5. Meet Alice
Alice is a free software that can be downloaded
from www.alice.org.
It was originally developed at the University of
Virginia and then Carnegie Melon University.
6. Purpose
The original purpose of this software is to prepare
students to learn and understand programming
languages. This program is also used currently in
the States to teach Spanish to English speakers
7. How it works
Alice is a 3D programming software. It enables
teachers and students to create animations,
videos, or games for sharing them in the
classroom or the web
8. How it works
The program, through its interactive interface,
enables users to drag and drop graphic tiles (that
carries the code) to create their stories (story
telling Alice)
10. How it works (cont.)
It also contains 3D objects such as people,
animals, and other objects that the students can
use to create a virtual world of their own with
animated objects.
11. Language input
Using games and animations has become pivotal
tool in the classroom provided that the Language
input is included and the game or the animation
meets the lesson objectives. (Beatty, 2010)
14. First study
Location: German University in Cairo, Youngsters
Summer Club
Duration: Two weeks
Language input: Speech acts (Agreeing and
disgreeing)
Exploratory
15. Sample
12 students from different Egyptian high schools
2 students were from a British school the rest
were from private schools where the medium of
instruction is English.
Convenient sample
16. Experiment
The students were taught speech act (the
traditional way). Role play was used as an activity
The following week, the students were introduced
to Alice. The grasped the idea quickly and their
task was to produce animations with situations
using agreeing and disagreeing
17. Findings
More motivated, more creative
Spontaneity of interaction between characters
(visible)
Gender differences
18. Experience in Saudi Arabia
Program: Preparatory Year Program (PYP) in
Prince Sultan University
Learning difficulties: spelling mistakes, lack
reading skills, writing problems
19. Study
Longitudinal : Ending June 2012
RC students (Reading Circles) and Grammar 107
and 117 students
The RC students are supposed to create one
episode of a story that voices certain cultural
aspects and also using direct or indirect speech
acts or appropriate language input as advised by
the instructor
20. Grammar
Two courses are taught in PSU 107 and 117 and
the students should also create animations (using
modality, conditional If …..etc)
21. Other suggested uses of Alice
Teaching vocabulary: Like word attack, teachers
can create movies, animations and videos to
teach difficult vocabulary
22. How can teachers use it
Warm up
Examples
Thought-provoking activities
Can be posted on FB or teacher’s wiki or website
by converting it into a video
24. Strengths of Alice in EFL classroom
Alice is a 3-D programming environment and it is
not required
Drag and drop is easy
Interactive interface
Students can immediately view their animations
25. Weaknesses
Stick to gallery
Cannot be uploaded directly to the web. It has to
be converted into a video or the user has to install
3-D java and other programs
27. Alice
URL: www.alice.org
Go to downloads and choose Alice 2.2. It is
downloaded as a zip folder. Unzip it and open
story telling Alice. You can use the first step by
step tutorial to learn how it works.
28. References
AlKhayat, A. (2010) Using Storytelling Alice to Motivate English Language Learners . Proceedings of The
International Technology, Education and Development (INTED)Conference
Beatty, K. (2010) Teaching and Researching: Computer Assisted Language Learning. Pearson: London
www.Alice.org
http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=downloads/download_alice
http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=downloads/download_alice2.2
http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?p=6740#post6740
What is Alice?
M. Moskal, D. Lurie, and S. Cooper, Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Instructional Approach. In
Proceedings of 2004 SIGCSE Conference, (Norfolk, VA).
Storytelling Alice About page
Looking Glass research overview
Alice Press Release - 03/10/06
A Preview of Alice 3.0
Alice 3.0 Progress Report
http://blog.alice.org/?p=293
Sun collaboration
http://www.alice.org/index.php?page=alice3/download