Reality but Not So

Confusion is Fundamental 

"If I don't know whether what I am seeing is true or not, how can I ever be sure that I am alive?"

Welcome back, lads. How have you all been? The pace of the posts has started to concern you all, hasn't it? Some of you might even be saying that I've gone mad and am trying to compensate for the big gap of not posting anything after my first goodbye post. But don't you all worry now, for I am in control, and everything you see here is a mere reflection of self-regulation. 

ANYWAYS, LET'S GET STRAIGHT TO BUSINESS!

Now, I've got to be honest with you all, lads. This week's task was no picnic, and my friends (Suvda, Zülal, & Melisa) and I had to do a lot of discussions and reach a consensus. But what were we asked to do? Well, it was basically preparing an AR/VR-integrated digital worksheet for A2-level high school prep class students. Although I might sound a bit fed up and uneasy about this task, it was engaging to prepare such a material. Especially the fact that we were asked to use 360 virtual tour websites and 3D models made this process more enjoyable for me. Being able to see the virtual versions of the places we introduced in our work and also the food is just the ostensible part of the process; I can't even describe their immersivity!

At first, we had to decide on which country we would introduce to our students. We checked Airpano and decided on Iran; however, we later realised that the website did not fully immerse the students with the virtual environment, since it did not integrate all the aspects our students need to appreciate the concept. We also deemed that our choice of country was unsuitable and hard to portray, so we switched to Bangkok, Thailand. Following this, we found a website called 360stories.com, and it was just what we were looking for. It literally had everything we needed, like integrated information icons, city-specific landmarks and museums, and also suitable points of view of the structures.  Later, we started to prepare our factual and open questions, placed QR codes and links on our worksheet, and prepared an end-of-task project for our students to assess their learning. At the end, we write our lesson plan based on the ASSURE model, and let me be frank with you lads, 

IT IS A BURDEN! 😇

To say a few things about the challenges, I believe that the most irritating part was deciding on the type of worksheet we will prepare. Some of us suggested making it a printout, while some said it should remain digital. After discussing for a while, we decided upon keeping it digital (THANK GOD!) due to the pitfalls of printout works, like the unavailability to put links. 

Overall, I purport that utilizing AR/VR-integrated exercises and activities in English language teaching could provide incredible opportunities for teachers to introduce various cultures around the world, filling the students with the joy of learning more about the people and exploring the secrets the world holds.  

Make sure to check our lesson plan and worksheet by clicking on them! 😁

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Hello, lads! Back with another important message. We've made some adjustments to our worksheet and lesson plan. In the former, we've added 2 warm-up questions to the initial page, changed the 4th open question for Grand Palace and Wat Arun, added 3 questions on the traditional foods section, removed the food critic exercise, turned the worksheet into a printout, and mentioned that the teacher will print the worksheets before coming to the classroom in the preparing the environment part. Concordantly, in the latter one we've added the 2 warm-up questions on the objectives section, removed the link references from them, mentioned the 3 open questions in the traditional foods section, removed the food critic exercise from the objectives and language skills sections, and added a degree of accuracy for students' answers to the discussion activity.   

  

The final lesson plan and worksheet.

See you all soon!