4.+Justification+for+considering+the+proposed+e-Learning+Community+as+a+collective+learning+opportunity.

**Introduction**
The proposed e-Learning community includes sixteen learners in Year 8- 12 at two High Schools in one in Parkes and Western Sydney. The use of Virtual Worlds including 'Teen Life' in 'Second Life' is chosen as the primary platform for supporting these young learners of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). In addition, each learner will be able to utilize associated mulitmedia sites.

The European Union, 2001, defines e-Learning as 'the use of new multimedia technologies and the Internet to improve the quality of learning by facilitating access to resources and services as well as remote exchanges and collaboration (URL: ). Secondly, within it's outline of key terms in e-Learning, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework states that a 'Community of Practice (CoPs) is a loosely-coupled group of practitioners who work and learn together around a broad topic over an extended period of time'. CoPs operate on the basis of joint interest, spontaneous interaction, and mutual development (Poell, 2004) (URL:'.

The question arises 'What is collective learning?'. In a discussion of 'beyond the individual as a Unit of Analysis', Forsyth and Schaverien, 2003, state that 'generative learning suggests a powerful explanatory framework for collective learning'. These authors note that the DESCANT model of generative learning identifies learning within six acts: exploring, designing, making, operating, explaining and understanding (Forsyth and Schaverian, 2003)'. Furthermore, Forsyth and Schaverien, 2003, advocate the expansion of the DESCANT model of generative learning to include such processes as enculturation and the influence of 'collective intentionality'. In this view, the notion of 'collective intentionality' may be fundamental 'in understanding social force, and thus social learning (Forsyth & Schaverien, 2003)'. 'Collective intentionality' is defined as "...not the sum of individual intentionality's and not reducible to them...This does not mean that it hovers in the spaces between people or binds their minds through mysterious field forces. Each of us has a mind and mental life that are confined to our individual brains. But to quote Searle, 'it does not follow from that - that all mental life must be expressed in the form of a singular noun phrase referring to me. The form that my collective intentionality can take is simply 'we intend', we are doing so and so' and the like. In such cases, 'I intend only as part of our intending'. The intentionality that exists in each individual head has the form of 'we intend' 9Forsyth & Schaverien, 2003)'.

==Justification for considering this proposed e-Learning Community as a collective learning opportunity includes the following: 1) According to Dawson, 2006, Linden Labs reached out to academis in 2005, offering the purchase of private islands of Teens Second Life in November, 2005. Subsequently, 'Global Kids' was given a MacArthur Foundation grant to study the possibilities of a new learning environment within virtual worlds. Global Kids includes New York based online communities within 'twenty public middle and high schools and many city wide site students in intensive workshops, field trips, and other activities engaging in global leadership programs URL: '.== ==The development of the e-Learning Community will enhance collective learning opportunities for tween and teen learners. An online component which involves technical infrastructure including a Virtual Worlds platform and associated blog and wiki will enhance these teen learner's experiences of learning in a community. According to Leinonen and Saad-Sulonen (2006, p. 26), 'learning environment means the social, psychological and physical context in which learning takes place' and the 'online learning environment is one component of the overall learning environment'. Teen Second Life is 'an international gathering place for teens aged 13 - 17 years where participants are able to play, learn and create: URL: [[]]. Secondly, teens are able to create and customize a digital self called an 'avatar', fly through an ever-changing 3D landscape, chat and socialize with other teens from across the world and build environments: [[|URL:[http://teen.secondlife.com/whatis]]. In addition to the component of social learning proposed with the use of 'Teen Second Life', these learners will be able to interact with other members of the community by posting messages and pages on their linked blogs and wikis. An annotated bibliography of Second Life Educational Online Resources is available at [[|http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib#pedagogy]] A case study titled 'The Rotherham College of Arts & Technology: The educational opportunities of Second Life' highlights the benefits of multi-user virtual environments, and potential issues and problems in using this technology: URL: [[]] 2) Contemporary popularity of the use of Virtual Worlds by tweens and teens. Virtual Worlds News; February, 2009, reports on 'K Zero: 260 M Registered Accounts for 10-15 -Year-Old Virtual World Demo [[]]'. This report claims that 'Virtual Worlds consultancy K Zero has updated its virtual worlds Universe Chart for Q1, 2009' which 'tracks virtual worlds, live and in development, across four demographics'. The most striking result of this market research is that the bulk of activity for virtual worlds occurs within the 10-15 year age group boasting 260 million registered users and up from 209 million in September, 2008. In addition, the 5-10 year and 15-25 year age groups are also very popular but they are lingering at 67-69 million registered accounts in comparison to the 10-15 year age group. Furthermore, adult users including the 25 and over age group include only 19 million registered accounts and seventeen million of these users emply 'Second Life'. It is noted that whilst these statistics reflect registered users rather than actual users of virtual worlds, the findings arguably provide an indication of the popularity of virtual worlds amongst the varying demographic groups. Waters et al, 2007, asserts the value of [|online role-playing games] in, which take the players on explorations of medieval fantasy worlds, as a tool for learning English by speakers of other languages. 3) Teen virtual worlds increasingly focus on the social aspects of virtual worlds. According to Matte, C. URL: [[]] 'teen virtual worlds have done away with penguin avatars, restrictive chats and overly cute animation' and now 'tend to capitalize on the social aspects of virtual worlds and allow for more freedom of expression in avatars'. On the other hand, this above-mentioned writer asserts that an increase in 'inappropriate language and behaviour is expected' in line with the reduction in restrictions inherent within tween and teen virtual worlds. Various Virtual Worlds were considered for employment in this children's ESOL e-Learning community including '[|WeeWorld]', '[|Spineworld]', '[|Habbo], [|'Quest Atlantis'], '[|Runescape]', '[|There]', and [|'Teen Second Life']. On January 26th, 2009, [|Virtual World Management] updated it's Youth World Analysis and found over 200 youth-orientated Virtual Worlds. Sirikata is also a BSD licensed open source platform for Virtual Worlds which aims to provide a set of libraries and protocols which potential may be used by teens and tweens (URL: [[]]). 4) Use of Virtual Worlds in conjunction with other e-Learning technologies will enhance ESOL learners creativity and communicative capabilities as members of a blended online community. Whilst UNESCO's Young Digital Creators (YDC) Educator's kit was designed 'for young people of different cultures to collaboratively construct deeper understanding of each other's cultural values and shared perspectives on global issues', this information may serve as a basis for developing and supporting ESOL learning in the proposed 'Teen Life in Second Life' e-Learning Community'. For example, Marques, 2006, comments upon the use of ethnomusicology within the above-mentioned YDC project. In particular; Marques, 2006, states 'Soundscapes are around us. We are responsible for it's dynamics and changes. Paying attention to hear water sounds and produce new sounds and music pieces made students understand that they are active partners in producing knowledge for understanding and preserving our natural resources. Doing fieldwork and visiting different places, not always clean and healthy, made them think of changing their own attitudes: URL: [[]]' Whilst learning ESOL, learners could be taken out for field trips to facilitate community and local environment access in support of their English language learning. Subsequently, these learners could then download video images and sound recordings collected and subsequently write a journal report of their experiences collectively to support their English language learning. In addition, these learners could then conduct a project in Teen Second Life to build environments based on their understandings gained during this above-mentioned field-trip. 5) Currently a high proportion of teens and tweens use social networking technology including Virtual Worlds to learn about education-related topics. Within their report upon 'Young People and Social networking Services, Childnet International (2008) states that 'The National School Boards Association (in the USA) recently released research findings of an exploration into the online behaviours of 9-17 year olds in the USA. This sample included 2,300 children, young people and parents. The findings included that 'Ninety-six per cent of the young people surveyed reported using some form of social networking technology. In addition, the findings indicate that 'education-related topics are the most commonly discussed, with 60% talking about education-related topics and 50% discussing their schoolwork.URL:[[]] 6). Computer games within Virtual Worlds can be useful in aiding and promoting language learning. In this post on Virtual Worlds for Teens downloaded May, 14th, 2009, Christy Matte also asserts that 'Teen Second Life is 'a pg-rated version of the other Second Life website' containing powerful tools that allow members to design their own objects in world'. On the other hand, Hendrickson, 2007, asserts that Virtual Hangouts for younger audiences are generally less immersive than those meant for more mature audiences and postulates this may be due to the 'child's inability to navigate more complex simulated worlds'. In addition, Hendrickson, 2007 proposes that 'younger audiences may treat Virtual Worlds as interactive cartoons and toys' whereas adults are 'presumably drawn to these services beacuse they provide the opportunity for escapism: URL: [[]] In addition, [|Stanley and Mawer, 2008], outline free online games and types of online games that may be used to aid English language learning by speakers of other languages. These include: 1) walkthroughs 2) gap-fill 3) relay reading 4) jigsaw reading 5) game dictogloss 6) comprehension 7) observe and write 8) observe/vocabulary 9) the Bar 10) watch and say 11) listening/questioning 12) massively multiplayer online role-playing games and 13) virtual worlds. The reasons for using Teen Second Life as an educational facility includes that as 'there are already over 120 universities teaching, researching, or working in Second Life and there are also virtual language academies working in Second Life.[[]]', Teen Second Life potentially has great potential for ESOL learning. 7) Teen Second Life constitutes a community for children aged thirteen to seventeen years. According to Dawson, 2006, Linden Labs reached out to academis in 2005, offering the purchase of private islands of Teens Second Life in November, 2005. Subsequently, 'Global Kids' was given a MacArthur Foundation grant to study the possibilities of a new learning environment within virtual worlds. Global Kids includes New York based online communities within 'twenty public middle and high schools and many city wide site students in intensive workshops, field trips, and other activities engaging in global leadership programs URL: '. References: Forsyth, L. & Schaverien, L., 2003, Representing Collective Learning: a Generative Way Forward, SIGGROUP Bulletin, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 25-28. Leinonen, T & Saad-Sulonen, 2006, UNESCO Young Digital Creators Educator's Kit, URL: [[]] Matte, C. URL: [[]] Marques, F. in Leinonen, T. & Saad-Sulonen, 2006, UNESCO Young Digital Creator's Educator's Kit, URL: [http:unesco.uiah.fi/ydc-book] [[]] [] [] [] [] [] [|http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mpepper/slbib#pedagogy] []==