I am doing some language support for some sessions on Second Life for some students studying design.
We had the first session and it seemed to go well. Some general reflections are listed below:
- it is hard to control movements and it feels surprisingly embarassing when my avatar does strange actions like getting too close to others.
- the language used in the first discussion did not seem very technical but had features of general academic discourse - suggestions were made ("perhaps...." "might.....") and critiqued.
- text and voice is used, sometimes simultaneously which puts quite a demand on concentration.
- I gave brief feedback on language issues and the main items some students struggled with were my jargon (e.g "hedging"). This is understandable as they are not studying language but this makes it clear how much we get used to our own specialised terms.