Virtual Reality (VR) in Education

Hello superior beings. I didn't attend the Instructional Technologies and Material Design class last week and unfortunately I missed the chance to experience Virtual Reality goggles... But at least I want to share what I can about the topic with you. First of all, according to the general public, their most expected function areas are, of course, gaming and you know... Anyway, apart from these it can be used in numerous fields, education is definitely one of them. I heard my Assistant Professor Tuncer Can shared this video in the class, in addition to this, I watched and choose some other videos that are related to VR and educational context:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGGVYT0cMHg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iofuy7tTiYE
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXYzj6qwCCk

For instance in the first video, the students instantly become interested in history and anatomy classes. Because they find themselves in Ancient Rome and its present. And as you can see in the video, they can interactively examine human body through the glasses.

In the second video, we see a VR glass and a wireless controller designed for educational purposes. 

In the last video, the class went crazy the minute they wore the glasses. According to the students' interviews if they have the chance to access to VR in their classes, it'd be fun and better for their learning.

Nearpod

'Sup my fellas! Today I'm going to present you an award-winning educational app. Nearpod! It is definitely going to facilitate your material designing. It gives students chance to engage in interactional lessons. You design a lot of activities with it. It saves time and can create a fun atmosphere.

I worked on a subject about animals for elementary students and designed a matching pairs activity and a quiz with sounds and visuals. Here it is!

Voki

Just imagine, as a teacher, you have a virtual companion in your class that you mess with each other and make your students laugh and motivate. Voki can make this dream come true. Through this app, you can create an avatar, write its lines and give it a voice. It is not very developed and some of the features are not free but it still can create a chance to clear the air for a second when students get bored or tired.

I prepared an avatar, a bulldog named "Snoop Dog" check this out!

Canva

Greetings Romans! I am going to introduce you a graphic design tool "Canva". It is a website for preparing posters, banners, invitations. It is really easy and fun to use. I created a poster about sports, it can serve as an introduction for a presentation.

Add a heading by Hüseyin Barış Ünlü

Second Life

Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual world that allows users to interact with each other. It can be very useful for ELT. By building up virtual classes, teachers can easily give a lecture there. Likewise, since the online virtual world gives students the privilege that they have easy access to virtual classes in any place with their casual dresses, students' stress levels are pretty low and thus they are motivated to learn. However, in order to have your own server you have to pay fee for it.

QR Code Activity

Hello earthlings. As you know QR Codes have become a part of our lives. We see them in every corner in daily life. Of course, it can be also be used in education. How? There's a TED-Ed video about it. The teacher in the video basically says when she wants to do a vocabulary activity everyone in the class grunts. But when she does the same activity with QR Codes, they go crazy.

I'm leaving my QR Code here so that you can check it out. C u l8ter!

Animoto

Hello living creatures. As you know, video editing is a difficult thing and it's not enough that you are just capable of using computer. Yet, with the app "Animoto" it may become history. First of all, it is a cloud-based video creation service. You can produce videos by adding photos, video clips and music into your video slideshows. It can serve as an educational tool. I just edited a video to show you that you can use it to create videos that you can use in your class.

Powtoon App

Students back in the past would frequently get bored with blackboards and those boards would depress them. However, in this tech era now we got ourselves smart boards. But smart boards only by themselves are not enough. We have to know how to use a lot of educational applications, otherwise we won't create a change. PowToon is one of these apps that can be useful in class. Even though you can only make 3 or 4 minutes long videos, even it will definitely cause an effect in your class' atmosphere.

So here is my work as an exemplary:

There are also another such websites teachers can make use of like Animatron, Animoto, Animaker, Toondoo, Toontastic, Film Flicker...

Augmented Reality (AR) and an example from the app "HP Reveal"

Augmented Reality is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image, video or 3D model on a user’s view of the real world. Augmented Reality employs device cameras or sensors to map and identify the external environment. This technology can be useful in ELT. Especially when teaching vocabulary to kids from primary school. There are a lot of apps that make use of this tech. Even though they are primitive and quite far from expected, they look promising. One of them is HP Reveal. Here's my video of how it looks.

And here is another video including a class where AR is used. The little guys are really enthusiastic, aren't they?

Seesaw App

Seesaw is a platform for student engagement. Teachers can empower students to create, reflect, share, and collaborate. Students show what they know using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, and links.

Here is my exemplary activity prepared on Seesaw app.

Padlet App

Padlet is an online application that you can easily create an account and build a new board that you can use to display information for any topic. You can add videos, links, images... It can be quite useful in ELT. I built a board that will help me study my English Literature class. Here is my Padlet as an example.