Creating Augmented Reality Apps In Spanish Class

Words by: Ruth Valle, a French, German and Spanish Teacher, Monroe County, TN

I first read about Metaverse on Twitter in early January of this year and tried to do some of the experiences featured without much success. Yet, I found the site intriguing. So, when I attended the 21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong on January 19, 2018 I made sure to participate in a session on creating virtual reality experiences. One of the apps mentioned was Metaverse and I was determined to have my students create some experiences upon my return to school.

My classes were just beginning their second semester of Spanish, studying a chapter on airplane travel. Since it is always a good idea to set a good example for students before trying out new tools with them, I had created an experience called “El aeropuerto,” the airport. As I had just learned the basics it was fairly simple, but there was enough to help students understand how to create their own experiences. So, we got out our Chromebooks and I showed them an introductory video on YouTube. They were to create a virtual reality experience with at least five scenes. To my surprise this was a hit and the students used the entire 70 minutes of class time to create and share their experiences.

Excited to have another tool on hand we consequently built up our skills using Metaverse, such as using the request item scene, the collect item scene, the polls, the multiple choice and free response scenes. My students were able to create actual quizzes for their classmates on all of our remaining chapters with vocabulary and grammar questions. Some of them were quite elaborate sending the user to different destinations depending on their answers to questions, all in Spanish of course.

I honestly love how one can get started instantly on Metaverse and build one’s skills over time. My students never grew tired of creating the experiences and enjoyed completing their classmates’ experiences tremendously. Next school year we will step up our Metaverse skills in my new French and German classes who will undoubtedly create some awesome experiences to share.