SECOND LIFE ?

   HELLOO EVERYONE!!!

   I hope you are all doing good!!! I do :)) Because I had some fun today which were all about my university and -to be- job life! It was part of Virtual Reality which I have already told you about:

SECOND LIFE!!! As its name reminds, secon life app can really be named second life. You can create everyhing on this platform. Class, home, entertainment, friend...everything. With all these, you know, out topin is education always :)).

   You just downland and sıgn up the app then you are a member of a second world! You can create your own avatar or can choose existing ones. This is the first step for users. Then you can travel wherever you want. I went to my school's (Istanbul University- Cerrahpasa) Erasmus Center.

   It felt me like I was really there in Erasmus Center and being informed about Erasmus process for students of my university. They added everywhere informations about how things will go. I could move however I want and looked everywhere I wished.

 SO, WHAT ABOUT EDUCATION?

You all know that technology attracts everyone and childrens are the first at point. Even a two years old children when they see a telephone they lung at it. WHY? Because there see a "secon world" there which may remind real life but in a totally different way. Imagine that you and your students sitting here and from the front of your computers in your home, you all can be in the same place and watching the same video on youtube etc. or doing the same activities togetger. They all can create their own avatars and be there. Not a class, but ad different world.

    In this platform, you can create you own activities. You can add photos on walls, videos, QR codes, recordings and many more. You do not have to be always monitoring your students. You can add instructions on games, photos etc. and let them discover by themselves. As an actvity, let them create a story using these charaters and adding their voice. They can easily be in communication via chats or voice. To sum, this app does much. It is not a platform where you can add some slides, photos etc. You make your students actively learn...

SEE YOU SOON!

VOKI - FLIPGRID

   Helloo everyone!!!
   I am here again! Today I will introduce two similar apps for you. They are: FLIPGRID and VOKI !
   Firstly, as you can remember, I have already mentioned the app Voki before. Here I want to add this app by linking it with Flipgrid. I used Voki as Videcast. Actually any kind of video can be regarded as Vidcast. So First: here is the link for my Vidcast for which I chose a boy to speak :)
My VOKI video is here: CLICK HERE
 

Secondly, FLIPGRID... This app is kind of recording a video and lecturing on it. While recording video the app allows you to add text both on a blach/white board or on your video itself. Plus, it provides users various emojis to use during the video. You can draw anything you want by the pencil/chalck:) it provides you... In my video I used a voice-changer app which is VOICETOONER... Then, I recorded this video for flipgrid...

Here is a very basic example of flipgrid...:

                                See you soon!!
 

THINGLINK

   Hello everybody!!!
   I hope you are far from Covid-19 and at your peaceful home! Todaay I will introduce an app for you to use in your classes, presentations or any kind of videos/photos! It is Thinglink!
   Thinglink is a platform in which you can create you speaking photos!!! Plus, videos which are introducing you topic with some helps!!!

    When you first sign up the app/website it asks you which profile do you want to use: a teacher , a student, an advertiser etc. ? I, surely, chose the teacher profile. You can create not only interactive photos here, but also you can add you 360° photos in which your students can explore their environments and interactive videos in which you can add photos, explanations, suggested readings etc.
   I chose adding a picture rather than a video because of my inappropriate environment. If thought that if I teach English to my students it is best to introduce them one of the most important cities where English is the main language and accurately spoken.

    First you should choose a photo. Then you can add as many button as you want which helps you to introduce your topic better. You can add your own voice, a websites' link, information etc. These are all attractions for students and catch their attention in contrast to the coursebooks which only includes pictures and readings...

  One of the best points I saw about this app/website is the fact that students can work as groups and create their own interactive videos/pictures via the class codes/ invite codes you will provide for them. Imagine that your topic is body parts. You can assign your students that they find a body picture and each will pronunciate one of the parts... That's differintating learning ways... Also, a way to get your shy, introverted students...Then, they can listen the correct pronunciations from the button you add to their picture. Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading. All four are together!!! What an app!!!

Here is my output of Thinglink, as a simple example...: https://www.thinglink.com/merve.damar

AR (Augmented Reality)

   Heellooo!!!
   I hope you all feel happy!!!
Today our topic is Augmented Reality which is similar to VR I mentioned on my previous post!
Firstly we should make a distinction between rwo types of Augmented Reality which are Marker-based and Markerless. In Markerbased type, we need some existing pictures; flashcards etc. to use. We just show it to the camera of our phones and we see the augmented version of these photos :). In Markerless type, we do not need any existing pictures etc. We just show our setting to the camera and see our augmented figures in the camera!!!
   To give an example for the Marker-based augmented reality, we can give maps as an example.

    What you need to do here is just encoding your intended video/photo and scanning picture you have encoded with your camera then your augmented reality is ready for you! You as a teacher can not bring an English Museum on your class, but you can bring its augmented version in your smartboard. You can teach the flags of all countries as if they are holding them in their hands. You can just show a picture and pass the topic. However, if you are to be an effective, idealist teacher, you realize what you teach, you teach your students in an environment which is natural as much as possible. An example for markerless type of AR is surely POKEMON! :) I adapted this idea to my elephant friend :) here is my example via UniteAr app:

   To do this, I just scanned my setting (room) and then the figure chose appeared there, at my home :) I named him as Mino :). You see, in my real world, there is an augmented elephant :) On my fingers!!!

    I can really imagine how much my students will get excited when they learn animals in that way holding them on their fingers!! Surely, both types of AR is excellent which present us unnatural worlds but feels like real.
                                                     

       Imagine your students who are shy of speaking in your classes. Is not this an excellent way to attract your students' attraction?? Why our students do not practice speaking  as if they were this elephant and introducing it? :))))

Some apps that can be helpful for you aRe UnitAr, ARize, DevAR, Sketchfab, HP Reveal...

                              See you soon!!!

VR (Virtual Reality)

Helloo everyone!!!
I hope you are all fine! Today I am excited to be sharing a knowledge with you which makes me feel as if I were in another world!!! I do not know, is this🤔?? YES, it is! Here is VIRTUAL REALITY for everyone who wants to learn while living what s/he learns! You know, in education motivation plays a key role and VR reality is the key point within this key role players!!!

   Virtual Reality is the most realistic environment that users can access with any kind of technological devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets etc. My favourite piece among these tools are Cardboards and Virtual Environment Glasses :))) Here are some examples:

"Cardboards" can be easily made by everyone with only little amount of money. However, the benefits it gives are surely worth much more!
Photo from: -Cardboard-Mobile-Phone-Glasses-

   Imagine you make these cardboards in your classes and your students see everything as if real, from a device. To illustrate, let you be teaching animals to your little ones! You just download a dog picture and you put this cardboard on their ears and place their tablets or your phone in cardboard then they see a real dog!!! Which information can be more permanent than natural one??? None...

Photo from: vr-3d-virtual-reality-glasses

 3D Virtual Reality Glasses are surely more developed and technological than Cardoards. These glasses have been used for educational purposes but it is not the only aim of them. I want to share my own experience with you!!! It was 2-3 years ago that I put this device on my hand in just for the aim of entertainment! Having been downloaded with softwares, the device were full of virtual envrionment. I chose one for myself in which I went to amusement park! Oh, I did not go, I just wear glasses :)))).  I should say that it was really very realistic! I found myself falling... I, myself, had that much fun and I really motivated, so think about students!!! How enthusiastic they would be to engage in classes and live in this world while learning a language!

   There are numerous researches on how VR motivates students to engage in class. I am adding one of these studies' link kere.  I strongly recommend you to go and read about it!!! You will see when you apply this to your students, their mouths will open like this :)) !!!

   Motivation, Motivation,Motivation! In this way, Virtual reality is our right hand! You may not bring England or English People in your class but you can bring them in your students eyes!!! :))

  

                          ♡See you soon♡

SAMR AND TPACK MODELS: Integrating Technology with Knowledge!

HELLO EVERYBODY!!!

Till this day, I have always introduced some apps, websites, in other words, I introduced some of the platforms that technology presents and gift us. Today, as a difference, I want to mention how to use these apps and sites in classrooms, how to integrate knowledge with technology and students! Here are two models: TPACK and SAMR models. 

 TPACK MODEL

( Created by Mishra and Koehler)

TPACK model consists of TK which is technological knowledge, CK which is, for language teaching, the grammar or the input that are used in classes and PK which is the knowledge of pedagogy. The creators of this model, Mishra and Koehler says that “In an era of highly valued technological knowledge, it is important that teachers develop an integrated knowledge of teaching, content, and technology,” Their study holds the idea that only an introduction to the technology at schools is not enough for using it effectively. It can be said that if the teachers not only know but also use these three kinds of knowledge all together, then the differentiation of the learning and teaching ways can be achieved which results in an effective teaching and learning. When it comes to the effects of the use of TK,CK and PK together to the language learning process, there are various ways in which these combination benefits. To give an example from the real world, in one of the studies this model was implemented in a class by an English teacher. Some of the main objectives of the teacher were minimizing errors in pronunciation and to address the concerns of shy students in the field of speaking. Firstly, a teacher should know what to teach, then pedagogical needs of her/his students (if the way s/he teaching is proper for students or not), and then how to differentiate the input. Here the teacher knows the pedagogical needs of the students and the content of the lesson is prepared. To differentiate the way s/he teach, the teacher uses technology. This stage/part is totally up to teacher's ability to creatively use the technology.

Suggested Video for TPACK Model:
Tpack Model Video

SAMR MODEL 

(Developed by Dr. Roben Puentedura )

   This model is all about how to present input to the students in a different and creative way. It has some stages which are: Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition. First stage, substutiton is about what tools to be used in class, which enchance and facilitate easier learning process. One example may be use of e-books for poems. The second step, augmentation suggest ways to use technology the learning process. So, students can use different ways, but teacher can access all the class.

The other step of SAMR model is Modification which is the changing of the ways of teaching. To give an example, with the help of apps such as quizlet or padlet, students can come the classes already practiced and studied the class and be prepared for the forthcoming lessons. So, they will have more time to practice and produce language or any kind of activities in class. During this stage visualizing tools and expoloration of areas plays a key role, thus students will be actively engaged in the class. Lastly; in redefinition step, teacher finds new ways to do his/her job with the help of and in line with these developments in his/her class.

Suggested Video for SAMR Model:
SAMR Model Video

SAMR model photos from:
https://sevvalsblog/2016/05/08/samr-model/

    See you soon researchers of knowledge! 💜

Memrise, Duolingo, Mondly, Busuu

HELLO EVERYONE!!!
I feel so energetic these days, so I want to discover and share as many apps, websites as possible with you!!! Actually, what I will mentipn today is not very weird to us or far from our knowledge of technology. In other words, nearly everyone who is engaged in learning a second or any extra language knows about these apps. They are; MEMRISE, DUALINGO, MONDLY and BUSUU !

MEMRISE
As can be understood from the name of Memrise (memory), the app helps learner’s memory to save information for more time and to comprehense the content more easily. Memrise is an app that has educational aims in the field of language. However, at the same time it helps to the learners of geography, law and mathematics to get, memorize and practice the terms. Memrise courses are created by its users which is really simple ans fun for users. Regarding these oppoturtunities that memrise gives its users, it is not much diffucult for language teachers to teach how to use these opportunities and just enjoying the activities rather than the ones that may be boring at school environments, such as sitting and memorizing vocabulary or just completing sentences on papers. Apart from the students and teachers, the app is surely open to use of all language learners beginning from the very beginning levels. When you first sign in the app it asks you whichever language you want to learn and at which level you are in that language.

  What I really liked about this app is the fact that you can set alarms to remember your practice time.     

         At first, the app gives you the forms in your target language and you just listen and pass it. Then it gives you some choices among which you should find the correct form. In order to learn them with tye pictures or videos which facilitate your learning process, you can add your own mems from your gallery. You should try it, its my favourite one!

 DUALINGO
Dualingo is a language learning platform which is not only based on English language learning but it includes other languages such as Spanish, French, Italian and 20 more languages. The app provides users with language exercises, drills on grammar and verious flash cards that helps students or other language learners study or learn a language individually. Further, Dualingo has some platforms that allows users to connect other language learners or teachers. So, in and out of the class, this app does not feel the users alone in the way of learning a new language. Once you sign in the app, it asks you the reason why you learn the language you have chosen. Then you choose the time limit when you want to use this app but you can change this limit afterwards. It works through choosing appropriate name for a picture or the correct picture for a word. Additionally there are some questions such as fill in the blank and it gives you randomly words and wants you to build a sentence out of these words either by pronunciations or meanings. Actually, it is fun!

BUSUU
Busuu is another app for language learning. It offers courses on languages and what I liked most about it is the fact that it gives you the oppotunity to access native speakers of you target language. Imagine that you are teaching English and you can bring a British and American speaker in your class and imagine how would your students' motivation levels increase. In this app you can choose your target level in your target language and again you can set alarms to remember the time to practice! You listen the pronunication of the words and then find the correct forms in questions such as fill in the blank.

              MONDLY
Is there any other way more effective than listening to someone and speaking to her/him in language learning process? This app gives the best opportunity to its users: "Virtual Reality" This app realize this in 33 languages! In the beginning, it works similar to other apps and it asks which picture is pronunciated. Then you are asked to translate the basic sentences you heard in the previous stage. There are many category that you can choose to work especially on them such as entertainment, school travel and more. One thing that really made me motivated was speaking via Chatbot. In this platform you are given some sentences to give answer a question or ask question. I really appreciate that I felt excellent when I saw that I could speak with basic sentences in Spanish :).. You should try it, I am sure you will have fun and learn your target language at least at basic level! Then, think about students, how exciting this experience would be for them!!!


                   See you soon, take care ❤

EdPuzzle, Mindmeister, Nearpod

   Hello everybody!!!
   I hope you are all doing good and healthy!
   Today I ve discovered some apps which can certainly be made use of by every teacher!!! They are EdPuzzle, Nearpod and Mindmeister. To create a better, interactive environment, these three are only some of the platforms that technology gift us...

EDPUZZLE
   EdPuzzle is a platform where teachers can access informative videos from tens of sites such as Youtube, Tedx, National Geographic etc. As a teacher, you can create your own video there, or you can use already existing videos. You can record your voice to make clarifications or explanations or commends about video content for your students. To emhasize some points, you can cut the video. In the end, you can add some questions for your students aboutthe video and you can monitor their answers and the percentage of their correct answers. I think this wouls be an effective activity for students listening abilities and their motivation for the class.

    NEARPOD
   Nearpod is actually similar to EdPuzzle with some differences. In this app, again you as a teacher have a large access to the videos but these videos are some other teachers' lessons. I mean online -recorded- lessons. Apart from these teacher can create his/her own video record. Teachers can add their documents (such as pdf, slides or whatever activity or material to be used) to this platform and share them with their students. To assess their students, they can create quizes, polls, open-ended questions, fill in the blank etc. Apart from these what I admired about this app is the opportunity it gives for "Virtual reality". Especially for language classes, the opportunity of seeing one culture's concrete values as if they were there would effect their motivation surely positively.

MINDMEISTER
   Do you have difficulty in linking things? Are your topics too complex for you students to grasp? Here is what you need. Surely, mind-maps are the best way to make subject much more concrete, basic, simple to learn. Because they give students an opporutunity of overallview, to grasp or to make links will surely be not as difficult as they are listed in paper. In this platform, you can create linked maps to show the relationships between themes, notions, words, terms etc. I created an example  of this kind of mindmap via Mindmeister about tenses in English language.

An example from another app which is very similar to Mindmeister: Mindmup



See you soon❤

MY PIXTON.COM EXPERIENCE

   Helloo Everyone!
   I am here today to share a website with you which I found really attractive and useful. It is PIXTON.COM
   This site is based on creating comics. Actually  this was my firt experience. Lets know about this website thorugh the examples. 

    Firstly, when you sign in, it asks you whether you will use an education account or student. I, as always, chose the teacher account. They you create your class and you can add your students by their google accounts or pixton accounts.  

   Then, you can create your own avatar. Here I want to add the point that, the dedigners of this websited really thought everything about avatars from their clothes to the eye colors or lenghts.

   Here is the most entertaining part: Creatings content. Firstly, there are hunderds of settings that you can choose to create your comics in. Secondly, the characters. You can add characters as many as you want. Then you can place them wherever you want. To create conversation, you can use both voice and text. What I most liked about this part is the availability of mimics. I think the most difficult point for a picture is to live or pass the emotions, feelings. At this point, you can make you character to be in every feeling from sadness to be shocked. Another part which is difficult for a picture is to give the behaviours, mobiliy. However, you can choose each of these details in this website.
   I tried to create a short conversation between a student and a teacher. Here is my comic's link... CLICK HERE TO SEE MY PIXTON EXPERIENCE

MY QUIZLET EXPERIENCE

   Helloo Everbodyy!!!
   I am here again for you with an excellent app which is: QUIZLET. 
-Are you a teacher who wants to make her/his students practice their input and at the same time checking temThis app is for you!
-Are you trying to learn a language but getting difficulty in memorizing, grasping words ? This app is for you!
-Are you busy with some documents any gettings difficulty to remember the terms? This app is for you!
-Are you a student who want to practice whatever is needed? This app is for you!
This app is for everyone who wants to practice any kind of knowledge and check this knowledge in the end!!! First sign up the app! Then follow these stages: 

 
    When you sign in, the app does not automatically present a class for you. You should click on create a class button. Then you can name your class. I just named as Vocabulary class because I created a set on words.

   
   My first set is about Fruits. When setting the words/terms, the app provides you with 2 parts for all the words.(you can create as much as you want) First part is the intended word or term and the second one is the concept that corresponds this word, I mean, what you want to learn, memorize. You can just swipe up the "apple" card to see the meaning.

   Then you add you students and the pronunciation of the words and meanings are automatically appears. Thus, students (or you, if the learner is you) can practice the words' pronunciations.

   After enough practice, there is an opportunity to quiz your or your students' knowledge with the true-false, multiple-choice and open-ended questions.

   In the end the app provides you the correct answers or appreciation!


This is my class guys you can just question yourselves :) :CLICK HERE TO SEE MY VOCABULARY CLASS

My Storybird Experience

Hello guys!!! Here is my Storybird experience which I told you about in my previous post!!! I recommend you to get this experience for you as well :) It was fun...

Storybird

-STORYBIRD-

HELLO EVERYONE!! i miss this platform much!! I have been so busy these day that I can not describe it... But finally, I am able to create time for my blog!!! As usual, I have discovered a great app which will help us or everyone whoever wants to engage in technology and eduction!!! Today's app is STORYBIRD!
Yes, as understood from its name, it is based on stories :)) As a teacher candidate, I want to look this app from a teacher's perspective as always. However, this app is never going around teachers, it is all about and around students!! Lets start.. :)

   When you first sign in, the app wlcomes you with this page. It presents you most popular readings or stories of the week, month and year. Actually, at somr points it is paid. However, because I do not use it todays, I did not pay.

     In this app, you can not only prepare or write stories but you can also prepare any kind of papers with slogans or informative readings. Because inthe time we in Covid-19 is the post popular term, writers are seen to write on thid topic...

                                                  

    Apart from the personal or informative readings, there are some books that are published in this platform which are about how to write a story or any kind of "how to" phrases. In other words, little courses.

     In your personal part, app gives some opportunities or choices you to write about or some forms for you to write in such as picture book, poem, comic etc. This point is what makes the app special. As a teacher you can make your students to create a poster or a short story no matter which level they are at. Because the app presents some levels, this will never be a problem for you to come accross. The topic scope tat can be used within this app is really large. As an example, students can prepare a short story to practice past tense an then teachers can give feedback to them. If students' levels are more advanced, the app allows them to write or add pictures as they want. 

   Please think about how fun would a class becomes with these tools! Here there is an example which I really liked! A poem about math which I really want to share with you: