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Already having an impact on language instruction, the lack of space offered to the implementation of new technologies and the Web 2.0 within the humanities is particularly absent in the culture and literature teaching fields. This absence has originated the proposal we introduce here. Along our discussion we seek to demonstrate the projection and validity of the execution of these tools and its advantages for our potential consumers, college humanities professionals, whom in general are not very familiar with the usage of ICTs in the classroom. By offering students the opportunity to surface and network with some of the Web 2.0 tools on Second Life.com, a Web-based space, they will face the acquisition of language, culture and literature through a challenging and dynamic approach, which represents a novel and motivating way of learning. Used as an educational tool, Second Life serves as a context where users can meet, communicate and learn from speakers of other languages and cultures in a synchronous way by transforming themselves into cyber-characters, the so called avatars. Thus, residing and actively participating in Second life can be for virtual students, more fruitful than learning through traditional instruction, since cyber-students interact without time or space limits, breaking conventional classroom barriers. As a consequence, the Web 2.0 offers the potential of a wide range of resources for variable kinds of innovative teaching/learning purposes which will contribute to enhance teaching within this discipline. 1 A FEW REASONS TO INCLUDE TICS IN LITERATURE AND CULTURE TEACHING Several reasons to illustrate the contribution of the implementation of new technologies to the humanities area, more specifically to the literature and culture teaching will be discussed ahead. Worldwide, technology is transforming the world of art. Artists make efforts to employ it as craft for their masterpieces understanding this unusual combination as a vehicle to integrate science and humanities, positioning themselves at the forefront of innovation. Under this premise, we will come up with several questions; may technology also revolt the world of humanities teaching as it is now transforming the world of arts? Can traditional culture, literature and language teaching be enhanced by using conventionally opposed concepts such as science and arts? How would this revolution take place in traditional scholarly? The answer to these enquiries is positive, if we consider emerging in a virtual world based on the Web 2.0 as an expansion of the traditional teaching/learning methodology. Language teaching has emerged in Second Life and teachers and educators are taking an innovative approach by combining Second Life with voice messengers such as Skype and other online teaching tools. Among other possibilities, Second Life offers its residents both an internal voice and written chat as a way of communication. The synchronous nature of chat or Skype provides users with “spontaneous responses promoting active culture learning” as Mike Levy states (2007). For instance, through 339 Delicado Puerto G., Ferreira da Silva P. and María Domínguez Gómez E. (2009). e-LANGUAGE, e-CULTURE, e-LITERATURE WITHIN A VIRTUAL LEARNING CONTEXT Secondlife.Com. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computer Supported Education, pages 338-345 DOI: 10.5220/0002158603380345 Copyright c © SciTePress chatting on line the technique known as role-play, which makes students imagine an agreed situation and act it out, extends far beyond traditional limits and takes on dimensions simulating reality and fantasy in this virtual world, “when the deepest identity change is possible with a single mouse click, the opportunities to play are endless” (Au, 2008, p. 79). In other words, a role is played starting with the learners ́ design of his/her avatar’s tailored outer shell to act and react to multiple forms of situational contexts with other cyber-characters. By means of written or spoken chat or even Email, Cyber-students or avatars can interact at any time, anywhere and with anyone they come across, so conventional classroom scheduled obstacles like limited time, restricted space, monolingual together with monoculture constraints and authentic identity fade into the setting. For these reasons, a cyberworld hosts the potential of opening up a wide range of development for variable kinds of e-learning exercises in a faster and wide-ranging manner. 2 SECOND LIFE AND WEB 2.0: A CHALLENGE TO IMPLEMENT ICTS WITHIN THE HUMANITIES Worldwide, ICTs are starting to be seen as a powerful tool for language training. However, the perception of new technologies as a positive strategy for the culture and literature teaching has not been deeply considered in higher education yet. In our proposal, we aim to reveal the projection and validity of the implementation of this tool and its various resources for our potential consumers, college humanities professionals, whom in general are not very familiar with the use of ICTs in the classroom. By registering in this course, students will face the acquisition of language, culture and literature through this challenging method which will embody a ground-breaking approach for specific learning purposes. Our proposal is consequently centered on the analysis of user-learner capacity to engage and interact in the acquisition of foreign languages, culture and literature. We believe total immersion in the learning scenario of virtual worlds and Web 2.0 tools offer exposure to elements of interaction, providing the means to create motivating environments (Figure 1) for students to learn. (Strevens, 2008). Figure 1: Motivating environments for students. Inspired by Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash, Second Life is a virtual world created in 2003 by Linden Lab. In this parallel cyber-world people can communicate and culturally interchange by turning themselves into virtual characters, or avatars. In the same way, a novel approach motivated computer engineers to create this analogous world, now we intend to inspire people within the humanities to approach literature, culture and language from a more lively and pleasant perspective. This constructivist point of view consists on exploiting emerging technological concepts, strategies and tools (wikis, blogs, videos, video blogs, podcasts, networking, directories, tags, etc.) related to the Web 2.0 through Second Life. 2.1 Some Advantages of using Web 2.0 Tools for Culture and Literature Teaching as Target The complete role-play practice is based on several factors most of which are learner rather than teacher oriented (Edwards et al, 2008). In this sense, a great amount of attention is placed on the learner and the teacher acts merely as a guide: A) there is certain personal investment and identification on the part of the learner involved in creating an avatar and in carrying out his/her actions. The avatar can ideally become an alter ego of the student and experience the advantage of learning in a 3D scenario. B) role-play and social interaction are not limited to actual lesson time, but rather, can be lengthened over time (Figure 2). In this sense, Second Life is a creative and enjoyable environment which opens up the traditional classroom walls dynamically. This interaction CSEDU 2009 International Conference on Computer Supported Education

e-LANGUAGE, e-CULTURE, e-LITERATURE WITHIN A VIRTUAL LEARNING CONTEXT - Secondlife.Com