Monash Chinese Island

We engage in a range of inworld learning activities, ranging from role plays to quests to the making of television chat shows and news-desk reporting. Here are some recent examples.

Chinese Media Studies Pt 2, 2009

This semester our CMS students are interviewing a range of Chinese speakers from around the world. The data gathered from two interviews, one on-location (of the person being interviewed) and informal and one a formal sit-down chat show format, is going to be used to write a formal text-based bilingual news article and to film and produce a bilingual evening news type program at the end of the process. The interviews, the chat show and the evening news program are all being filmed in Second Life. CMS students are assessed (according to detailed rubrics handed out to them) on various stages of the process.

This has truely been an amazing experience of international cooperation and collaboration for all concerned. In addition to our CMS students here in Australia, our guests (interviewees) are from China, Singapore and the USA. We have been very lucky to have students from the Oregon University Centre for Applied Second Language Studies ‘MyChina Village Virtual Chinese Immersion Camp 2009′ (many thanks to Assistant Director of CASLS Sachiko  Kamioka) and a representative from California State University, Prof. Tim Xie, join us us interviewees. All of the filming, editing and post-production work is being done by masters students from Boise State University unit called “EdTech 597: Social Network Learning in Virtual Worlds” (the students themselves are also spread across the US and their instructor, Anne Jeffrey, is located in the UK – many thanks to Anne for making our collaboration possible).

Here are some photos from the first day of filming of our CMS Chat Show:

Boise State University

On March 3, 2010, students enrolled in the Boise State University “Edtech 531 teaching and learning in virtual worlds” graduate unit participated in an exciting lesson on Chinese dance and culture on Monash’s Chinese Island in in the Yeying Shuchang school, located in the traditional Beijing courtyard house on Zhongshan Bei Road on the island. The unit was designed and is taught by Annie Jeffrey (UK) fully in second life and is eligible to be counted towards a graduate degree at Boise State University in the USA.

Students were led in their dance and culture class by the highly talented Mme Nightingale Xuanzang. In addition to experiencing traditional Chinese dance student were also able to consolidate their knowledge of more advanced Second Life skills. Students were asked by Ms Jeffrey to consider a number of questions while taking part in the class:

1.Has your any aspect of your views about culture in virtual worlds changed after this week?

2.How important to you feel culture is to virtual world teaching?What aspects attracted your attention most? Why?

3.Was there anything that made you want to explore further?

4.Was there anything challenging and difficult about it? Please explain

5.If you were designing cultural activities for your students, what aspects would you need to consider, want to include?

EdTech 531 Teaching and Learning in Virtual Worlds,  one of a suite of virtual world courses available as part of the EdTech programmes, has been offered at Boise State University since Fall 2007. EdTech 531 has initiated students ranging from all over the world to a range of virtual world pedagogies pioneered by Ms Jeffrey and BSU.