NC VR Adventures started with a walk and a talk between two friends. Jessica Esposito, Digital Instructional Technology Facilitator for Alexander County Schools just happens to live across the street from Stacy Lovdahl, Innovative Learning Catalyst with the NC Office of Digital Teaching and Learning and we were lamenting the demise of Google Expeditions. But being the creative problem solvers that we were (and are) we figured that there must be a solution and by the end of our walk we imagined a future where students and teachers were creating their own expeditions. What if we could teach educators how to place the power of virtual reality into the hands of their students? What if learners could create virtual reality projects that would empower their learners to experience parts of their state that they may never have the chance to see. Jessica tells a story about students who have never crossed the bridge that separates the county that she teaches in from the one she drives over each morning on her way to work. When we do workshops her story resonnates with educators across our state. So many students do not have the opportunity to see the treasures of North Carolina. North Carolina is a beautiful state full of local, state and national parks, historical sites and just plain interesting places that are surprisingly easy to connect to our standard course of study!

The next step was to figure out how to do it. Partnerships were key to making it happen. NCDPI's Office of Digital Teaching and Learning and the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching provided support for educators to attend workshops across the state. These workshops included full day, 1/2 and multi-day professional learning that is standards-aligned, interdisciplinary, literacy based, and aligned to digital teaching and learning competencies. Educators who attend an NC VR Adventure workshop create virtual reality projects that foster engagement, critical thinking and creativity, and engender something unique to this instructional strategy: empathy and a connection to the beauty and history of our state. These interdisciplinary VR experiences are aligned to the learning objectives that each educators brings to the workshop and are intended to be used immediately with students leveraging the technology educators already have in their classrooms and media centers; no special headsets are necessary. This program is designed to be focused on the instructional strategies and standards and curriculum rather than technology, VR platforms or devices so that as technolgy changes the content can still be applicable. NC VR Adventures is designed for K-12 educators, school counselors and anyone eager to take learners on adventures.

To access standards-aligned lessons associated with NC VR Adventures educators uploaded their work to North Carolina's open education resource (OER) platform GoOpen NC. Every educator in North Carolina has access to GoOpenNC to search, save and upload standards-aligned content.

To schedule professional learning or to learn more about NC VR Adventures, contact your Innovative Learning Catalyst at NCDPI, Office of Digital Teaching and Learning.

NC VR Adventure Team

Partners