Some ideas for activities:
PART A - WAITING FOR STUDENTS TO ARRIVE (21:00-21:15 - 10-15 minutes)
Students should meet at the AVALON Learning Sandbox:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/113/61/36
1) Warmer
Introduce yourself and tell people three things about yourself then ask them to do the same
Good morning/afternoon/evening...I'm
I'm...and I live/work...
Welcome to the Business English course and tell them that the first 2 classes are an introduction to Second Life and an opportunity for everyone to get to practise their English while learning more about how Second Life works.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you befriend everyone when they arrive and also add them to the class group - tell them you are going to invite them to a group and to be your friend and they should accept
Continue conversation and take note of who is who (and some things they say) and whether their microphone works, etc.
If they have problems with their mic at this stage, don't try to fix it (unless you think it's an easy problem to fix) - ask them to do their introductions using text chat
2) Who's Who?
Check who was paying attention by asking the learners to say who said they ....(use notes from what they said before)
Ask follow up questions / encourage the learners to do the same
PART B - SECOND LIFE SKILLS TO PRACTICE (21:15-22:15 - 60 minutes)
CHATTING & TALKING
If all of the learners can hear and speak (i.e. there are no SL voice technical problems) then you can use voice to go through the following procedure. If anyone has problems hearing / feedback / etc then ask them all to mute their mics and then using chat, check that they are working one-by-one. Check this page for possible solutions to problems : Second Life Troubleshooting
The following procedure is worth going through with students:
MOVING
True / False game
Instructions:
Place two prims (one with the word 'True' and the other with 'False') apart from each other and tell the students that you are going to say some statements about Europe and they have to decide if they are true or false. Once they have done this, they have to move as quickly as possible to one or other prims. After each question, they return to where you are standing. The last avatar to arrive is out of the game (or the avatars who get the answers wrong). Play until there's a winner
Example statements (adapt to the students' level)
- Berlin is the capital of Germany
- Sweden is smaller than Denmark
- Portugal is next to France
- Mallorca is in the Mediterranean sea
- Poland is next to Slovenia
- The capital of Bulgaria is Sofia
- etc.
- walk from the sandbox into the village and go into the pub
- show them some of the shops and then stop at the tram station
(tell them to come back sometime before next week's class and take a tram tour of the island)
- walk through the village, down the steps to the business barn
(tell them this is where most of the Business English classes will be, but next week you'll be meeting in the same place as today)
ENROLLING
- walk south and show them the student accommodation
(tell them that they will be forming groups and each group will be using one of these huts)
- walk down to the boats and tell them you want to take a class photo - ask them to assemble and do so
SEEING
Ask them if they know how to take a photo of themselves and explain how they can use the camera controls to do so
Get them to practise taking photos and saving them to their hard drive - tell them that their homework before next week is to upload a photo of themselves and write an introduction (who they are, etc) in the Moodle.
Agree to meet again at the same time next week, but let them know that if any of them want extra practice, they can contact you by sending an IM (show them how to do so by looking in the Communicate->Friends menu
optional - may be useful input for them ?
Making arrangements to meet
Could we meet at the same time next week?
Are you free sometime next week?
Is 9.00pm convenient?
How about next Tuesday?
What about October 12th?
Would Wednesday September 29th suit you?
Changing arrangements
I'm afraid I can't come on Friday 12th November
Could we make it another day?
I have an appointment for 11.00, but...
I'm afraid something's come up
Responding
That's OK
That's fine
Sorry, I already have something booked at that time
No, I'm sorry – I can't make that day / time