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TO CREATIVITY Through this post, I would like to present how I see metaverse can promote 'eu zein' (το εὖ ζῆν /ef zin/, wellbeing in ancient Greek) as a teaching medium in the language classroom. After all, “Life I owe to my parents, virtuous life I owe to my tutor.” as Alexander the Great put it ("Στους γονείς οφείλω το ζην, στους δε διδασκάλους το ευ ζην"). So this post approaches learner and teacher skills and competences from a different angle as there is already plenty of literature on the 8 interdependent Key Competences or the 21st century 4 Cs. This entry is dedicated to our parents and teachers and to G. (Syrmas)Vizyenos, the Greek scholar, poet and pioneer of short prose whose study in 1881 focused on the use of play from a psychological and pedagogical perspective.(1) As founder of contemporary Greek narrative, he opened the path for a new literary form of prose with his inventiveness. It comes as bitter realisation that, as a medium carrying strong messages about life and human existence, Literature (or literature) tends to be omitted in most EFL textbooks and classrooms as it is, wrongly, judged to be impractical in serving specific linguistically structural aims. Instead, it is amplified in mother-tongue language studies or on language degree courses in Tertiary Education. For non-native speakers of English, we should not be too fast to rule out the significance of 'divine literature' in stimulating learner language development, in enhancing sensitivity to language-in-use, in appreciating literary style and, eventually, in promoting life ideals and shaping personality. If coursebooks are not strong enough a medium to illustrate all this, then TEFL machinima may be a more powerful tool to catch learner attention to this linguistic genre, with special reference to Young Learners. With all the animation, music, visuals and game effects simulating real life, educational literary machinimas in TEFL can act like an attention-grabber of, otherwise, easily distracted learners who would much rather spend their days playing inworld games. With parents generously investing in their children's use of technology for gamification or communication, why should language teachers neglect the ubiquitus of metaverse to tackle learner varied paces and multitasking habits? In other words, in a world where technology has become second nature, interest in the study of literature through this medium - and in particular, 'literary TEFL machinima' - justifies the most tech savvy learners' high expectations at any age. It comes to promote appreciation of the aesthetic significance of literary works without running the risk of demoralising the learner in the process of literary analysis, semantic, phonetic or stylistic interpretation. Whatever the lesson aims, focus on pedagogical stylistics through machinimas can be employed as a means to promote the functional significance for text analysis through intuitions, interpretative skills, class research on locutionary/illocutionary/perlocutionary acts. Similarly to 'Lives I', the second episode also promotes what would otherwise be a reading activity, through an oral communication chanel as most people tend to resort to and to be exposed to oral sources of input out of convenience nowadays. Without disregarding learner types/learning styles ofcourse, the reading skill is - for most younger learners who have not received training to expand their concentration span - an overly demanding skill requiring activation of multiple physical and mental processes. But this is perhaps a forthcoming guest entry on my site. To go beyond the classical gap-filling, spelling, multiple choice, multiple matching or sentence completion types of exercises, I suggest more teacher-friendly exercises that promote learner interpretation, reader exploration, involvement and reflexion. or, eventually, discovery of author intentions. Whatever the original aims of the writer though, meaning and Interpretation are always in the eye and the ear of the beholder, as long as there is language produced, the text is not deconstructed 'irreversibly' and there is no shift of focus from the lesson aims. Interpretation of literary texts in the EFL classroom is always subject to the predisposition or age of the interpreter and their overall life stance. To encourage learner participation, class bonding and literary appreciation rather than depreciation, clear selection of tasks is of utmost importance. Since language is a social fact, as social actors, learners can be assigned any of the following meaningful, purposeful and less mechanical tasks, in groups or individually through the aid of ELT literary machinimas - subject to their age range - to grasp the interrelationship between poetry or prose with real life. The level of difficutly is mainly determined by the type of task(s) set in relation to the literary text:
With particular reference to making language learner machinimas in response to my literary one ('Lives II'), my younger learners instantaneously absorb the target language as part of a game process. It is more pleasant and meaningful to recite a poem and a rhyme or set it to music than to memorise a bilingual list of new words which are never to be stored in active long-term memory anyway. Montessori M. said that playing is a child's job anayway. Through play, both young and adult learners are cognitively involved, learn to take control of learning and become active communicators in charge of their own learning process. Students take more initiative and become the centre in a learner-directed class. It is not my intention to plagiarise possibly existing scientific evidence in the field but from empirical practice I come to confirm that through this relatively new medium of teaching, the learner develops cognitive and metacognitive control and gains personalised pursue of progress, achievement and reflexion on the language, cultures and learning processes. Whatever their age, with 'happiness hormones' released in their brain in a secure environment, learners are surely more eager and prepared to work towards immediate results by employing all their senses and monitoring feelings (own and others'), to better understand social roles and to manage thinking and behaviour. With the use of literature-integrated machinima (learner or teacher-made), all this is amplified to help the learner better process emotional information, develop emotional traits (eg empathy) and balance them to navigate their life and environment. With particular reference to my 'Lives II' machinima, to promote family values, Cultural awareness and appreciation, learners could carry out class research based on the notion of motherhood/fatherhood in their country or the origins of different types of music* In education, there are no winners or losers. Education is not about punishment, hegemony or on the other end, meaningless self-eudaimonism. It is every educator's aim to prepare unharmed and useful achievers with successful and positive experiences, thus saviouring and strengthening their uniqueness through incentives. If there is a wrong which might disturb our class balance, appreciation of the value of time is essential and this is best done by employing friendly learner-centred approaches to reach a solution and lead students beyond self-actualisation or metamotivation. Maslow explains this process (1967): "Self-actualizing people are, without one single exception, involved in a cause outside their own skin, in something outside of themselves". And ancient Greeks since Herodotus devoted themselves to being «καλός κ' αγαθός» 'good (handsome) and virtuous'. For aeons now, χρόνος chronos has taught us: there is no room for experimenting or resorting to time-consuming procedures since 'we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit..' (Aristotle, 384-322 BC). The intended message to learners and teachers is that, if we are to accept the notion of transformative learning as the goal of education, it is essential to go through a self-igniting process materialising from within which leads to more humanistic dimensions beyond critical thinking. There may be more to life than Metaverse but this is also a brilliant place to start from, and all I am hoping to achieve is softly swing the cradle with one machinima at a time. ** Belly dance music - set as background music in 'Lives II' - was meant to wake up the earth and gods, and to symbolise female substance and idiosyncracy. It derives from rituals in the name of Aphrodite and Artemis to practise eugenics and bashful femininity. Arabic music originates from Byzantine echoes and Systema ametabolon, enharmonium, chromatikon, diatonon. (http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Χορός_οριεντάλ) The avatar's kimono encouraged discussion on Japanese and local costumes and occasions, and in my teaching set-up, it led to a discussion on the similarities between the Greek and Japanese mother role models. For further reading you may wish to try
Austin, J. L. 1962. How to do things with words. London: Oxford University Press Genette, G. (1980) Narrative discourse, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Maslow, A. (1971) The Farther Reaches of Human Nature Todorov, T. (1966) 'Les categories du recit litteraire'. Communications, 8:125-51 (1) Vizyenos G., (1881) 'Das Kinderspiel in Bezug auf Psychologie und Padagogik' available on Anemi archive, University of Crete http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/b/6/9/metadata-106-0000080.tkl (special thanks for the permission to use this link) Widdowson, H. G. (1975) 'Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature', Longman This post has been written with all my dedicated colleagues in mind; with all my respect to all miracle makers who support life. Also a big Thank You to Chic Aeon for her contributions and artistic quality work in Second Life. Helena Galani (aka ErlinaAzure in SL)
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 ErlinaAzure in SL If all we lose is the Skin (after Richard Ashcroft's 'You on my Mind in My Sleep'), what is it that our avatars pull under within as educators and education professionals? My thoughts and energy are now self-directed towards incorporating Second Life in the teaching environment. The idea may not be new but it is based on the firmly-held belief that play is the best form of research and on the potential this medium has for further research in TEFL/ELT. Most reviewed literature so far focuses on higher and further education or teacher education, rather than school learners or other groups of the population and those learners who are challenged with certain disabilities. To ensure Young Learners' safety and save learner families from worries, we need to provide them with a safe and free (of charge and risk) SL environment through machinima we teachers have filmed for them. It is an easier solution until the possible development of a new free SL Grid for YL or an easy-to-use safe desktop platform, or console SL software (which could create LL young clientele). It is a more immediate solution than having to wait for laser holographer Patty Rangel's idea of Avatar Holographic Projection to reach every real-life stage and consequently every classroom around the world in my generation of language teachers. All we can do as educators is offer them the pedagogical and didactic oppportunities they deserve for language in use through machinima, a new form of edutainment and engage them in languistic production. The process below may not be as immersive as inworld learning, which adult learners have the privillege to enjoy, but it is still engaging and fully experiential. Even if it does not offer the benefits deriving from geospacial representation, identity, social norms, cognitive, affective and linguistic processes are still activated throughout the process of real-world machinima-making. Still, it is a clear indicator of teacher good will and allows plenty of room for storyboarding, script-writing, audio recording and performing scenaria on footage the teacher makes for their YL classess in SL. Research carried out at Peachgrove Intermediate School, New Zealand (Faloon, G., Janson, A. & Janson, R. 2010) suggests that both higher order thinking (analysing, evaluating, creating) and lower order thinking (remembering, understanding, applying) can be achieved through virtual world instruction. Judging by personal experience as self-directed member of the MachinEVO2015 and EDSL2015 groups of language educators, the learning process is motivational and activates strategies and competencies. With the benefits of gamification in education becoming more obvious through research, educators, parents and policy makers are changing their outlook to institutionalise it as an educational tool. Besides all this, it is the nature of the task and carefully selected staging that promote learner participation and can ensure the linguistic quality of learner output. Give them plenty of space for initiative and, for their peers, they can produce miracles, regardless of their age. But how can you embed and promote your driving force as teacher through this relatively new aesthetic and powerful tool packed with contextualised information? And how much can you invest in time and finances to convey the knowledge, ideas and values which your grandmother so successfully entertained and instilled in you through free-giving tenderness? In actual fact, through this channel, you can promote family values and best practices in the classroom or in your scientific field. To produce your machinima, some say it only takes skill; others, believe it takes imagination. It has to be both. It is a combination of IT skill, fruitful imagination and educator competencies. But most of all, it is yet another teaching medium, an effective tool expressing professionalism and care for your learners. Since we live in a 'Modem world', whichever angle you see it from, you can still produce first class lessons through this medium to please the most difficult of your little etrotters. Here are some ideas for representative activities you could implement on your course, depending on the age of your learners and lesson stage.
...to mention but a few. Out of respect for our little ones and to ensure best practices in our classroom, YL can watch teachers' screen captures (clips or photos) of your avatar(s) in sim, on their classroom Interactive Whiteboard, which may not be as immersive as inworld participation but can still provide realistic opportunities for meaningful practice, authentic involvement and genuine motivation. As learners appreciate the benefits deriving from drama activities and project work in class, you can invite them to devise the characters, scenaria and script to serve the purposes of your lesson and show them footage you have made on these lines. Although this is an ELT author's usual job, you will be amazed at the outcome of young learners' contributions in script-writing, directing and dramatic skill. There is significant literature on the procedure which to follow, with CAMELOT* providing a storyboard template for educators. Marisa Constantinides has also developed a comprehensive guide of 19 lucid steps for teachers, including technical considerations to follow when making machinima in SL. Nevertheless, here is my own reflexion of the practical steps I find useful in class to activate Young (but also Adult) EFL Learners, shifting the angle towards their language output. Be prepared to employ your best classroom management skills for this. Steps for TEFL Classroom Use Steps 1 & 2 mostly involve teacher preparation activity, 3-8 promote learner oriented action while 9 can be carried out by the teacher or technologically-geared students, and 10 is collaborative. In terms of linguistic involvement on the learner's behalf, I have divided this process into three parts: Pre
While 3. Learners write a general outline of their storyboard (group or individual work) 4. With a working screenplay in hand now, it is easier for learners to determine in detail the scenes and assume roles that suit them best (promote autonomy at this stage) 5. The write up of dialogues and narration can be done cooperatively in groups/pairs with prompt monitoring from the teacher, or individually per scene after class discussion, or it can even be set for homework. 6. Class, peer correction can take place now -final teacher correction before returning the script for rehearsing. 7. Workshop on Phonology and rehearsals 8. Audio Recording (this may take the form of out-of-class work, in the breaks or for homework with learners' digital desktop tools) After 9. Post-production: compiling audio and video files, adding background effects & music 10. Class viewing, feedback & evaluation One variation of step 2 in this approach - if you wish to make this stage less guided and depending on the class size - is to log into SL for screen captures after you have got group suggestions and guidance (on characters, locations, props, costumes) - a tailor-made approach, more learner-centred. For this, you may need more than one avatar in which case you can either make use of your colleague-friends' avatars or you can create multiple of your own (up to 5 permitted per landline). Another variation of step 2 for recycling the course material is to provide learners with a role card with instructions, or the outline of the scenario or just the title of the storyboard and allow them the time to brainstorm the script (dialogue, narration and set-up description) for a machinima or inworld role play instead of acting it out as a drama activity in the classroom. Choose costumes for your avatar and embark on unscripted production of the language in focus. Be sure to compile a machinima of your end-product on which to base feedback and further revision. Niki's suggestions for a better world came as a natural end-product to activate the language, with the learner using a lot of her own ideas and adding her experience in her geographical location. She took initiative to choose the scenes from the footage I had made and insisted on audio recording her voice and self-correcting several times before reaching the high standards she had set herself. Here is the result: Wherever Avatars go after logging off, they still hold their dearest ones in their heart even in their sleep. This is Helena Galani (aka ErlinaAzure) in SL For further reading, you might want to try:
CAMELOT is a two-year funded EU Project for language educators, coordinated by the University of Lancaster (UCLan), School of Language, Literature and International Studies and it stands for ‘CreAting Machinima Empowers Live Online language Teaching and learning”. The project investigates the use of machinima through a task based approach developing a teacher training to facilitate educators with their own use of machinima. Thank you to Carol Rainbow, Dennis Newson, Christel Schneider, Shelwyn Corrigan, Alfonso Garavito Olivar, Hazel Workman, Ann Nowak, Marisa Constantinides and Dr Michael Thomas, Dr Randall Sadler and Heike Philip (to name but a few) for their boundless free-giving. |
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