Well, hold that thought because our very own English teacher, Mrs Refalo, has been sharing with teachers across the country on how to integrate Virtual and Augmented Reality in the English classroom. Mrs Refalo proudly represented the College at the 2018 Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) national conference in Perth last month, on the changing nature of texts and the unique and pioneering possibilities of the many worlds students can access through this technology. English teachers were treated to an immersive experience of a virtual reality film, its impact on the viewer, and the best integration of augmented reality in the classroom using a free app, HP Reveal™.
The research was enthusiastically received by the audience of English teachers and demand for Mrs Refalo’s expertise continues to grow. Other education sectors are keen to hear about the possibilities and apply them across classrooms state and Australia-wide with Mrs Refalo being asked to present to other Schools across the country on the impact of Virtual Reality in the classroom.
THAC students will certainly benefit from the English faculty’s expertise. In Term 4, Year 8 will be introduced to virtual reality and augmented reality texts, discovering how these new texts can uniquely build our empathy for others and the new language used to describe and analyse content. We are looking forward to engaging students in this cutting-edge educational opportunity.
Mrs Refalo received a scholarship from the NSW English Teachers association to present at this National Conference and will present later this Year with Dr Gawthorne at the annual NSW conference on teaching strategies for the new English HSC syllabus.
Mrs Vanessa Refalo
Secondary Teacher - English
