When I was a kid, I had a toy called a Viewmaster. You put round cardboard cards, which had little color slides around the perimeter, in a slot at the top, then held it up to your face and toggled a lever to see all the pictures. And wow, the images were in 3-D! There were cards for all sorts of topics; I particularly remember looking at scenes of foreign countries. It was like National Geographic come to life. It was the 1960s version of Virtual Reality!
Fast forward 50 years and now we have Google Cardboard and similar devices. No longer just a toy, Virtual Reality is used in many classrooms thanks to the low cost of the tools used to access and experience Virtual Reality worlds. And students today respond the same way I did all those years ago: It piques their interest, makes them want to learn more, and keeps them engaged in the learning process.
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| From Viewmaster to Google Cardboard: 50 years of Virtual Reality! source: The ESL Nexus |
So do you use Virtual Reality with your students? If you do, what resources do you use? If you don’t use it, why not? Join Laurah from Tools for Teachers by Laurah J and me when we discuss Using Virtual Reality with ELLs in our next #ELLEdTech chat. It’s on Sunday, March 25, 2018, at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific time. Please note that this is one week later than out usual chat! We’ll be sharing our ideas about how to use Virtual Reality for educational purposes. We’d love for you to contribute your ideas, too! Details below:
Schedule and Questions
7:00 = Introduction: Tell us your name, location, level/grade and subject taught. #ELLEdTech
7:05 = Q1: Do you use Virtual Reality tools with your ELLs & if yes, which ones? #ELLEdTech
7:13 = Q2: How do these tools help teachers facilitate ELLs’ learning? #ELLEdTech
7:21 = Q3: What are the advantages & benefits of using these tools? #ELLEdTech
7:29 = Q4: Are there any cons or drawbacks teachers or students might have when using these tools? #ELLEdTech
7:37 = Q5: What advice do you have for teachers who want to start using Virtual Reality tools with their ELLS? #ELLEdTech
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| Join us on our special date this month! Source: The ESL Nexus |
Directions for Joining the Chat
1. Log into Twitter on Sunday; the chat runs from 7:00 – 7:45pm Eastern.
2. Search for tweets with the hashtag #ELLEdTech in the search bar. Make sure to click “All tweets.”
3. The first five minutes will be spent introducing ourselves.
4. Starting at 7:05, @ESOL_Odyssey or @The_ESL_Nexus will post questions every 8 minutes using Q1, Q2, Q3, etc. toidentify the questions and the hashtag #ELLEdTech.
5. Answer the questions by prefacing them with A1, A2, A3, etc. and use the hashtag #ELLEdTech.
6. Follow any teachers who respond and are also using #ELLEdTech.
7. Like (click the heart icon) and post responses to other teachers’ tweets.
You can schedule your answers to the questions in advance by using an online scheduler such as TweetDeck or HootSuite (and remember to use A1, A2, etc. and #ELLEdTech). Links are encouraged, but use tinyurl, bitly, goo.gl or ow.ly to shorten your link so it can be included in your tweet. Just click one of those links, paste the longer link in the app’s box to shorten it for Twitter, then paste the shortened link into your tweet. If you have relevant images, we encourage you to post them, too.
Is this your first Twitter chat? Here are our rules:
1. Please stay on topic.
2. Please do not post about paid products unless explicitly asked.
3. If you arrive after the chat has started, please try to read the previous tweets before joining in.
4. Feel free to just read, like, and/or retweet if you prefer — we know the first time can be a little overwhelming!
5. Always use the hashtag #ELLEdTech when tweeting.
6. Make sure your twitter feed is set to “public.” (And do remember that Twitter is completely public; that means anyone–students, parents, administrators–may see what you tweet.)
You are welcome to let your teacher friends who might be interested in joining us know about this Twitter chat. We look forward to chatting with you on Sunday!
March 19, 2018
