Teaching with Digital Technology

  This time I am going to write a series of articles on the Edutopia Sim on Kitely.         

  Edutopia was created by Barbara McQueen, an English teacher whose imagination and zealousness will never end. By now Edutopia is ready

  to be launched to the public and anyone can visit. During the almost two years of construction in which I had the honour to help,

  Barbara developed a series of scenarios for unlimited English lessons full of activities and games.

A new world.

Where can you create a new world when you don't like the one you are living in or when you want to make it better? Who does not whish right now to be able to move to a better world? Linden labs, the creators of SL (Second Life), have now created it; HIGH FIDELITY. After having spent a lot of time reading about the new virtual world and after visiting several sites there I was able to begin to understand what possibilities people and, in this case, teachers will have, using this fantastic world when it is ready.

Part 3

The VHS is a huge school spread throughout Germany, each city has got one and they are linked regionally to each other, although they are independent. Only the city of Gosler offers courses in the sim. The language is German and people must use voice. Some of the courses they offer are specific like a 3D pass for teachers, during the course teachers learn everything necessary to be able to teach in a 3D world, starting from moving their avatars, getting things out of their inventories and using sound, passing through changing form of the avatars, flying, basic building, up to pedagogy for virtual worlds.

Part 2

This time I visited Metropolis Grid, I landed on a snowy place, but it changes every season, so if you visit now, it will be full of Easter decoration and it will be green. The area is called "World of Seasons". There I found a cabin in the snow with lovely furniture, a good place to practice vocabulary and to make films with students.