Using a Complex Technology in a Language Course

In this chapter, how the complex technology of Second Life affects participation in an English course is investigated. With the aim of exploring gender issues, the special affordance of Second Life, i.e. voice-morphing together with sound-isolated parcels, was used. The data set consists of about 33 hours of audio recordings and chat logs of 8,315 words. The results show that in audio10.8% of the course time deals with technological challenges, while in chat 69.2% of the words contribute to technology. Three challenges interfering with participation were identified: software complexity, unreliable functionality of Second Life, and hardware and connectivity issues. To deal with these problems, pedagogical facilitators, technological facilitators, and Second Life -experienced peers made a significant contribution. Based on the results, this chapter analyzes whether Second Life can be widely used in language education, how affordances of it can be learned and taught, and scenarios where Second Life can and cannot be used.