Last week whilst eavesdropping on a Twitter conversation between @barbsaka and @ShellTerrell two fellow English Teachers, the word  ‘shopping’ springs to mind. I followed this link to twitpic. I joined SecondLife several years ago but was not taken by it at all and really couldn’t understand what all the hype was about. I was then invited by my fellow colleagues to a sort of how to use SL (I will use initials.) So I downloaded the programme again and chose an avatar and gave myself a name (I will mention that later.)Editing ones appearance can take time to start with, I wanted to make mine similar to me as much as possible, well both my colleague and son thought it was me so that’s near enough. Before the actual field trip I met up with Rainey and Alyssa (these are my SL friends names I will mention who these people are at the end of the post.) Before I actually met up with them which took me all evening because I fell down a cliff lol, is getting accustomed to the SL tools and controls which can seem quite complex to start with. We had a mini shopping spree and oohh was that fun. By the time we had the field trip given by Lynn who was great, I had been shopping quite a lot, but the controls played havoc with me to start with, and seeing as I use a mac I had to come to terms with that. But things got better and I suddenly saw the light, that’s why I chose Patience as my SL name, you can choose any first name you wish but the surname can only be chosen from the drop down menu SL offers you, so Patience Meiler was born on the 9th July 2009.

So what is Second Life?

Second Life (SL) is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab that launched on June 23, 2003 and is accessible via the Internet. A free client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world, which residents refer to as the grid. Second Life is for people aged 18 and over, while Teen Second Life is for people aged 13 to 17.

Built into the software is a three dimensional modeling tool based around simple geometric shapes that allows a resident to build virtual objects. This can be used in combination with the Linden Scripting Language which can be used to add functionality to objects. More complex three dimensional Sculpted prims (colloquially known as sculpties), textures for clothing or other objects, and animations and gestures can be created using external software. The Second Life Terms of Service ensure that users retain copyright for any content they create, and the server and client provide simple digital rights management functions.

My adventures on Second Life have begun…

Recent trip to London…

I am being patriotic here…

Just checking the time…

Second Life may not appeal to all, it does have its negative areas too which are audio problems, screen freezing and various other lags etc. but hey I didn’t call myself Patience for nothing. Another aspect I can foresee happening after the initial exploring, shopping etc., is  asking yourself now what? Well from a teachers point of view here’s where it gets very interesting. Visual based learning can be very effective for students, lets look at it this way, for a student meeting their teacher (via your SL avatar) in a bar, at the beach, at the market and this could  be anywhere in the world considering the vast amount of locations to choose from is never ending so students are learning in a fun based virtual atmosphere.

These are just some of my initial views about Second Life and I hope it’s given an insight to those of you who have had no clue of how it can actually be used. If you are a teacher out there and have been viewing my  Second Life Adventures via Twitter and would like to meet up please let me know. If you are a student already using SL and interested in learning English via it, watch this space! Do you love or hate SL, why, why not? See you on the next adventure…

I would like to thank above all Lynn=@barbsaka for her guidance and sharing, Rainey=@ShellTerrell for her friendship and that infectious giggle, Caliburn=@caliburnsusanto for allowing us to use his property, and my other Second Life friends, Alyssa=@burcuakyol Marisolde=@Marisa_C and Caoilainn=@spkspanglish

Source Second Life Wikipedia Twitter

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.— Socrates (BC 469-BC 399) Greek philosopher of Athens

This time last year my blogging adventure began. My first post was the above quote. I spent most of my summer working, teaching online and blogging, in no time blogging had become quite addictive. On the 24th June I joined Twitter, what a weird thing that was, I didn’t know quite what to make of it nor what to do with it so I left it until January of this year to really get to know what it actually was and how to use it.

Conclusion: Both my blog and Twitter have made an enormous impact on my life, they have both helped me grow professionally with little or no effort and this has in turn given me the knowledge to help and share with others useful resources.

A special thanks to all those people I have encountered along the way, whether through blogging or Twitter. Aniya

No not Athos, Porthos, and Aramis but Aniya, Kay and Kirsten making us The #teachertuesday team, you may have noticed the initials AKK on the teachertuesday Twitter page, so now you know what they stand for. From an idea of mine after the success of #followfriday I thought that it would be nice to congregate other teachers, educators and anyone else in the education sector, I mentioned this to both Kay and Kirsten who thought it was a great idea, they backed me up and Kay invented the blue owl logo and designed our website which collects all tweets from teachers, educators etc., allowing anyone to look up info regarding education and find it all in one place, we have had some great feedback from teachers and the idea is steadily growing. And so @teachertuesday was born a month ago now.

The idea of writing this post is to introduce my colleagues, Kay, the shy one, well he’s not really, but he’s that smart guy who gets on with his work and doesn’t like to be in the limelight, he’s a fantastic web designer and both Kirsten’s and my sites have his personal touch in them, I won’t say anymore about him in case he’s blushing . Kirsten on the other hand gets all the limelight lol, she possesses a lot of talent, from her teaching 3 languages to coaching too. Her newest venture is what looks to be a great investment for new and not so new online teachers E-Teacher’s Academy. The gates will open next week and you can also follow updates on Twitter, so don’t miss out! During the first month only subscription will be offered at a reduced price.

“All for one, and one for all!”

Source www.kirstenwinkler.com www.twitter.com Image www.costumetemplates.com

Last Tuesday marked the start of #teachertuesday on Twitter. What does this mean? The hash mark (#) before a word in a post allows you to tag that post for that word. However, in order to get tracked via a hash tag, you need to opt-in and follow.  Once you’re following hash tags, every time you make a post in Twitter and tag it with a hash mark like so: #teachertuesday it will then show up as a real-time post on www.hashtags.org. All teachers, bloggers, schools, companies  and anyone else interested in the education sector is invited to follow the blue owl at @teachertuesday. Every Tuesday you can use the #teachertuesday to make suggestions to your followers and the blue owl who they should follow. For example

#teachertuesday follow @TheEngTeacher she is a great teacher and @edufire it’s a great company

The blue owl will revise all tweets of #teachertuesday and then add interesting teachers, bloggers, schools and companies to www.teachertuesday.info which is therefore becoming an educational data bank, a great resource for all teachers etc.,

Here is what my colleague and dear friend Kirsten had to say:

The idea is to recommend interesting teachers, schools, organisations, applications or anything else about education to your friends and followers on Twitter, like on #followfriday.

See you on @teachertuesday

What’s Twitter? Twitter is a tool that you can use to send messages of up to 140 characters to a group of followers while you also follow others. It’s a great tool that works with any device that you use to connect to the Internet. The messages are short, and easy to read. It’s the perfect platform to practice the English language

• Sign up for a free Twitter account
• Once you’ve signed up, log in to your account. You can add a background, a picture of yourself and a short biography if you want.
• Navigate to the TheEngTeacher Twitter page and click on “Follow” which you’ll see on the left hand side of the page
• You can participate as much as you want. Here’s a little explanation:You can sign up to only follow TheEngTeacher Twitter page at Twitter – which means you’ll get only what I post to the service.You can also sign up to follow other followers of the site by clicking on “followers” on the right hand side of the page. By doing this, you’ll receive other people’s examples automatically – a great way to improve your understanding of the  English language, and make new friends around the world!

The main idea is to learn new vocabulary and practice your writing through participation. It won’t take much time because you’ll just have 140 characters to practice with. You’ll get updates during the day if you follow people with other examples you can learn from. Of course, you can see all the updates at TheEngTeacher Twitter page You can also use your mobile phone, iPhone,  BlackBerry etc., or other Internet accessing device to participate.

The main thing is you’ll be getting English practice done everyday and it’s free!

Source www.twitter.com