Technology and Learning Colleagues,
Longtime California ESL teacher/professor and technology professional development maven Susan Gaer has a great new Tech Tips for Teachers blog article on "Getting Started with Virtual Reality in Adult Education. " She, and others, believe that virtual reality, and perhaps also augmented reality, offer engaging new ways to teach adults. Susan has developed an adult basic skills/ESL lesson plan using inexpensive "Google Cardboard" virtual reality glasses ($10 each, one for each small group in your class) that, while not required, make the lesson "much more amazing." Some students will also need to bring their smartphones to class, but perhaps only one smartphone is needed per group?
Susan writes:
This lesson uses the concept of Google Hyperdocs. Hyperdocs are worksheets created in Google Docs, with 21st Century improvements. I have not included standards or rubrics because I think that this lesson is applicable for a variety of levels which would use different rubrics and standards.
I tried this activity in a high beginning ESL conversation class and it was very successful. I modeled it for students, then had them do it in pairs. Students were very excited to be able to take the task sheet home to practice it on their own outside the class.
If you try this lesson, or if you have other engaging ways to use any of these tools: Google Cardboard glasses, Google Hyperdocs, Google Docs, Google Forms, Thinglink, Padlet or Quizlet, please describe your experiences here. Share your questions for Susan in her blog article comments section, or here. If you would consider using this lesson in your class, how would you use it?
David J. Rosen, Moderator
Technology and Learning CoP
djrosen123@gmail.com
Comments
I absolutely love this initiative and will spend more time exploring it and sharing it! It certainly resonates with all I know about the benefits of continually moving forward to integrate new tools into instruction. I hope others drop in with equally exciting ideas on this topic! Thanks! Leecy
Hi Everyone. I wrote the article. To make my lesson, I used Thinglink for image tagging with a 360 photo. I will be starting a very beginning level of ESL tomorrow and the webpage I am using with them is located at http://2017prelevel1.weebly.com
You can see how I used 360 photos to have my students meet their classroom. Click on the game tab to see how I embedded activities directly into the weebly website. I will have a facebook group as well but since this group is starting out at zero, we will go slowly and develop the group together. Feel free to ask me any questions you have by using the contact form on the Weebly website. :-)
Hi Susan,
The "Meet Your Classroom" vocabulary game is even more impressive full-screen. Does it look different using virtual reality glasses such as Google Cardboard? If so, how is it different with VR glasses?
I am looking forward to hearing what your beginning level ESL students think of your Weebly site and particularly the games page.
Everyone -- is Susan the only adult education (Adult ESL or other adult basic skills) teacher using virtual reality with students? If you are using VR for education piurposes, please tell us about what you are doing and, if you have a website where we could look at it, please share it with us.
Thanks.
David J. Rosen, Moderator
Technology and Learning
djrosen123@gmail.com