some opportunities to speak with native English speakers that they might not have.

I think a "downside" to Second Life might simply be trying to convince adults to see it as an educational tool and not as simply time wasting. For example, it might be tough to get a business executive to buy into using it as they might perceive it as being a "game." If seen in this light, there is even the (remote) chance that the student could feel infantilized and be offended due to this. Even so, it could be a great tool for real-time interaction and provide many learning experiences for intermediate to advanced learners.

Meebo and Videoconferencing

I think that videoconferencing is a potentially useful tool in the ESL classroom. Particularly, it could be useful in EFL contexts where the students generally don't have access to speaking with a native speaker in their everyday lives. Meebo could, with enough planning, allow students to even have a conversation with native speakers from different regions of the U.S. or from different countries where English is spoken (obviously the U.K., Australia/New Zealand, but also places like India or Scandanavia where a large number of people speak it fluently) so that they can get exposure to different accents. There could be a ton of applications for this kind of thing and I know from my own experience that students in EFL contexts are often hungry for that kind of opportunity.

There are a couple of things that are potential pitfalls for Meebo and videoconferencing in general. The first is something that I experience firsthand on Tuesday in that Meebo or any videoconferencing tool might be frustrating in getting it set up. While I got it to work in some cases, I'm still baffled as to why it didn't work in certain instances. If students were doing this remotely, helping them troubleshoot their problems might be difficult. Another potential pitfall in using Meebo in the way I've suggested above is that it could expose some cultural differences that might cause social rifts such as the ones that we read about in this week's reading ("Toward an Intercultural Stance: Teaching German and English through Telecollaboration" by Ware and Kramsch). It might be useful to have very specific tasks for students to work on and also be available to monitor these conversations to help steer students away from "trouble spots."