Virtual Reality in Education
The use of VR (Virtual Reality) has gained more attention from educational researchers and practitioners, but evidence-based demonstrations of how teachers can use this emerging tool effectively in K-12 classroom settings is rare (Patterson & Insook, 2019). This case study of an elementary teacher, Mr. Park, displays the challenges and limitations of VR within the educational setting. Imagine an elementary teacher planning a series of lessons on the founding of the United States as part of their social studies curriculum. Connecting young children to the past is a challenging task; students will complain that the clothing and customs of several centuries ago feel distant to the point of irrelevancy. What can our teacher do to spark the students’ interest and develop historical empathy in their students? Our elementary teacher knows there are a variety of museums and cultural institutes that focus on this particular topic. Museums have long been recognized as sites of productive K-12 learning, as the sights, sounds, images, and artifacts found in museums allow students to experience the past (Patterson & Insook, 2019). This type of learning is not attainable facing the current pandemic of 2020. Teachers are forced to navigate outside the once structured environment but maintaining student engagement.
Can Virtual Reality Be An Educational Tool?
Virtual reality (VR) is an increasingly accessible option for teachers who want their students to experience the content of places distant from their schools without leaving their classrooms. Just as taking a group of students on a field trip is a daunting task, many teachers are intimidated by VR, especially when it is a novel tool for them as teachers specifically and consumers of technology more generally. Designing from scratch or enhancing one’s lessons with any form of technology is a complex process, requiring a great deal of thought about content, context, students, and technology. Unfortunately, teachers are unlikely to find meaningful professional development to support their planned-for use of emerging technologies (Patterson & Insook, 2019). Mr. Park was observed on how a teacher would utilize this technology in his classroom. Mr. Park was not given a set curriculum for this lesson but was given full freedom to design his own curriculum for the use of Virtual Reality. The step-by-step process by which VR can be integrated into a curriculum and the process by which teacher-as-designer lead to professional development for this teacher (Patterson & Insook, 2019).
What is Teaching with VR?
VR can provide a great educational experience for the learner and teacher. Mr. Park developed a deeper understanding of VR’s pedagogical potentials. Unguided or minimal guidance rarely results in positive educational outcomes, as students require careful scaffolds in order to understand what they are viewing in virtual spaces and explore VR modules without getting lost. Google opened its first virtual field trips to the public in 2017 as a form of stand-alone application downloadable on mobile devices titled Google Expeditions. The application includes over 500 three-dimensional field trips that can be viewed on mobile phones attached to VR headsets as well as lesson plans that go with those field trip modules. Google Expeditions has two modes of exploration: ‘Discover’ where students can freely explore the module on their own and ‘Guide/Join’ where a teacher becomes a guide and walks through the virtual space with the students. In this ‘Guide/ Join’ mode, a teacher selects the scene. Simultaneously students see an arrow pointing to the selected scene within the VR module so that they can follow the teacher’s lead. Mr. Park applied guided discovery learning to maximize the purpose of VR experiences (Patterson & Insook, 2019). Mr. Park had to reorganize his to accommodate for the movements during the lesson with VR. He included a designated area for students to rest.
First Lesson Growth
Mr. Park decided he would more regularly incorporate VR into his classroom activities. His reflective process began almost immediately: while he taught this lesson Mr. Park continuously made note of the problems that emerged, such as a spotty Wi-Fi connection and battery shortages, and addressed them in planning his second lesson (Patterson & Insook, 2019). He decided to downsize the number of students from 14 to seven. This adjustment would provide more space for the students and more devices to be used if any malfunction.
Second Lesson Growth
Mr. Park’s second lesson provided ways in which the iterative process of designing a VR-infused lesson, teaching that lesson, reflecting on it, and developing a new lesson led to more sophisticated uses of an emerging technology. From a practical standpoint, Mr. Park was able to use the setbacks of the first lesson (primarily time and space constraints) to develop a second lesson that allowed his students to more effectively utilize VR. From a pedagogical standpoint, the question-and-answer strategy assisted the students in reflecting on their own learning and making deeper meanings out of the implications of consuming media through a television as opposed to VR (Patterson & Insook, 2019). Mr. Park did note some areas of opportunity for the devices and Instruction components of the experiences. High cost and usability concerns have been factors limiting the of VR in educational spaces. Mr. Park shared those concerns when contemplating using VR in his classroom, but found them eased throughout the process as relatively affordable and easy-to-use VR devices as well as free educational VR content were available to him. Overall, the device was very easy for the elementary students to use and no costs other than VR devices were included in the lesson (Patterson & Insook, 2019).
Conclusion
Taking on the role of teacher-as-designer was elemental in the development of Mr. Park technological pedagogical content knowledge. Mr. Park’s role as co-designer gave him a sense of ownership and encouraged the sustained implementation of VR-infused lessons (Patterson & Insook, 2019). Virtual Reality can expand any curriculum with well-trained instructors and students. The professional development component is an opportunity for Virtual reality to be embraced more across the world. The reflections in the case study provided Mr. Park with observation of the functionality with VR instruction. When supported by systematic reflection repeated uses of emerging technologies hold the potential to not only further engage students in powerful learning, but also impact the way teachers thinking of their own planning and instruction (Patterson & Insook, 2019). Teacher should collaborate in integrating Virtual reality into the current curriculum.
References
Patterson, Timothy & Han, Insook. Learning to Teach with Virtual Reality: Lessons from One Elementary Teacher. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning. Jul2019 Vol. 63 Issue 4, p463-469
Reiser, Robert A. & Dempsey, John V. (2018). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design andTechnology, 4th Edition. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780134237039/
Curiosity
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