dagmar2000

Guten Tag!

I'm a grad student in German Studies here at UCI and alongside reading a lot of German literature and learning how to teach a foreign language - I have a strong interest in finding ways to integrate STEM/STEAM/MINT opportunities in the foreign language classroom.

Soooo, I'm a part of the Project V-LIFe research team.

Our research looks at the use of MMORPGs as sites for (V)irtual (L)anguage (I)mmersion in (F)oreign Languag(E)s or as we call it, V-LIFe.
Sounds like fun, huh? It is!

What’s an MMORPG? It’s a giant online video game with many players and the letters stand for (m)assively (m)ulti-player (o)nline (r)ole (p)laying (g)ame. You may have heard of some of these like Final Fantasy or League of Legends (there are many many more, of course).

What Project V-LIFe does is… strive to design, implement and study a pilot “virtual language immersion” module for a second-year German language course. For this phase, we are using Blizzard Entertainment’s popular MMORPG World of Warcraft (WoW) and we are working to have students engage in custom in-game “learning quests” designed to foster linguistic and (inter-)cultural competences in individual and group experiences. Scaffolded debriefing sessions are incorporated to allow students to review and reflect on their experiences in the German WoW community exploring the boundaries inherent in their own cultural frames as well as their notions of the ‘real’ German-speaking world.

We are part of the part of the Multidisciplinary Design Program (MDP) here at the University of California, Irvine. With our project we have embarked on an Azerothian adventure to do cutting edge research, create an innovative curriculum design, learn about professionalization and have copious amounts of… fun!

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I also host a weekly radio show here at KUCI, 88.9 FM. :D

German Radio Broadcast
KUCI 88.9 FM - w/Dagmar Klaus - Serving the leckerest of Deutsches pop, rock and hits.
Returning this Fall: Day TBD, 2-4 pm PST
Listen Online: KUCI.org
On-Air: 88.9 FM