New Activities Added

I’ve just added two new activities to Mi Casa.  The first works on GUSTAR.  The correct usage is modeled with color-coded clues.  Then the pieces are mixed up and students must put together sentences using GUSTAR.

The second activity practices verb conjugations.  Students must conjugate verbs in order to squash creepy spiders that walk toward them.  The activity keeps the student’s score and keeps a continual total of right answers and wrong answers.

Mi Casa Wins SLPro! Content Creation Challenge

I entered Mi Casa Es Su Casa in the SLPro! Conference sponsored by Linden Labs.  The conference, billed as The premier conference for Second Life content creators, brought together serious content creators from around the world for learning sessions and competition.  One of the competitions judged full sim builds, "from buildings to landscaping to scripted interactive objects, you’ve got it all."  I am very proud to announce that Mi Casa won a prize of L$10, 000.  I enjoyed spending almost an hour walking through the space with top nmc designer CJ Carnot.  He gave me great insights that will find their way into Mi Casa in the coming months.  It was a great conference capped off by remarkable recognition from the SL building community. 

Video of AZLA Presentation

I presented a session at the annual conference of the Arizona Language Association (AZLA) entitled, "My Virtual Sabbatical: Building an Immersive Environment in Second Life."  Here are my abstract and a link to the video:

 

This session will be a tour of my sabbatical project entitled, San Miguel de Glendale: A Virtual Study Abroad Experience for Students of Spanish.   This project shows the potential of Second Life for creating an interactive, immersive environment for learning Spanish or any other discipline.  Attendees will leave with an awareness of the creative potential of virtual environments and their potential in the educational toolbox.

Video in Windows Media format

Final Sabbatical Report Published

As part of the sabbatical process, a final report must be submitted.  I’m pleased to say that mine is completed and has been accepted by the Vice Chancelor of Academic Affairs.  The report sumarizes what I was able to accomplish during my semester working in SL.  It also includes images of the spaces I created.  To read the full report, see Abraham Sabbatical Report.

Spanish 101 Class Visits Campeche & Palenque

On Tuesday night, our class visited the Mexican city of Campeche and the Mayan ruin of Palenque.  First, we did some preliminary reading and looked at some RL pictures.  I found one that looks almost exactly like the SL location.  The colors are fantastic.  After arriving in the main plaza, we ventured into the small chapel (RL photo/SL photo).  Next, we had a race to the top of the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque.  Lorin won.  We took several photos.  Finally, we had a race to see who could find the ship in the harbor.  While we were there, Don Quixote came to visit.

Watch an advanced Spanish class in SL

I’ve uploaded a video taken during an advanced class in Calisto’s immersive village.  The class was led by Eugenia Calderon from the Instituto Español in Mexico.  After watching the video, you´ll get an idea of what a fun, exciting and educationally-rich environment SL can be.

 

 

Saludos y Despedidas Maze

New activity added in La Pluma Lista.  Teleport from the school up to a secret maze.  By touching a series of doors, you will find your way to a hidden room.  The doors will ask you to respond to common greetings and farewells in Spanish.  If you answer correctly, the door will open.  If not, you’ll be trapped in the darkness…and who knows what lurks in the shadows. 

 

To visit:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/GCCAz/12/135/23/?title=LaPlumaLista