virtual worlds

This session presents the design processes, templates, and resources used to create two adventure games delivered in online/hybrid formats for Japanese and Chinese learners. The Japanese game introduces a well-known urban legend in Japan, Kuchisake Onna (Spit-mouthed Woman), and the Mandarin Chinese game adapts the classic Chinese folklore, Hua Pi (Painted Skin). Both games integrate authentic cultural historic values and practices, course materials, and unit-level learning objectives to engage students in contextualized language-focused quests. Participants will experience the games from the learner perspective (English version of the games will be available) in different delivery formats and explore ways of adapting the design in their ...

Moving ‘towards’ the Metaverse, and the implications for language teaching What does the metaverse mean for us as language teachers or researchers and what is it? Is this really something new or a rebranding of another idea? What opportunities and/or drawbacks does the metaverse have for us and our students? This presentation will begin with an examination of the fictional history of the metaverse, followed by technical innovations that led to our current stage of development, ranging from text-based creations, to 2D avatar-based environments, and on to low-immersion Virtual Worlds, all of which led to what many are (erroneously) calling ...