View Content #26055

From https://fltmag.com/vital-izing-call-teacher-education/

Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni and Joy Egbert write, "One tool that can be integrated into CALL teacher education, regardless of the approach, is a virtual immersive environment (VIE). A VIE is a simulated setting that can enhance the user’s immersion in a context, which can create a 'psychological state characterized by perceiving oneself to be enveloped by, included in, and interacting with an environment that provides a continuous stream of stimuli and experiences' (Witmer and Singer 1998, 227). This environment can potentially support:

• Engagement: Users may spend more time on task, have a deeper focus, and exhibit more desire to continue using VIEs.
• Situated learning: Users can learn by actively participating in the learning experience. Examples include virtual field trips, laboratories, and kinesthetic activities.
• Authenticity: VIEs can support the use of authentic materials—those from which users can learn and which they believe are important to their learning.
• Control: A constant interplay of perspectives from egocentric to exocentric in a VIE can give users a sense of control over their environment.
• Transfer: By being immersed in a “real world,” rather than an explicitly instructional context, users can more effectively use the knowledge gained in other real-life situations.
• Social interaction: VIEs can support social interaction through different a/synchronous communication tools, allowing users to negotiate meaning, produce comprehensible input, and receive corrective feedback."

Read Shahrokni and Egbert's description of their learning lab and two lesson plans using it at https://fltmag.com/vital-izing-call-teacher-education/