My last 2 posts were definitely the usual ed tech or techie posts that I like to do. This one is really more of a slice of teacher life. I have to include some techie stuff in this post, though,
Gee willikers
Yesterday I was working in one of our middle schools doing the Anne Frank House VR on Meta Oculus Quest 2. The students studied WWII and specifically the Holocaust. I go into our 8th-grade classes in both of our middle schools to run the VR experience while teachers and students work on other work. Students cycle through with about 5 minutes each in the experience. I really believe in the power of VR for our students (and others) to gain a sense of empathy after participating in an experience like this. Also, our students come from low-income families so only about 1/3 of them have experienced VR let alone own a $300 unit personally.
That's a little tech background for you - now to the slice.
Since many students have never experienced VR before some of them have very strong reactions once they put on the headset for the first time. An 8th-grade boy put it on yesterday and exclaimed, "Gee willikers!" I have not heard that expression used in years. The thing that also made it funny was that I had been using the term "coolio" with the students and the teacher in the room, who happens to also be a friend who is my age, was razzing me for using 90's lingo and thinking I was talking to the kids on their level. In both cases the slang was outdated. Does that matter? Did we both get our point across even though we used outdated slang? I was really surprised to hear something like that come out of a 13 y/o's mouth. I asked him, "Are you 90?" He said no, of course. I asked him where he hear that. He said he couldn't remember.
In closing I will say -- This is why I love my job - kids really do say the darndest things and every day is different!
Gee willikers slicers!
