Team Teaching Practice–Post Lesson Reflection
Note: This blog entry was originally posted on the Ning for the TESOL EVO for Virtural Worlds in Language Learning on February 13, 2009.
While I’m the one posting this, it’s really from me, Scott and Otis. After blogging about the process of creating our lesson, we thought we ought to blog about the finished product, too. While our teammate Rumi was rudely yanked away from us at the last moment by RL obligations, her input was invaluable in creating the lesson, too.
Anyway…
We had a blast! That really cannot be emphasized enough.
Team teaching was more tiring, and more fun than we expected. It helped that all of our “students” were such great sports about the tasks we asked of them. With a less forgiving group, we could have easily been left with a very different feeling.
Very little of the technology malfunctioned, and everyone accomplished the tasks we set. That was all we had hoped for. It was interesting to see how differently each group of students approached the tasks. They each had definite personalities, even when tackling similar tasks. Of course, there were different levels of SL skill among participants, so some members already knew how to do what we were asking them to do, and helped other members. We had intentionally tried to make groups that consisted of members with different levels of SL experience, and we were very glad that we did.
Ostensibly, this was a lesson reviewing food and location vocabulary. We knew that the language would be no problem for our “students,” so we focused a bit more on SL skills we thought they might enjoy learning or practicing.
During the course of our lesson, participants learned how to
–accept a badge given to them and wear it
–communicate with other members in their group, filtering out the chatter from other groups. Some used text, some used voice, some used IM, and most used a combination of all three channels for communication
–take copies of food items, and then drag the items from inventory to place on the table.
–use the “position” and “rotate” tools from the editing menu to move objects on the table
–get notecards from a notecard giver
–create, rename, and save a new notecard
–return a notecard to a notecard taker, and know if it was accepted (the mailbox said “Thanks”)
–take a snapshot, and post it on our Ning page
Participants also learned a bit about permissions with objects, because they could only move the objects they took, unless they changed the permissions on the edit menu.
A few things came up that were unexpected. The 3-hr return sandbox isn’t this week (auto-returning after 3 hours, that is). So, we moved further down to avoid other people’s leftover building projects, and found a couple of back up locations, just in case we ran into a pre-scheduled class or event where we intended to have our class. We had a few students who weren’t in our EVO group show up to participate in the lesson. They saw a group of green dots on the map, and came to investigate, perhaps. It was fun to have the extra participation, but we realized that some of our instructions (referring to the Ning, for example) weren’t clear to people outside our group. If we were going to regularly teach lessons in an open, public area like a sandbox, we would need to be better prepared.
We learned quite a few new things doing this, too. We learned how to do everything we asked our students to do, of course. Most of it we didn’t know how to do two weeks ago. It was a great treasure hunt for us!
In addition,
–We learned how to use a speakeasy HUD, a notecard reader, a freebie giver, and a notecard taker.
–We learned how far voice will carry in a group activity versus chat, and that if you have groups spread out like we did, it’s good to have one teacher near each group so that you can hear questions.
–We learned how to modify objects so that they can then be modified and copied by their next “owner”.
–We learned how to create copies of objects and to change their color and texture.
–We learned how to link objects together.
–We learned that it’s important that each member of the teaching team know all the parts of the lesson, so everyone is prepared to step in and help where needed. We were very glad for all the practice we’d put in when it was time to do the lesson “for real.”
Finally, we learned that there is no such thing as too much detail in instructions. We were up until 1 am the morning before our lesson, revising the instructions (with Nick’s help). Even so, there were still points that weren’t clear to everyone.
If you are interested in any of the tools we used in our lesson, they’re available at Lynn’s campsite in Virtlantis. They were all free, and you can find them if you search. You’re also welcome to take a copy from the campsite. The table with food is there, too, and you’re welcome to take a copy of any of the food, but unfortunately the table set itself is not copiable. We reached the limit of our technological ability in getting all the food to stay on top of the table and be copiable 
http://slurl.com/secondlife/virtlantis/241/93/20/?title=Lynn%27s%20Campsite
If you are interested in seeing a copy of our completed lesson plan (including the text for our various notecards), It’s on the SLExperiments wiki:
http://slexperiments.pbwiki.com/browse/#view=ViewFolder¶m=Lesson%20Plans%2FIdeas
(It’s the lesson that’s in the wrong format and is still titled “Practice Teaching”)
We are keen to see what the other teaching teams come up with for their lessons and would encourage them to trust their instincts and experience as teachers. You will be pleased to find the participants who join your team taught lesson to be among the most motivated and supportive students you’re likely to come across.
And speaking of the “students,” we would welcome any questions, comments, suggestions or criticism you care to offer. How was the lesson from the point of view of a student? What could have been done differently to have made it a more meaningful learning experience for you?
Finally, did we mention that we had a lot of fun doing this?
