Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment and education has just adopted virtual reality for teaching and learning situations. It is able to present complex data in an accessible way to students which is bot fun and easy to learn. Plus these students can interact with the objects in that environment in order to discover more about them. For example when teaching new words to students showing that word's visual is much more rememberable than just saying and repeating it. But showing an Elephant to a kid that is learning about animals will make that kid never forget what Elephant means because it is much more enjoyable, intriguing and fun. It creates a unique experience for the kids. That's because children today are familiar with all forms of technology and use these at school as well as at home. They have grown up with technology from a very early age and unlike adults, do not have any fear or hesitation in using it. Plus we live in a technological society. So it makes sense to implement virtual reality as one of several forms of technology in order to educate tomorrow‘s technological elite. Education has moved on from books, pencils and pens to the use of interactive technologies to help impart knowledge and understanding. 
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The Ancient, Hot Potatoes

Hot Potatoes is a tool that developed in 1998 for creating quizzes. It includes different kinds of tests like

  • Multiple choice and Short answer questions (JQuiz)
  • Matching exercises (JMatch)
  • Ordering exercises (JCross)
  • Gap filling exercises (JCloze)
Teachers can create quizzes using these tools but I must say that this application is a little bit outdated and there are a lot of better applications like Kahoot for example that does these kinds of test with better software and engine. But learning and experiencing is never wrong and I suggest creating a quiz and get experience about it.

I created a single multiple choice question.
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Infographic and Pinterest

An infographic is a representation of information in a graphic format designed to make the data easily understandable at a glance. People use infographics to quickly communicate a message, to simplify the presentation of large amounts of data, to see data patterns and relationships, and to monitor changes in variables over time. 

 A well-designed infographic can help you simplify a complicated subject or turn an otherwise boring subject into a fun experience. Adding interactive content like infographics to your classroom can be one of the most fun and intriguing activities you can do in your classroom.

 And what is Pinterest? Pinterest is basically a bookmarking tool. People pin or save images they found on the internet to different boards that they created. For example, cooking recipes are very popular. They can browse through images of delicious food and when they click on it they can see the recipe for that food. They can also save it to their own recipe board via pinning. If you are planning to run your class through infographics I think Pinterest is a very useful tool to find those infographics. If you are looking for an infographic about days, you can easily find it there. You can even create a classroom in Pinterest to share your pins with your students.

My Infographic about Public Transportations in Istanbul.
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My Vidcast

In this Vidcast I talked about Individualistic and Collectivistic Cultures and how they effect the language development of a child.

Direk link to Youtube.
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Moodle

Moodle is an online learning platform and it is based on social constructivist pedagogy. It is a free platform and it is fairly easy to use. Because with the help of Moodle information is easy to share as well as accessing the learning materials. I also like the fact that Moodle supports the social interaction between students, they should do their given tasks or projects by cooperating and collaborating with instructors or students. You can edit your lectures anywhere at any given time and your students can reach that lecture immediately. The platform also makes it possible for teachers to communicate with their students. Lastly moodle offers several assessment strategies including multiple choice, true-false, matching and open-ended questions. The teacher can see their students' scores and performances so this way teachers can follow up their students'
improvements.   

   
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Pixton

Pixton is a cartoon creation tool that lets people create comics about anything. It is very easy to use and that's why you can let your students create their own comics. And also it does have a Pixton for school site. It lets you create a classroom with your students and share the comics you crated. However, it is not free of use. I think pixton is not exactly a study telling application, you can use it between slides to keep the attention of the students, or just to have a laugh in the classroom or more differently you can use it to give out a simple message through that comics. I would use this application but just as a bridge between my subjects.

I created a comic called "Dinosaurs"
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Padlet

Padlet is a website that allows us to create a blog that you can use to display information on any topic. You can add images, videos and you can return later to edit it. It is great for visualizing the content so the students won't get distracted and their attention would always be on the board with you. You can also let your students do some Padlet's before coming to class to test their creativity because this application allows you to create different kind of blogs for different kind of topics. I can it being used in a classroom instead of a powerpoint slideshow because it is attractive and keeps the focus of the students.  I created a Padlet about the Advantages & Disadvantages of the Internet in Education
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Powtoon

Powtoon is an animation website that can allow us to create animated slideshows for our students with pre-created objects, images and videos. It is web based so there is no need for any installation. It is easy to use and the end product is always exciting. I think integrating this website to any classroom is possible and the use of technology within the classroom is more likely to increase by the students because when they see their teacher using these kind of websites is always encoureging as I did a simple subject as "Types of Communication" and it is far more better and exciting than a simple powerpoint slideshow. It would keep students attention and their morales high.

My Powtoon about Types of Communication
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Socrative

In this application, teachers can create quizzes quickly and efficiently. On top of that with the help of this application teachers can observe their student's learning process. And the ability to copy another teacher's quizzes can really help out a community, for example in a little town where there are 3 schools and 6 English teachers, with the help of this application teachers don't need to be alone and get the help of their colleagues and their colleagues can get help from you too. From students perspective, I think this application can improve their weaknesses if they are willing to study and learn on this app.

I created a little quiz to show what this application looks like.

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Storybird

Storybird is a storytelling tool that allows everyone to create stories. Teachers can use this website to improve their students reading and writing skills. Also, students can create their own stories to improve their creativity. I think using this website in a classroom would make that class effective, fun and interactive. I recommend everyone to give it a try and see what it's all about. It can really change the motivation of the classroom and you can give little life lessons to kids through this tool like the stories that our parents told us but with technology.

I tried to write a story about a girl named "Layla". It's a short picture book about which animals we can feed in our home.
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Voki

Voki is an educational tool that allows people to create their own talking avatar. You can customize your characters to look like historical figures and such, and I like this part of this site. You can easily make the class more fun and enjoyable. Let's say you are talking about Greek Mythology so you can make Hades talk exactly how you want.
While this looks fun and interactive I imagine it can only be fun for 6 to 12-year-olds. The characters and the way they talk will be goofy for above that age so choosing your student level for this site is really important. It is overall a very good site that encourages students to learn while having fun.
I made an avatar that talks about prose's for example. You can easily change the subject and it will still be entertaining for kids.


https://www.voki.com/site/pickup?scid=15238034&chsm=17a509e6d15dfbe1087273230c6f606e
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