VR EOTC

There is much fascination, excitement, an insatiable curiosity for Virtual Reality in various forms abounds on social media and at conferences. The Google Cultural Institute , Google Cardboard, 360° photos and Streetview all offer huge opportunities for learners for consuming and creating.

The opportunities that being able to see the world in 3D offers for education are undeniably huge. We can send our students on virtual field trips – indeed LEARNZ already “assists New Zealand teachers to provide online experiences for their students that are

interesting
relevant
real
flexible
safe
21st century”

Geography

Geography teachers can enable students to immerse themselves in the landscapes they are studying and see the impact on landforms without leaving the the four walls of their classrooms. 360 degree photos allow you to be “in the space” and you can find these as well as static photos in Street View. Students can also take their own and use them to create stories.

Mount Thomas Photosphere

History & Social Studies

History teachers can take students on virtual tours of archaeological ruins, battlefields, museums, and sites of significant historical importance. Students can view authentic resources, photos, newspaper clippings and compare them.

Put yourself in the shoes of a book character

English students can put themselves in the shoes of the characters of the books they are studying and walk down the streets of the novel’s setting on Google Maps - view images of places then and now so they can feel the space and the place and understand it all the better. They can even take their own photos and upload their own “stories” about a place they know.

Art, design & technology

Art students can visit galleries, see artworks so close that they can explore the brushstrokes and details of the colour they couldn’t possibly see even in real life.

And textiles and design students can see the evolution of costume, design. In fact the possibilities for rich cross-curricular projects and deep learning makes my head whirl!

Photos capture imaginations

As a language learner and teacher being able to immerse myself and my students in the culture is a key element to successful language acquisition and engagement in learning. Capturing the curiosity and fascination of a country, its people and its culture is what engages us to want to learn more about the language.

My first memories of learning French in the early 1970s were at the age of 9 when our teacher showed us grainy black and white images of Paris via a manual filmstrip projector but I was hooked.

I wanted to go and actually see what those blurry buildings really looked like in colour. My desire to travel was sealed then and there. Likewise in geography, our teacher showed us slideshows of his travels – snapshots where the scenery looked so far away but a glimpse was tantalising enough to whet my appetite. These are two of my photos taken on my first visit to France as a 12 yr old. I can still remember being there, the thrill of standing on the Eiffel Tower, looking down at Paris. Those feelings will be forever with me.

In the mid 1980s as a new teacher, I remember winding similar film reels on to the bobbins of the projector and showing photos of France – by now in colour – to my students. Over the years filmstrips gave way to slides, then slides gave way to videos, videos gave way to DVDs, DVDs to Youtube films and now we have 3D and Virtual Reality.

The power of images and especially moving images to capture the imagination and excitement of learners is not in dispute. However, as someone who has also organised lots of EOTC trips both within a country and across the world, my wonderings as I explore what the Google Cultural Institute offers, and the “surround sound” experience of Google Cardboard went like this;

Are we taking the “comfort zone” out of field trip experiences? Much of the learning happens when we are outside our comfort zone, when we have to “mind the gap” and adapt to new surroundings, new experiences – are we sanitising exploration too much?

Are we taking so much of the mystery out of the world around us that our young children will not seek to travel and experience the “real thing”?

Can we really learn about culture, language, history without being able to touch, smell, hear, connect, communicate and build relationships with the people and the place?

“We can learn about the world from books, from the internet, we can “see” the world through the millions of photos , videos and TV documentaries and we can learn about cultures and people. But travel offers the chance to touch and feel and smell and taste and hear.

How do you transfer those tangible aspects of knowledge to a machine? These are the things that give understanding and compassion to knowledge. ……. A sense of belonging to the world, of having your place in the world, interacting with people, the culture and the environment.”

"The power of touching, doing, smelling, feeling, seeing, hearing - immersing ourselves in the world, cannot be underestimated."

Grainy black and white photos inspired me to learn languages and to travel but for some of my classmates it was enough just to see the pictures. I loved being able to show my students photos of France and Spain and other places I had visited – images and videos, used appropriately, are a powerful way of engendering interest and engagement which leads to deep learning.

Google Cardboard and the Google Cultural Institute are the natural next step on the continuum of media use that underpinned my language teaching. My latest “thing” is taking 360° photos, uploading them to Streetview, exploring photos that are already there and looking at them through my Google Cardboard. I love the sense of “being there” that they provide. I haven't had the chance to get my students to create their own and explore what they could do with them but I have heaps of ideas!

I know that for many VR experiences maybe the only way they can “be” in these places and I certainly wouldn’t deny anyone the chance to have them as there is so much we can learn from them.

But, like any resource, beware the way you use it in the classroom. It is a bright, shiny, exciting, tool so keep learning and the learner at the heart of how you use it and it will send students into another dimension of learning. How can we balance virtual and reality?

Hopefully, they will still have the opportunity to connect with people and touch, feel, see, smell and taste the world around them and let those experiences inform who they are and make a difference to their lives. But when they cannot, Virtual Reality EOTC offers inspiration and maybe a spark to travel and find out more.

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