Of the educational builds in Second Life that I have seen, one that is sure to keep me coming back is The Jianghu Tea House, Monash University’s new lesson in instructional design.
Like Jianghu - an alternate universe described in the Wulin tradition as coexisting with this one - the tea house exists to complement foreign language instruction given to real world students of Mandarin Chinese. The space is ornate (built by FlyingKnifeModels Oh, a First Life artist) and makes good use of the interactive technology of Second Life.
Students see Mandarin text paired with English phonetic spellings, then listen to pronunciations (via embedded sound files that play when the student interacts with the space). Moving further into the experience, learners are again prompted to interpret text or recognize sounds, reinforcing the association of a written word with its sound (and vice versa).
On first visit, this tea house may appear to be a bit over-the-top. All this for one lesson? However, considering that the space supports a number of different lesson formats (both synchronous and asynchronous content) and can entertain any number of learners over time, the potential for a return on investment becomes more evident.
Open access to the sim may be six months away; however, Xilin Yifu would be happy to give guided tours to visitors from the SLeducation community.
“Every now and again Wulin needs to have a champion, a general or a commander to lead the collective resources of wulin participants for China.”
Wikipedia
There are plenty of educators surfing the grid, looking for the best uses of this new technology. By all accounts, Xilin may be one of the heroes showing us the way.