SECOND LIFE / 18

Today's topic is about another type of virtual reality : Second Life 

Second Life is a platform that is basically an online virtual world.

After creating an account on the website, you download the Second Life application on your laptop. And then  you sign in the app. 
The application provides you a lot of "island"choices to join. For each world , the "island" word is used. While discovering the app, you can see these island on the world map section of the app. 
To try this application, i signed up and joined my university's island which is called Istanbul Uni - Erasmus. However, i could not reach the location because of technical issues. If you want to check how looks this location, you can visit one of my friend's blog to see there : here is the blog address.

In spite of this issue, i started looking around , and i found another island related to education. then i went this island and looked around.

 As you can see from these pictures, you can direct your character in the way you want. In this island, there are many activities that you can try ; you can order some food or you can

get into sea just like i did in the photo :) Just like your real life , you can control everthing. You can change your character's appearance. Moreover, beyond the real life, you can change the time. you can choose a morning to a night. One another important feature of these virtual world is that because of being online platform, you can communicate with the other users of the app. 

In that sense, we can think SL as a good way for language learning process.  As a teacher, you can create an island for your classes and  support them to speak English. Especially in these quarantine days, this application is very suitable for creating an authentic environment for language learning process. 

AUGMENTED REALITY / 17

After the Virtual Reality review, today AR is our topic. AR is the abbreviation of the Augmented Reality. 

In the VR review, we said that it is creating simulated environment. However, the Augmented Reality is about enhancing your reality with the virtual objects by using your computer and smart phones.

Before explaining the process of creating your own AR, there are two different types of Augmented Reality.

• Marked-based Augmented Reality : In this type of Augmented Reality, you need a existing page to augment your reality. To make an AR, you need an existing page and you should scan this page. After your page is recognized, your animation appears on your page. In that sense, using a tangible object ( a page , a flash card or a poster as a marker) for AR is called marked-based.
• Markless Augmented Reality : Unlike the marked-based, the user does not need any supporter objects to create an AR. The only thing to do is to open the camera of your device and just scan the place and the you see your animations.

To integrate the AR and language learning and creating an interactive classroom for your students, here are different AR application for you :

• Augmented 3D AR
• UNITEAR
• LAYAR
• BLIPPAR
• HP REVEAL
• ZAPPAR

I tried the UNITEAR to see what can be done for English language learning. Here is my video of AR which is an example of markless type : 

By creating these kind of AR videos and allowing your students to create them, you will enhance their learning process and also make their making meaning process more permanent by interactive and interesting classroom materails.

VIRTUAL REALITY / 16

Today's topic is one of the Web3.0 tools : Virtual Reality
WHAT IS THE VIRTUAL REALITY ?

CARDBOARD

It is a way of creating a simulated environment by using the computer technology. To have a Virtual Reality experience, there are many different tools for that. Cardboard is one of them. 
They are basically cardboards with lens that make you seeings more realistic and vivid.
In terms of accessibility and easy to create one, these cardboards are really suitable. You just open a VR 360 video by your smart phone or tablet.

Moreover there are more developed tools for this experience : Virtual Glasses. There are many kinds of virtual glasses like a real glasses or glasses with hand tool.

The relation between the virtual reality and language learning is based on mostly creating environment with full of excitement and freshness of the materials. In other words, instead of doing a fill-in-the-blanks, you can give them an opportunity to watch a video about the topic of that exercise and make them exposure the language lively.

For a more general and detailed video for the influence of the technology on education and usage of the virtual reality for language learning, there is a video.

And also here is an example of virtual reality video for language learning : vr learning

SEE YOU NEXT REVIEW !!

THINGLINK / 15

Today's application is Thinglink which is a good interactive app for making meaning in language learning.

Thinglink is a platform that you can create interactive classroom materials by using videos and photos. It provides you to upload your video or photo and add "tags" on them. The exciting part of this app is its tags. By these tags, you can enhance your material with a piece of written information, videos and photos or audios and moreover you can add some questions on your thinglink. To make your material more realistic and attractive, you can use 360° videos and photos and gather your students attention quickly by your highly realistic classroom material.


By creating a thinglink, you can visit different places around the world with your students and learn these cultures and historical places. In terms of English Language Learning, you can make a thinglink about England or another countries whose national language is English.

Just like many other educational applications, Thinglink allows to create classes by using a class code. Hence, you can share your class code with your students and also assign them to create their own "Thinglink"s.

To discover application, i made really simple one which is suitable for elemantary students.
Here is : my thinglink

SEE YOU LATER ! :)

STORYBIRD / 14

After two models of integration of technology and education, here is another application that is useful for language learning: STORYBIRD

Storybird is storytelling application. It is designed for children to create their own stories with their parents or their friends. And also there are a lot of stories to read. 
You can read and write any kind of story that you are interested in :

• A Picture Book
• A Longform Story
• Comics
• Flash Fictions
• Poetry

One of features of this app is that you can upgrade to a family plan and invite your family members for creating works together.

Another feature is that you can start a Storybird Class Plan. With this plan, as a teacher you can encourage your students to write and read in another language.They can develop their writing skills.

As a teacher, you can find different stories related to topics and grades. Here is  a good example for young language learners

Here is my first try on Storybird about young students to make them aware for today's pandemic : my storybird

TPACK AND SAMR / 13

Unlike the other posts, today i am going to talk about two models about education : TPACK and SAMR. 

While living in the era of technology, the integration of technology and education is inevitable. Hence, there are two models that explain how integration of technology and education should be.

TPACK Instructional Model : 

Tpack model is designed by Punya Mishra and Matthew J. Koehler. This model stands for "Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge". And it states three different fields of knowledge that teachers should know to teach efficiently and to use technolog during the teaching. 

The Content Knowledge which is also called CK is based on the knowledge the teacher has about the subject that is being taught. The Pedagogical Content which is also called PK is based on the knowledge the teacher knows about teaching methods and how the students learn something. The Technological Knowledge which is also called TK is based on knowledge of using the technology and understanding and applying the information technology.

When these three knowledge come together, the new combination of knowledges also arises. 

Pedagogical Content Knowledge : based on simplifing a subject to teach effectively.

Technological Content Knowledge : based on the way the technology's influence on the content.

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge : based on basically using the technological materials on the teaching process.

And as a combination of three knowledges, we have TPACK. This model supports the idea that each of these knowledge influence one another, In that sense, to create an effective learning environment, all the knowledges should be considered.

According to this model, teacher should use all the integrated knowledges of content,pedagogic and technologic.

In terms of language learning, teachers can combine their content and pedagogical knowledges with the technological knowledges and can reach the students who are also digital natives. By identifying their needs, the teachers can create different comprehensible inputs through using technology. For example, while teaching a set of vocabulary about a specific topic, some students need visual materials and some needs audio materials or some both of them and so on. In such kinds of circumstances, teacher can use technology considering the content and the teaching.

SAMR MODEL : 

This model is developed by Ruben R. Puendetura and SAMR is abbreviation of SUBSTITUTION, AUGMENTATION,MODIFICATION and REDEFINITION. This model is basically a framework that categorize the education and technology integration's degrees. 

SUBSTITUTION : It refers to technology that is as a direct substitute without functional change.

AUGMENTATION : It refers to technology that is as a direct substitute BUT with functional improvements.

MODIFICATION : It refers to technology that allows for redesigning the learning task.

REDEFINITION : It refers to technology that allows to create new tasks. 

Here is a creative way of expressing the S-A-M-R :

To make these stages more comprehensible, there are some example for each stage :

S = using PowerPoint to prepare a presentation.

A = using Edmodo to gather assignments

M = using Google Earth to research a location on a map.

R = creating a story by using Storybird application.

According to the students' different needs, teacher can use the technology and provides them to create their own outcomes by technology and make these outcomes permanent.

FLIPGRID / 12

Today's another educational application is Flipgrid.
Flipgrid is a platform that you can create your own videos to share with your students. While creating videos, the application provides you to be creative. You can add another video and voice over it and add background accoding to your topic. Also you can draw something and add extra notes about the topic.

Just like many other educational applications, Flipgrid has interaction between teacher and students. Students can reply the record lessons with their own creative videos by using Flipgrid's features.

If you do not use your face on your videos, then there is an another application that helps you about it. This application is called Voki which is mentioned on my earlier review posts. Voki is a platform that you can create an avatar and add this avatar voice through several ways.After completing your Voki, you can add your avatar on Flipgird and add other details to finish your recorded lesson.

For an example:
Here is my flipgrid link.