This document discusses the potential of using virtual reality in education. It describes how VR can maintain a sense of wonder in learning by acting as a gateway. Teachers are using VR to provide students experiences in various subjects like art, social studies, and game design. Students have been struck by the power of content creation in VR using tools like Unity and Unreal. There are questions around the logistics of implementing VR in schools and how it could look. The document advocates for allowing students to explore VR freely and consider its potential, while establishing ground rules for immersion and hygiene.
1. Virtual Reality in Education:
Exploring the New Frontier
Slides available at: https://goo.gl/G2rDGU
2. Lisa Castaneda
Co-Founder and CEO of foundry10
Seattle, WA
lisa@foundry10.org
www.foundry10.org
Mark Suter
Director of Rockettech.org,
Teacher: HS Computer Tech
Pandora-Gilboa HS, Pandora, OH
markasuter@gmail.com | @garlicsuter
Rockettech.org
Steven Isaacs
Teacher, Video Game Design and Development
William Annin Middle School,
Basking Ridge, NJ
stevei2071@gmail.com | @mr_isaacs
gamesandlearning1.blogspot.com
Who we are:
8. Consuming Content
Teachers in classes as varied as art, social
studies, science, technology, language arts
and game design are providing students
with powerful experiences.
foundry10.org
21. Takeaways
● Encourage Exploration
● Try it first (no rating system) before mass deployment
● Immersion Ground Rules
● Hygiene
● Creative Implementation - i.e. Humanities & Tech, 1 to
many
● Embrace the “wow”
22. Lisa Castaneda
Co-Founder and CEO of foundry10
Seattle, WA
lisa@foundry10.org
www.foundry10.org
Mark Suter
Director of Rockettech.org,
Teacher: HS Computer Tech
Pandora-Gilboa HS, Pandora, OH
markasuter@gmail.com | @garlicsuter
Rockettech.org
Steven Isaacs
Teacher, Video Game Design and Development
William Annin Middle School,
Basking Ridge, NJ
stevei2071@gmail.com | @mr_isaacs
gamesandlearning1.blogspot.com
Who we are:
Idea: As educators, when we start to think about implementing something into the educational environment, it is easy to get caught up in the logistics, the curriculum, how to assess learning, etc. Today, we wanted to open this talk with the idea of wonder because at its core, VR allows students to access ideas and information in a fundamentally new way and that way elicits a strong sense of wonder. It can be hard to imagine if you’ve never tried VR and you’ve only seen a bunch of goofy people wearing headsets, but it is truly a transformative experience for people who get to try it. We believe so strongly as a group about the power of wonder and creativity in learning that we wanted to start our discussion today by visiting this topic first. It can be difficult to maintain a sense of wonder in learning and I’d like to open the discussion by asking us each to share a brief example of a “wonder infused learning moment.”
Tilt Brush example of when people get the hang of creating; 3D student artist from Toronto that described as sculpting without clay; other options...young child interacting with Henry the Hedgehog; people’s experience with The Blu and seeing the whale for the first time.
For many educators when they think about VR content, they are thinking about ways to consume VR content with their classes. Though there is not a ton of VR content out there right now, it is continually growing. (Maybe we want to show a link on our new site to the content spreadsheet we are working on so teachers can see). Teachers in classes as varied as art, social studies, science, technology, language arts and game design are exploring consumable content.
TJ’s use of KTSNE is terrific; also could use Toronto example of Alien Autopsy to connect to a science fiction unit in English.
Ages, kids all over the floor, Watching Tiltbrushes
One of the most surprising outcomes of our work were the broad ways that student explored VR. We assumed that yes, of course, they will all try consuming content, however, we were really excited when we realized how many of them were struck by the power of creation in VR. Whether it was just creating their own art pieces in Tilt Brush or flat out building games/simulations in Unity or Unreal, kids from middle school through high school were eager to design (and in some cases, film) experiences for VR.
-Lisa: MidPac and their use of 360 film; TJ and his students that created content for the librarian based on a piece of literature for a VR scavenger hunt; Stuart and his advanced game design students who felt that they could better manipulate the idea of motion in VR.
Before we go to questions, we wanted to wrap up by refocusing on the potential of VR. I attended a developer event recently where Palmer Luckey, the inventor of the Oculus was speaking. He talked about how if we limit the way in which we think about VR to what we currently understand now, we would miss some of the fantastic potential of VR. Teacher after teacher told us that their students thought of things, came up with ideas and were able to conceptualize of the VR experience in more broad ways than they, as adults could. Even if you put an adult in the headset, they will often look, left/right/up/down, cause that is what we know. Kids, kids will be on the floor, twisting around, taking it all in. As educators working with VR and children, it is important that we allow them to really consider potentially what is possible.
-Lisa: Could go the history route and kids’ ideas of how they could better understand historical moments; foreign language instruction ideas; therapeutic moments in VR; ways to connect via shared experience...not isolating.
Abby S. Experience, Naturally associated skills required/learned.