Slanguages 2009 Speakers

SLanguages 2009 Presenters www.SLanguages.net Gavin Dudeney [Dudeney Ge] Gavin is Project Director for The Consultants-E and also runs the three island EduNation group in SL. He has produced a large collection of free SL gadgets for educators. The Consultants-E run regular training in SL for teachers and have also done island builds for colleges in the USA, the UK, Canada, Finland and Spain. More on the work of The Consultants-E can be found here: http://www.theconsultants-e.com Iffaf Khan [ Iffaf Ling ] Iffaf works as a tutor in Moodle and Virtual and Distance Learning Coordinator for the International Academy in the University of Essex She is also a content developer and writer for Languagelab.com. Heike Philp [ Gwen Gwasi ] Heike Philp aka Gwen Gwasi is founder and managing director of LANCELOT School GmbH, an accredited training center for language trainers in the use of state-of-the-art virtual classroom technology. With over 20 years in education and several years of teaching German in Japan and the UK, Heike took on the live online challenge by starting a virtual language school and her experience subsequently led her to co-initiate both the European funded LANCELOT project as well as the AVALON project. Kip Boahn [ Kip Yellowjacket ] Online/Offline Language & E-Learning Facilitator, Creator of Second Life English António dos Reis/Xabier Basogain [ Barak Zapatero/Zubiria Rauch ] Antonio dos Reis works at The Graal Institute (Lisbon, Portugal) and Xabier Basogain works at The Basque Country University, Bilbao, spain. Jessica Driscoll [ Jessica Teacher ] Jessica works for Languagelab.com. Ton Koenraad [ Koen Antonioni ] A.L.M. Koenraad, MA (Utrecht). As a senior ICT-E consultant at Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied Sciences Ton Koenraad is involved in various (inter)national projects and participates in communities in the fields of modern languages, teacher education and e-learning. His publications are available from his personal pages at: http://www.koenraad.info Shiv Rajendra [ Kingsbury Yeats ] Shiv co-founded Languagelab.com in 2005 and has overseen thousands of hours of research and testing in Second Life, involving hundreds of students and dozens of educators from all over the world. Paul Preibisch [ Fire Centaur ] Paul is a research assistant for the SLOODLE project, which is funded by Eduserve, and lead by Daniel Livingstone from the University of the West of Scotland James T. Abraham [ Camisto Encinal ] James T. Abraham teaches Spanish at Glendale Community College in Arizona. He has been working in Second Life for over two years. His first SL project "Mi casa es su casa", an immersive, interactive house has led to his current sabbatical project which includes the development of an entire Mexican town that includes various levels of educational opportunity. Gloria B. Clark [ Flora Almendros ] Gloria Jeanne Bodtorf Clark is currently an Associate Professor of Humanities and Spanish at Penn State University, Harrisburg campus, teaching Spanish language and Humanities courses. She is also a member of the Graduate Humanities Faculty, with a specialty in Latin American literature and culture. Her latest book is an edited version of La verdad sospechosa by Juan Ruíz de Alarcón, published in 2002 by Juan de la Cuesta Press. At present, she is involved in a pedagogical study on the use of the metaverse, Second Life, in the Spanish classroom.

Bingxin Chi [ Mayia Seesaw ] Mayia Seesaw (a.k.a. Bingxin Chi in Real Life). B.A. in English major from Wenzhou University in China. Mayia was born and grew up in Shangha and has gained TEM8 (Test for English Major Band 8) Certificate and is interested in Chinese promotion over the world. Sally Langer [ Salsita Almendros ] I've been working with Languagelab.com since October 2007. During this time I have been teaching classes and designing lessons and activities. My work has led me to think about the philosophical, social and pedagogical aspects of teaching and learning in an online immersive environment. Before coming to Languagelab I taught English in 'real life' for about 8 years, namely in Australia, Japan and Mexico. Since early childhood I have been making constant and oft thwarted attempts to jailbreak the high walls of the classroom. Tan Li Wee [ Liwei Velde ] Ms Tan Li Wee has a Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Secondary) from National Institute of Education, specialising in English Language. Having graduated from Nanyang Technological University’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, she is equipped with both audio and visual production skills. Given her prior experience in using the Media and New Media to reach youth such as in the Singapore Street Festival, she believes in the immense potential that the New Media has in today’s classroom and is enthusiastic in integrating it in current pedagogical practices. She is currently teaching in Innova Junior College, Singapore. Carol Rainbow [ Carolrb Roux ] Carol is an Educational ITC Consultant working in Oxfordshire in the UK. James T. Abraham [ Calisto Encinal ] James T. Abraham teaches Spanish at Glendale Community College in Arizona. He has been working in Second Life for over two years. His first SL project "Mi casa es su casa", an immersive, interactive house has led to his current sabbatical project which includes the development of an entire Mexican town that includes various levels of educational opportunity. Dafne González/Cristina Palomeque [ Daf Smirnov/Cristina Papp ] Dafne Gonzalez (aka Daf Smirnov) is a Full Professor at Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela where she teaches English for Architecture and Urban Planning blended courses at the undergradute level, and technology-related online courses at the graduate level. She has coordinated the Graduate Programs in Education. She coordinated the TESOL Electronic Village Online (EVO) from 2006 to 2009, and has comoderated, since 2004, the Becoming a Webhead 6-week online session of the EVO. She is now a member of the TESOL CALL-IS Steering Committee. Currently, she is the Head of the Spanish Program in Languagelab.com. She has presented about teaching languages and teacher training in SL in different online and f2f events in the last 2 years. Cristina Palomeque (aka Cristina Papp) is an English teacher at the Official School of Languages in Barcelona, Spain as well as an online teacher for the University of Barcelona. She has also been teaching English and Methodology in the Teacher Training Faculty of the University of Barcelona in Spain. Currently she is doing research in language teaching and learning processes in virtual worlds. Kate Boardman [ Kattan Hurnung ] Medieval Historian turned slight geek from digitizing manuscripts in the 1990s. Now Head of E-learning at a UK university, passionate about creating real (even if virtual) learning experiences for students. Dennis Newson Dennis Newson stopped teaching full-time in 2000, but that has given him more chance to become enthusiastic about the potential use of TEFL in SL. If you are seriously interested in my curriculum vitae,, just go to: http://www.dennisnewson.de Nergiz Kern Nergiz Kern is a DELTA-qualified English teacher and has taught in various contexts in different countries. Now, she lives in Turkey and teaches online and in Second Life. Her key interests include learner motivation, encouraging learner autonomy, ICT and the use of Web 2.0 tools and virtual worlds in teaching and learning languages. At the moment she is enrolled in a one-year postgraduate certificate course ‘Teaching and learning with MUVEs’ (Massively Multi-User Virtual Environments) funded by the EU. Her next goal is an MA

in Educational Technology and TESOL. Nergiz blogs about her "Teaching in Second Life" experience here: http://slexperiments.edublogs.org Nick Noakes Nick Noakes (http://ihome.ust.hk/~ctnick/) works in educational development and his passion is emerging technologies in education. He was an ESL teacher and teacher developer for close to 20 years before moving into teacher development full-time. His current position is Director, Center for Enhanced Learning and Teaching at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (http://celt.ust.hk). He began working in text- based virtual worlds (MOOs) in the mid-nineties and has been working in the virtual world of Second Life for over 2 years. He co-ran the biweekly New Media Consortium Teacher Buzz sessions from Jun 2006 to May 2008. He is currently advising the University of Surrey on their virtual world projects and also works as a volunteer in a number of mentor groups for people new to Second Life. Graham Stanley [Graham Netizen] Graham Stanley (http://www.grahamstanley.info/) is a teacher of English specializing in ICT at the British Council Young Learner Centre in Barcelona, Spain. He is also project manager of the British Council's 'Learn English Second Life for Teens' project and teaches a course on 'Virtual Tourism' (http://www.virtualtourism.info) using Second Life) at the University of Ramon Llull in Barcelona. Marco Chavez [ Brent Renard ] Founder and CEO of OPERA JOVEN in RL and SL. Tenor leggiero whose repertory includes baroque, classicism and bel canto. I have more than 15 years of experience in opera singing and performance, also staging and directing his own compositions. In RL, I am professor and researcher of cultural heritage and management of cultural institutions in the University of Barcelona. PhD Candidate in Cultural and Heritage Management in the University of Barcelona. Master in Cultural Management by the University of Barcelona. Master in Comparative Studies of Arts, Literature and Tought by the University Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain) Howard Vickers / Pierre Moussy [ Howie Yoshikawa/Mieszko Beck ] Pierre Moussy is a student from France of Avatar Languages. He has been using Second Life to practice his English since 2007. Howard Vickers is the founder and director of Avatar Languages (www.avatarlanguages.com), an online language school using Second Life and other online collaborative tools. He is a qualified English teacher with international TEFL teaching experience in Spain, Russia and Bolivia. Paul Sweeney [ Head Teacher ] Former Director of Education at Languagelab.com and e-learning Manager at the British Council, Paul Sweeney is now an independent e-learning consultant in the areas of e-English, e-content, m-content and virtual worlds for education Dongping Zheng [ MinnSU Koga ] Dongping Zheng is an assistant professor in the College of Education at Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the affordances of game-based multi-user virtual environments for learning English and Chinese as a foreign language.