Joe Dale – Modern Foreign Languages Guru, Technology & Language Learning Expert.
Joe Dale is an independent languages consultant from the UK with 13 years of teaching experience who works with a range of organisations such as Network for Languages, ALL, The British Council, the BBC, Skype, Microsoft and The Guardian.
What you will learn
In this workshop, Joe Dale will explore how different Google tools can promote collaboration, independent learning, creativity and intercultural understanding.
Attendees will have the opportunity to see how My Maps, Google Earth Projects have the power to take students on a virtual journey visiting places around the world and practising their language skills:
Workshop outline:
Google Arts and Culture for promoting culture
Google Earth Voyager to learn about places connected through a historical story
Google Maps to practise directions and explore inside historical buildings
Google My Maps to practise writing and speaking around points on a map
Google Earth Projects for virtual field trips with embedded images
Virtual field trip websites
Workshop Summary
Introduction: Harnessing Virtual Reality in Language Education
Join us in the Gallery Teachers Masterclass where Joe Dale explores the intersection of virtual reality and English language teaching. With over a decade of teaching experience and a significant social media presence, Joe delves into the innovative use of Google Tools and other VR platforms, emphasising their transformative role in language learning.
Google Arts and Culture: A Virtual Portal to Linguistic and Cultural Exploration
Google Arts and Culture emerges as a powerful tool in language education, offering a virtual gateway to global cultures. Its accessibility across various platforms enables learners to virtually explore art collections from around the world. Utilising features such as detailed views of famous artworks and augmented reality, educators can create engaging and interactive language learning experiences, enriching students’ cultural and linguistic understanding.
Discovering the World through Google Earth Voyager: A Language Journey
Google Earth Voyager transcends traditional location discovery, offering structured, informative tours. Joe Dale illustrates its potential in language education, highlighting how these virtual journeys can enhance traditional teaching methods. The application’s versatility shines in its ability to provide immersive experiences, from exploring remote corners of the globe to multilingual educational tours, like ‘Beatlemania,’ that can be integrated into English language lessons.
Interactive Storytelling with Google My Maps
While Google Maps is widely known, its ‘My Maps’ feature opens doors to creative language teaching opportunities. Educators and students can craft personalised maps, add descriptive narratives, and enrich them with multimedia elements. Joe showcases how this tool can be utilised in English language learning, encouraging students to describe various global destinations, thereby fostering language skills and international collaboration.
Advancing Learning with VR and Collaborative Projects
Google Earth Projects and other VR tools offer a 3D immersive learning environment, ideal for deepening language comprehension. These technologies allow students to create interactive projects, including voiceovers, and explore global settings in detail. Successful collaborative projects, like the initiative connecting US and French students, demonstrate the effective integration of VR in creating a comprehensive and interactive language learning experience.
In this masterclass, Joe Dale not only demonstrates the capabilities of Google Tools in the realm of language education but also inspires educators and students to embrace virtual reality as a catalyst for expanding linguistic horizons and fostering global understanding.
Reflective Questions
Have a quick think about the reflective questions below in order to get the most out of the workshop:
- Do you feel using virtual reality in the classroom is just a gimmick or do you think it can be used to genuinely enhance language learning?
- Is using virtual reality in the classroom, solely about promoting student engagement or does it offer more to students than that?
Recommended Further Reading
- Joe Dale – YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/joedale100.
- Flipgrid: https://info.flipgrid.com/.
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