World of Warcraft® (WoW), a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) extends to its members a virtual landscape of live gaming opportunities through such platforms as “dice” rolled character stats, open-ended story development, and interactive AI. These affordances are underpinned by a kind of virtual sense of community bringing players together in order to develop relationships and the self, adventure together, build up wealth, and overcome obstacles in order to complete quests. In addition to live game-play (or “in-world”) communities, WoW residents create alternative communities through rich online forums—here, new members are recruited into guilds, disputes are spawned and slayed, and seasoned warriors reminisce over worlds and lives that once- were. However, a third type of community is also evident through particular threads crafted within forums specifically for collaborative storytelling (or roleplaying). This paper examines sense of community—a sense of “belonging to, importance of, and identification with a community”—through one particular thread, “The Darkening Grove Tavern” under the forum World’s End Tavern using an adaptation of McMillan and Chavis’ theory and Boellstorff, Nardi, Pearce & Taylor’s ethnographic data collection methodology for qualitative analysis of virtual worlds . Findings from players’ story text (or “turns”) suggest that online storytelling forum threads exhibit a linguistically and semiotically branded sense of virtual community.
This empirical study evaluates comments provided by first year undergraduate students from an English for Technical and Web-Based Writing (ETWW) course at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK PolyU) from the second semester of the 2009/2010 academic year. Students were asked to describe their experiences with an inclass task consisting of creating a movie poster, and then responding to and evaluating each other's work in a showcase area designed within the HK PolyU Second Life (SL) virtual campus. Sources of student comments considered included HK PolyU iFeedback forms and video-recorded focus group sessions. The information was then filtered for facilitation of other possibilities in language learning. The authors examine how these activities could be applied in a collaborative learning environment and other collaborative contexts. The goal of this study is to show the creative abilities of students from a technical writing course to think beyond the technical writing classroom. Creating activities of this nature can not only substantiate claims of practical applicability from a virtual world into the physical world, but also acknowledges the benefits of threedimensional platforms over two-dimensional platforms. While some of the ideas This is the Pre-Published Version. are not novel, they are relevant in showing the quick adaptability of first year university students -many of whom have little to no knowledge of SL, and who tend to view virtual worlds simply as another 'game' -in creative thinking and learning. Additionally, the authors consider the relationships between extension projects and the in-class poster task, and the implications of these projects for a potential virtual Department of English. The modern language classroom utilizes various interactive tools for communications -Blackboard, Moodle, iPad, Facebook and PowerPoint -but ultimately these products are two-dimensional and static (De Lucia et al. 2009: 220-33; Burgess et al. 2010: 84-88). While some of these learning tools have developed over time to incorporate various add-ons and interfaces, they are primarily database tools, closed environments controlled by administrators, rather than interactive learning environments developed by teachers and students for teachers and students (Moxley 2008: 184).
This chapter demonstrates how Second Life (SL) is used to enhance collaborative language learning on a virtual campus of a Hong Kong university. The case study reports on the learning experience of a number of undergraduate students as they navigated through a virtual task in an existing course: English for Technical and Web-Based Writing. Student avatars assessed each other’s work and shared learning experiences and comments via SL-enabled tools such as voting bars and note cards. To determine if this practice was more effective as a learning tool than a traditional classroom or two-dimensional discussion on the Internet, the students’ feedback on SL was collected through the university’s online survey system (i-Feedback), camera recorded focus group discussion and audio recorded tutor feedback. The findings suggest that different tasks in a virtual learning environment may stimulate students’ interest in their learning process, even though the technical complexities might frustrate them. The possibilities, shortcomings, and technical challenges of cultivating a community of collaborative language learning are also discussed.
This study follows from previously published studies by the author based on language learning designs for English technical writing and through MMOs, and completed Teaching & Learning projects focusing on collaboration and interdisciplinary learning. It reports on the results of a survey completed by Year One undergraduate students from an English for University Studies (EUS) subject at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU), regarding their perception towards—and interest in—using Second Life to supplement their language learning. Thirty-one students responded to the survey which asked participants whether they would be receptive to the idea of using a virtual mobile or outdoor café to supplement their English language learning. Results indicated that most students (90%) liked the idea of learning in a virtual cafe because of its relaxing and familiar atmosphere as well as the potential to interact with other virtual learners; however, about half the respondents (40%) noted that they would consider a different design for the learning space. While the response rate was relatively small, this study reframes the characteristics of autonomy and language learning centers, and additionally is an area of independent language learning which has been little investigated, particularly in an Asian context.
The virtual Department of English at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, also known as the Tree of Knowledge, is a project premised upon using ecology and organic forms to promote language learning in Second Life (SL). Inspired by Salmon’s (2010) Tree of Learning concept this study examines how an interactive ecological environment – in this case, a tree – might offer numerous learning possibilities via every segment of the structure. Third-party billboard and sculpt modeling techniques, SL building tools and mega prim applications (which are more effective for organic shapes) were used to develop a three dimensional textured trunk, two-faced layered leaves and size-locked branches, crown, and roots. Preliminary student survey responses to the various elements of the virtual department architecture included an appreciation for creativity, innovation, and attractiveness in the design; challenges included a sense of dizziness when maneuvering around, difficulty in controlling the avatar, slow computer system responses, and lack of instruction in how to navigate through the structure.
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