AUGMENTED REALITY: MAYBE BETTER THAN THE REAL?

#Current Issues in Teaching #Instructional Technology #Canva #Happy New Year

The last post of this year! We wave goodbye to the last year and welcome a brand new year, so I feel pretty good about it. I hope finishing all my final assignments before entering to the new year and get some fresh air. Especially having a farewell to my 5000-word essay on the Bosnian War could be amazing. Having a nightmare which Ratko Mladic is your cellmate is not funny, after all. It gives me the creeps…

So reality is harsh sometimes, but what about the augmented reality (AR)? I think, it’s even better than what happens in real life and an amazing way to show your students the idealistic version of life. Currently, we’ve been assigned to create an AR-integrated teaching material which we prompted the students to explore a city abroad. Well, it was a state in our case which is Arizona, USA and we introduced the landmarks of Arizona such as Grand Canyon National Park and Meteor Crater. Furthermore, we introduced the Tucson Museum of Art and some outdoor activities which could be done in Arizona. I have dealt with the outdoor activities part as it was something which I was quite interested in. Hopefully, I found a video named “Outdoor Adventure Guide to Arizona | Ask A Local” from the channel “Visit the USA”. After finding this video, I created a mini listening activity for the students in the worksheet we created. I also came up with the idea for the project and prepared both of these parts in our worksheet on Canva.

AR is a nice way of integrating the technology into English language classes and making the unreachable things reachable. I would like to use it in my future English classes as an ancillary source.

Here you could find the link for the worksheet and the lesson plan:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGZ1KJ5qv8/2zPglKIU-i3YGL72fk5GLw/edit?utm_content=DAGZ1KJ5qv8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DHXtGC1E09RjI0uoAx3UGuOvatyMGxjb9dwwpr8xPdQ/edit?usp=sharing 

See you soon!

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: A REFLECTION ON INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES AND MATERIAL DESIGN IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING COURSE

#ELT #Instructional Technology #Technology Integration #Assignments

It has been more than 2 months since I’ve written my first blog and I guess it is time to write a reflection on Instructional Technologies course as it came to an end. Instructional Technologies course was a unique course when it is compared to other courses in the ELT Department. Probably, it was the only course which we didn’t talk about Chomsky, and I am grateful for that (Sorry Chomsky!). During the high school I was almost like a 21^st century Luddite as I thought technology makes people dumb and technological developments will result in further dumbness (actually I still think same to some extent). However, when technology is used as an ancillary force in your knowledge quest, it is undeniably helpful.

Before taking this course, last year we took another course named Informational Technologies which we have learned some online platforms like Canva or Padlet, but we didn’t have the opportunity to use these apps. However, thanks to the Instructional Technologies design course, I have been able to understand how I can integrate technology to ELT. Spending some time on understanding the apps and watching my creative energy burst out were important highlights of this course to me.

During this course, I learned how to create an infographic, podcast, public service announcement, write a collaborative film review and make an AI-integrated interview. From every assignment, I learned new things and gaining technological literacy gave me confidence. I can sincerely say that I enjoyed every task. It was a perfect course and I thank my teacher, Asst. Prof. Mustafa Polat, for being so understanding and caring to all of the students throughout the semester.

And final words… Until this time, no one commented to my blog, so I feel a bit heartbroken about it. But I know there are 110 views of this blog so that means there are other people visiting this blog except me (if 100 views are not viewed by me). If you’d like me to discover any other app for educational purposes, I ‘d gladly do in the future. Until that time, goodbye!