21 | To create openly-licensed 360-degree virtual reality videos, I first recorded videos in various sites in Italy with the use of a 360-degree camera. I chose locations that represented everyday environments which students might encounter, however not critically discuss, in the classroom setting. Some examples include a plaza, a street, a coffee shop, a restaurant, a mall, etc. Permission to record the videos was granted by owners of inside spaces. After the recordings took place, the videos were transferred from the 360-degree camera to a laptop and injected with the YouTube Spatial Media Metadata Injector. This process allows YouTube to recognize videos as 360 degrees files. Following, I uploaded the videos to YouTube and licensed them under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license. With the use of WordPress I then created an online platform, named ItalianOpenEducation.com, where all the 360-degree virtual reality videos are gathered and can be freely used by Italian language learners and educators. The objective of this project was to offer new cutting-edge pedagogical resources to everyone at any time. Since most students are not able to study abroad, the use of authentic 360-degree virtual reality videos in the language classroom allows every student to explore and experience, although virtually, authentic environments of the target country. |
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