Tag

Teacher

Metaverse Technologies Are Creating New Opportunities for Teachers to Inspire Students

Takeaways

We are announcing a new program with 15 US universities that are teaching using immersive technology.
We are also launching dedicated education shelves in the Meta Quest store.
There are signs of growing momentum for VR education tools in Europe.

Digital technologies have transformed so many areas of education in recent decades. From pocket calculators to laptops, tablets, and the video conferencing tools that helped learning shift online during the pandemic, technology plays a crucial role in how people teach and learn. Metaverse technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) promise to create new ways for teachers to inspire students. In fact, they’re already being used to do just that.

The metaverse is the next evolution of the internet. It spans a range of technologies, including VR headsets that transport you to whole new environments, AR glasses that will one day project computer-generated images onto the world around you, and mixed reality (MR) experiences that blend both physical and virtual environments. These technologies create a more immersive, 3D experience where you feel like you are right there with another person or in another place.

Technologies that create a sense of presence and shared space offer new ways for teachers to do what they do best – teach. While it is still early days for these technologies, we’re already seeing promising signs of the impact they can have. A recent report by PwC found that 40% of VR learners are more confident in applying what they’ve been taught, and 150% more engaged during classes. The XR Association (XRA) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) found that 77% of educators believe immersive technologies ignite curiosity and improve engagement in class.

In a randomized control study of the VR mathematics program Prisms, students learning in VR had test scores 11% higher than those in the control group. The study also found an increase in students’ confidence, engagement and ability to describe mathematical concepts. And Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, which has been an early adopter of VR, found that students who learned in VR had an average final test score of 85, versus 78 in person and 81 for traditional online methods. They also found an uplift in student attendance and engagement.

We want more and more teachers and students to benefit from these technologies. That’s why, as students return for the new academic year, we’re announcing a new partnership program to help college students in the US learn using VR and testing more ways to make it easier for Meta Quest users to find educational resources in the Meta Quest store.

US University Program

We are collaborating with 15 universities across the US who are actively embracing immersive learning. The universities are each conducting classroom sessions and exercises in virtual reality to examine how immersive technologies can contribute to the future of education. They include:

Stanford University, which is using the BodySwaps app to teach its Business School students soft skills, like how to have a difficult conversation or how to nail an interview.
Arizona State University, which is using VR so students can practice having conversations in a new language in different virtual environments.
New Mexico State University, which is using VR across a range of subjects, including criminal justice where students investigate virtual crime scenes.
University of Iowa, which is using VR to help business students with soft skills training.
Purdue Global, which will be training nurses in virtual simulations of hospitals.
University of Alabama at Birmingham, which is teaching business courses in their virtual campus in partnership with VictoryXR.
Nova Southern University, which is using VR to teach its first year medical students about organs in the human body.
Miami Dade College, which has created a virtual campus and is teaching VR-enhanced courses in areas like music, architecture, research, chemistry and biology.
Morehouse College, which has established a digital twin campus to teach classes across a range of subjects including chemistry, biology, business, and journalism.

Education Shelves in Meta Quest Store

There are a range of education-related apps available for Meta Quest across an extensive range of topics including science, engineering, technology, and math (STEM), history, language and more. To help parents, teachers and students more easily find age-appropriate education content in the Meta Quest store as they return to school, we are looking at new ways to help spotlight the apps available and are testing dedicated shelves in the store over this period.

Image of language-learning apps in the Meta Quest store

Growing Momentum for VR Education Tools in Europe

We’re also seeing encouraging signs of educators embracing metaverse technologies in Europe. In Italy, as part of national education investments, schools can integrate immersive experiences into their lessons with digital and virtual technologies. Also in Italy, University of Camerino will host its first course conducted entirely in the metaverse in the coming term, with both students and the tutor joining the classes via VR headsets.

Europe is also home to a growing sector of companies developing education apps and software for metaverse technologies.

In Germany and Austria, GoStudent is revolutionizing language learning through virtual reality. With their foreign language classes, GoVR, students can transport themselves to virtual learning environments that simulate real-life settings. These environments enable students to interact live with native-speaking tutors and classmates from across the country.
In Italy, Itaca Education works with teachers to develop virtual learning experiences for subjects like natural sciences and physics. This way, students can immerse themselves in science laboratories filled with equipment that most schools would never be able to afford.
And in the UK, Noun Town is an award-winning education app using gameplay to remove the grind from learning new languages, including Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Chinese.

We remain hugely optimistic about the impact metaverse technologies can have – and are already having – on education. But for everyone to benefit from the incredible opportunities these technologies open up, governments and other institutions need to embrace them and utilize them across public education systems. Above all, it is skilled teachers who know best how to inspire their students. Getting this equipment into their hands is the necessary starting point. If we, collectively, get this right, the opportunities to inspire students in new and exciting ways are endless.

Quelle:

Metaverse Technologies Are Creating New Opportunities for Teachers to Inspire Students

19. September 2023 0 comment

Examples

How Augmented Reality Helps Teachers Reach More Students

Augmented reality (AR) continues to gain importance in our everyday lives. In the classroom, AR technology can enhance learning by providing students with interactive and immersive experiences, improving their understanding of complex concepts and enabling them to apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios. The use of AR can make learning more accessible while increasing the engagement of all students. Recently, EdSurge spoke to field experts about the benefits of integrating AR in the classroom.

How is augmented reality different from virtual reality?

You are not alone if you are confused by the terms augmented reality and virtual reality (VR). Both technologies have made their way into classrooms, leaving educational researchers wondering about their differences and implications for learning. We asked Robert Spierenburg, the chief executive officer at All Things Media, to help explain how AR and VR differ and what that means for the classroom.

“Augmented reality is when you take something that you can already see in the world and add an interactive or experiential layer on top. So it’s not replacing what you see. We’re not taking you to some magical fantasy world. We’re staying in our world and giving you superpowers in it, per se,” says Spierenburg. Virtual reality, in contrast, is a technology that creates a completely immersive digital environment that blocks out the real world and replaces it with a virtual one. Spierenburg continues, “A lot of people think they’ve never used augmented reality, but that backup camera in your car uses AR to draw those lines to guide your driving in reverse.”

AR can be used in the classroom to create interactive learning experiences that enhance traditional instruction. For example, an AR app can create interactive 3D models of historical artifacts or scientific specimens that students can learn from and explore. AR can also create digital overlays on printed textbooks, allowing students to access additional content, such as videos or animations, with their mobile devices. Spierenburg likens AR to a safety net for students. “It gives kids this safe space to try things without repercussions in the real world.”

McGraw Hill AR activity for nets of three-dimensional solids

It gives kids this safe space to try things without repercussions in the real world.

How does augmented reality engage all students?

Renee Dawson, an educational technology specialist at Atlanta Public Schools, sees firsthand how AR positively affects students, sharing, “AR engages students who are usually the least engaged. It serves as a bridge for students to connect in the classroom.” For many students, Dawson recognizes that AR “levels the playing field” by allowing students experiences that they may not otherwise have an opportunity to explore—whether the result of socioeconomic situations or physical barriers.

AR lets students see things up close or gather background knowledge of topics; it promotes deeper learning. Having previously taught in special education for 15 years, Dawson also sees AR through a lens of equity and accessibility, stating, “It gives access to everybody in the classroom for anything that you can think of, in any sandbox environment and in a variety of ways.” Spierenburg explains that one of the benefits of using AR rather than VR is the ease of integration in the classroom. “You don’t need any special hardware. You can just use your phone or any mobile device.”

McGraw Hill AR activity for balancing algebraic equations

How can educators be confident that integrating AR into their lessons is actually moving the needle toward their key standards and learning outcomes?

This is easy for educators using McGraw Hill AR, a free app created by McGraw Hill in partnership with Verizon for Verizon Innovative Learning, an educational initiative that seeks to help bridge the digital divide with a goal of providing digital skills training to 10 million students by 2030. Spierenburg, whose company helped support the development of the app explains that every activity is directly aligned with a standard and has an accompanying lesson plan in Verizon Innovative Learning HQ, a free online education portal empowering educators to help bring new ways of learning and next-gen tech into the learning experience. “Those lesson plans are actually what stood out to my teachers,” adds Dawson, “They felt like the plans provided the support they needed to implement AR in the classroom without a lot of training.”

“The app truly gives students greater agency in their learning,” says Spierenburg. “Every McGraw Hill AR app activity takes an observe-explore-evaluate approach, where you watch a narrated animation do it first, then you have an interactive component where the student can perform the actions themselves.” This is followed by an evaluation section, which is a self-assessment with questions aligned directly with what students will see on standardized tests.

There will be students who lead the charge—the innovators and early adopters. There are always students who get there first, and they pull everybody else in.

How can school leaders break through some of the misconceptions around AR and help hesitant teachers to adopt and normalize augmented reality in their classrooms?

Some schools are fortunate enough to have a technology specialist who can co-teach and model the integration of AR until the classroom teacher is confident to fly solo. Dawson encourages teachers to take a step back and “rely on students more because they have an insane thirst for technology, and they will likely figure it out faster than we can.” Spierenburg also enjoys seeing this learner-centered approach, where teachers facilitate learning and nudge students forward. “There will be students who lead the charge—the innovators and early adopters. There are always students who get there first, and they pull everybody else in.”

From a developer’s perspective, Spierenburg also wants teachers to appreciate the drive to reduce barriers in the classroom. The McGraw Hill AR app is device-agnostic, meaning it works on Android or iOS. A web version of the app that will work on Chromebooks will be available soon, in addition to a Spanish-language release. Also, the app is very user-friendly, making it quick and easy for students to jump into. Spierenburg says, “I think it’s about meeting the student where they are in terms of device, language, wherever they are and wherever it fits into their learning experience or journey. That’s where we want to be, and that’s what we’ve worked very hard to achieve from a technical standpoint.”

McGraw Hill AR activity for the Boston Massacre

We have seen AR primarily in math and science. What does AR look like in the humanities?

The McGraw Hill program is releasing a social studies and language arts component that integrates the two content areas. Spierenburg describes an example of the Boston Massacre, where students see a reenactment from different witnesses, listening to their varying perspectives. “Each of those perspectives is actually the testimony from the trial of the different witnesses on the scene. As you select a witness, you learn more about history and have language arts stitched in with reading comprehension. It gives humanities a relevant context.”

Dawson is just as excited about using AR in math and science classes. She shares how one particular student who historically struggled with solving equations could immediately balance an equation using the AR scale. In fact, many students reach a deeper learning level with a cross-disciplinary approach. Spierenburg describes a math and history activity through which students learn about the pyramid of Giza and also how to draw a cross-section of a square pyramid. “We are secretly sneaking in another layer of learning, and the kids love it.”

Quelle:

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-06-02-how-augmented-reality-helps-teachers-reach-more-students

23. Juni 2023 0 comment

Examples

Before Using Augmented and Virtual Reality Tools, Teachers Should Develop a Plan

As an early adopter and enthusiast for immersive technology in schools, I’ve had the opportunity to share ways to use augmented and virtual reality to transform learning with educators around the world. I provide staff development and training, and many of the teachers I work with are enthusiastic about trying new tools. For some, it’s the wow factor of using something novel or exciting; for others, it’s the allure of seeing their students highly engaged with new technologies.

But I’ve seen a lot of teachers dive in too quickly, selecting and using a tool without carving out time to think through how to implement it with fidelity. Before jumping into using a particular tool, I’d recommend taking a step back to develop a plan with a defined purpose that aligns with what your students need. Without intentionality, it’s difficult to get the full benefit of immersive technology for your students.

Here are some steps you can take to develop a plan for using virtual reality in the classroom:

1. Identify Your Goals

Starting with your goals is the best way to begin. There are many ways we can get sidetracked and lose focus on a very important question: Why use AR or VR? Are you using the technology to spark new learning interest, teach a new concept or reinforce a difficult one? Understanding what you hope to accomplish will guide your search for the right resources. Unfortunately, this critical step is often an afterthought.

When I ask teachers why they’re using AR or VR, they often tell me they saw an exciting new tool at a conference and found a way to make it work with their lesson plan or that a colleague tried out a tool and mentioned that their students loved it. It’s less common to hear teachers say they’ve selected a tool because they’re teaching content that’s impossible to bring into the classroom without augmented or virtual reality — but that’s when immersive technology makes the most impact.

Sometimes, our students need to learn about a concept that is hard to understand or too dangerous to explore. For example, it would be difficult to observe a coral reef ecosystem in person and it would be challenging to explore the moon’s three main landforms without technological assistance. In these instances, immersive technology can help teachers bypass restrictions and limitations to learning. These lesson illustrations have a clear purpose and goal for using augmented or virtual reality in the classroom.

2. Consider How Your Students‘ Needs and Interests Align With Particular Tools

Once you have identified a meaningful goal or set of goals, it’s important to select a tool, but when it comes to using immersive technology, one of the biggest barriers is figuring out where to begin. With new tools being released every day, it’s hard to know where to start and what resources will support your students most. Rarely is there one tool that meets the needs of every student in the classroom. It often takes an assortment of choices or the use of multiple resources throughout the lesson. The key to finding the resource that meets your student’s needs is understanding how they learn best, what interests them and what factors impact their AR/VR experience.

If a student struggles with VR because they get nauseous, for example, selecting a resource with minimal motion is wise. If a student tends to get off track quickly, you might select tools that can be used inside the classroom, rather than tools that require students to leave the room and explore. If a student is a huge gamer, you could consider using immersive challenges or competitive games to bring excitement to their learning experience. As with any curricular tool or resource, the selection process should include aligning student learning styles, needs and interests to ensure that what you choose makes the most impact.

3. Understand the Benefits and Limitations of Your Classroom Devices

The majority of classrooms in the U.S. now have access to student devices. Most immersive experiences require a tablet or mobile device, however, web-based experiences are beginning to ramp up. The best place to begin is to understand what resources work with the classroom devices you already have.

Factors including device type and age impact the kinds of immersive experiences you can experiment with in the classroom, so it’s important to know what devices you have access to and how old they are. Some devices might limit access or functionality to particular AR or VR experiences. Chromebooks, for example, are dominant in the classroom but are also the most restrictive when adopting immersive technology. A rear-facing camera, which most Chromebooks lack, is essential for augmented reality to place digital items in the real world. Additionally, only a few immersive apps have access to Google Play.

A common misunderstanding is that you must purchase expensive devices before using immersive technology in the classroom, but that’s rarely true. While the devices you currently have access to may be somewhat limiting, using them requires little to no additional budget, so that could be a great starting point.

As you develop your immersive tech savviness, you’ll notice other devices that may support your students to flourish. After demonstrating the effort to use your current devices, you may be well-positioned to request new technology.

4. Consider the Learning Curve

One of the best ways to prepare a great immersive lesson is by implementing a resource with little to no learning curve. Some immersive resources require a lot of preparation to help students understand how to interact within the app. As an alternative, using a tool that doesn’t take too much prior knowledge or technical understanding allows you to jump right into the learning. Since the hope is to leverage immersive tools to deepen learning and bridge new connections for our students, you don’t want to spend an entire class learning how to use the technology, rather than using the technology to support students in learning the content.

In fact, most of the popular tools gained traction because they’re easy to use in classrooms. Beginners can immediately begin exploring, creating, and sharing their knowledge using immersive technology.

For many teachers, it’s not just the learning curve of using new technology, it’s also the process of lesson planning. Questions arise like whether to modify existing lesson plans or create new ones. When it comes to lesson planning, it might be helpful to adapt something that already exists.

Here are a few examples of existing lessons. I created these two lesson plans around Merge Cubes, which let you hold digital 3D objects — or holograms. The first was designed to explore terraforming Earth and the second was developed to learn about Egyptian history by exploring a virtual museum. And here’s a math lesson plan I developed to support students in using CoSpaces — another popular classroom tool, which lets students build 3D creations, animate them with code and explore them in AR or VR settings — to build virtual shapes.

5. Prepare for Trial and Error

Using these technologies is still relatively new to education, so it is important to remember that we are beta testers in the process. This increases the chance that not all tools will work as planned, so flexibility is key. Taking on the challenge of building immersive technology into your lesson requires you to be comfortable with trial and error.

One of the benefits of being a beta tester is that we have an opportunity to share our insights and recommendations with the companies developing the tools we’re using, so I’d encourage you to share your feedback.

It can be quite exciting to experiment with new tools, but there’s also value in stepping back to plan ahead. Immersive technology can be a powerful tool for engaging students, and when we plan carefully, we’re better able to deliver deeper, more memorable learning experiences for all learners — even the most reluctant ones.

Quelle:

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-01-20-before-using-augmented-and-virtual-reality-tools-teachers-should-develop-a-plan

24. Januar 2023 0 comment

Examples Metaverse

The metaverse

Ever since Facebook announced its vision for their metaverse on 28 October 2021, including the company’s name change to Meta, there has been a buzz about what it might mean for the future of the internet and our digital (and real) lives.

Of course, this announcement was set against the recent warnings from a reputable whistle-blower about the harm the social media company is doing including to children and young people through its algorithms that shape user beliefs and behaviour, and inadequate moderation of harmful content.

This blog post unpacks the idea of the metaverse, taking into account Facebook’s vision but also extending beyond it, to understand its history and highlight some implications for teachers.

Where does the term metaverse come from?

English teachers – You Are Up!

The term metaverse was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 cyber punk novel Snow Crash. It referred to a computer generated universe.

Snow Crash is a rollicking sci fi read that has fired-up the imagination of those interested in possible technology futures with its fascinating portrayal of the persistent immersive 3D digital world of the metaverse that can be jacked into through a personal headset or public booths that produce a lower grade, glitchy avatar. In fact, the novel popularised the word avatar. It also highlighted the dangers of corporate and government control of knowledge and its infrastructures, dreamt up a devastating hybrid DNA and digital virus, and featured deadly semi-autonomous weapons called ‘rat things’.

An aside: For an earlier version of the metaverse, but this one was called the ‘matrix’, see William Gibson’s (1984) Neuromancer, a dazzling tale about a VR universe inhabited by mastermind AIs that influenced the Matrix film trilogy (soon to be quadrilogy).

What will the metaverse be?

The idea of the metaverse extends beyond Facebook’s (proprietary?) influence and has been described as a spatialised interoperable version of the internet. At the moment no one really knows what the metaverse might be like although there are current smart glasses, persistent VR spaces and gaming sites that provide a window into social, commercial, communication and creative aspects of it. Users will probably connect with the persistent interfaces, spaces and layers of the metaverse using a VR headset or smart glasses or on a screen (or with some type of yet-to-be-invented hardware that can integrate aspects of these). There is also a future vision, and investment into research, for direct human brain-computer interface. The metaverse will be populated with people in avatar form and by AI-powered virtual characters in human and other forms.

Here is a description of what the metaverse might be:

“The metaverse is the idea of a shared digital universe in the cloud created by merging virtual spaces that are physically persistent together with augmented reality (AR) layered over the real world. The metaverse is singular because the concept includes the sum of all virtual and online worlds along with all AR layers enhancing the physical world… Besides games and hangouts, it will include social media platforms, workplace tools, investing resources, online shops and much more. You’ll be able to immerse yourself completely in this spatial internet using virtual reality (VR) technology or just interact with bits of it that are layered over your physical space via AR. Instead of a profile picture, you’ll be represented by a complete digital avatar or persona. You’ll be able to meet up with your friends’ digital personas and wander around visiting virtual places and attending virtual events.” https://history-computer.com/metaverse-the-complete-guide/

For those interested in how Facebook’s metaverse might be designed in stages see this excellent article from Avi Bar-Zeev, veteran developer of and commentator on all things eXtended Reality (XR).

What does the metaverse mean for teachers and students?

1. Be curious but don’t believe the hype: There is a fair bit of publicity around the metaverse, and this will infiltrate the EdTech space – just remember that the metaverse isn’t here yet (at least in a scaled-up interoperable way), and some suggest it may never arrive. So, it’s good to be intrigued without buying into the hype.

2. Keep up with current research on immersive learning: We are still in the early days of building the evidence base for the effectiveness of immersive technologies for learning using headset-mediated VR and augmented reality experienced through glasses or via screen, especially in schools. Results are promising but ongoing rigorous research is needed so that we can confidently embed immersive learning into school classrooms in ways that make pedagogical sense and align with curriculum across subject areas. Asking questions about the evidence base and keeping up with the research on immersive learning is vital as knowledge about this will allow us to ask the right educational questions as the metaverse evolves.

3. Get interested in the (dry) but important areas of privacy law, digital legislation and regulation, and AI ethics: The idea of the metaverse only amplifies existing concerns regarding the automated harvesting, sharing and use of data without user consent including biometric data which is about and of the user body (facial recognition, pupil dilation, gaze and movement tracking etc.) and which can be highly identifying. There are many different forms of biometric data and plenty of biometric harvesting tools available and so we need to watch this space carefully. Automated nudging of behaviour and the affective moods of users will be diffused through the metaverse as current visions see this as a place to advertise and sell products to us as well as collect our personal data in ways which will be highly embodied and emotional. The inclusion of cameras in smart glasses and VR headsets adds another layer of complexity to maintenance of privacy. The Internet of Things will seamlessly fuse with the Internet of Bodies creating legal, ethical and social dilemmas for all of us, personally and professionally. Children and young people will be differently impacted at each stage of their physical, cognitive, moral, and social development. The teaching profession needs to ask who will regulate the metaverse, define its standards, and build and control its infrastructure and content, as this should inform decision making on procurement of technology for schools. No teacher wants to bring unethical technology into the classroom and so we need to start understanding and applying ethical frameworks now and into the future as the metaverse merges with aspects of our everyday lives in work, leisure and learning.

4. Empower children and young people to have a say in what the metaverse should be: Look for places in the curriculum where students can investigate and use the technologies related to the metaverse as well as explore public and industry discourse about its ethical and social implications. Such opportunities should expand the boundaries of digital literacy education to take in civics and citizenship, the environmental impacts of technology, ideas about human-machine relationships, and re-formed conceptions of learning, creativity and identity in the new machine age. Some industry doyens, such as the CEO of the child-targeted Roblox gaming platform which has 42 million daily users logins, suggest that children are already in a proto-metaverse and that one day such platforms will be pivotal to a metaverse providing everything from learning, shopping and business communication tools. Schooling systems rarely recognise the digital leisure life of children and youth, and yet industry is watching and factoring this into their plans for the metaverse. It is important that we as educators facilitate children’s critical engagement and agency in this space so that they are not viewed just as consumers or as data points. The voices and visions of children and young people should be integral to shaping a metaverse which upholds human rights including the rights of child.

The post bought to you by A/Prof Erica Southgate who is looking forward to having a snazzy Star Trek Borg avatar in the metaverse.

Quelle:

The metaverse

23. Dezember 2021 0 comment

Knowledge Research

AI, ethics and classrooms of the future

Experts chime in on the increasing role of artificial intelligence in education, which is set to transform learning as we know it

News that Pearson, the world’s largest textbook publisher, is phasing out print publications for higher education to adopt a resolutely digital-first policy may signal an eventual full stop for traditional book learning. But the wealth of technology coming on stream heralds an exciting new chapter for the future classroom.

In the view of Mike Buchanan, executive director of HMC, which represents independent school head teachers, digital education will unlock a less rigid approach to classroom-based learning, as well as enable closer collaboration with pupils’ families.

“In a growing number of schools, the use of modern management information and recording systems to harvest details of classroom activities and pupil progress is already allowing parents to access and aggregate their child’s attainment records,” he says.

“In the future, this will no doubt see the traditional termly report being replaced by daily digital updates.”

Mr Buchanan predicts individual academic achievement will be charted by artificial intelligence (AI), rather than by a plethora of exams, and argues that for teachers disenchanted by the current need to “teach to the test”, the freedom to pursue a more rounded curriculum will foster a new optimism.

“Technology has both advantages and disadvantages in education, as it does in every field,” he says. “The exam boards probably won’t like it, but in my view, AI’s potential role in automated assessment and reporting will prove to be a game-changer.”

The future classroom must be student centred

Professor Rose Luckin, co-founder of the Institute for Ethical Artificial Intelligence in Education, launched last year, helps steer developments in educational technology in a firmly ethical direction. She believes that while individual tools such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or MOOCs (massive open online courses) will each play a role in the future classroom, close attention should be paid to the “over-arching intelligence infrastructure” as digital education develops.

“We need to recognise that education for all ages must change to create the skills society will need in the future and this means looking at the possibilities of AI in a more holistic way,” she says.

“Cutting-edge technologies must be constructed from an ethical framework, which empowers both learners and teachers, rather than exploiting them for purely commercial gain.”

Drawing a parallel with the growth in social media, Professor Luckin says: “We have all witnessed the power of the big digital networking platforms to shape users’ behaviour and habits, and there have been negative, as well as positive, impacts from this.

“When we look at the future of classroom AI, we can see that as long as there is an ethical purpose to what we do, individuals and society will benefit from a global education technology infrastructure which deploys a whole range of digital tools.”

But Professor Luckin issues a warning to those who believe the future classroom needs to concentrate on computer coding alone.

“As society’s educational needs continue to change, we may well decide not to engage with some of the breakthrough things that we know AI can deliver. We need advanced thinking around what we want to deliver in terms of lifelong learning for each individual citizen, rather than an obsession with clever algorithms and coding.”

Digital education designed to teach future skills

At Caterham School, an independent co-ed in Surrey, where all pupils are equipped with iPads, headmaster Ceri Jones takes the view that for today’s 24/7 learners, there should be no final frontier in the digital world.

Yet, while tools such as VR and AR are routinely used to bring history lessons or language learning to life, and to foster collaboration with other students around the world, Mr Jones has no intention of allowing the tail to wag the dog.

“It’s people who transform education, not technology, and that isn’t about to change,” he says. “All the tech we use here is underpinned by a clear educational philosophy and purpose that actively supports our day-to-day teaching. There’s no question of introducing it into the classroom simply because it’s new and shiny.”

Although Mr Jones notes that the majority of teachers starting out in the profession are comfortable with using devices, less technologically-minded colleagues are not forgotten.

“Each new piece of kit needs to demonstrate its value to the teaching relationship and if it doesn’t do that, it has no place in Caterham’s future classroom,” he adds.

Mr Jones believes post-18 learners must be prepared for a future in which entrepreneurship and apprenticeships take their place alongside the university option, but he is firmly opposed to the suggestion that preparing young people for the world of work should become the key priority.

“We need creative thinkers, collaborators and problem-solvers, and as long as we ensure people remain at the heart of education, good teachers will continue to change lives for the better,” he says.

Screen time vs digitally-focused education

While there is an inherent contradiction between yet more digitally focused education and concern over young people and excessive screen use, Mr Buchanan believes there is a balance to be struck.

He says: “We are talking about sensible use of technology in the future classroom rather than the wholesale abandonment of all books and yes, I agree there are potential pitfalls in the move to online learning which we will need to tackle head on.”

Although Mr Buchanan foresees AI will inevitably free up more time for human interaction in the classroom, he has no fear that robot teachers will one day lead the class.

“The key skills of my profession are related to subject knowledge, an understanding of how young people learn and the ability to facilitate tailored learning for each pupil,” he says.

“When it comes to curating online content, so only the most helpful and reliable resources are put in front of pupils, I would argue that the core skills of teachers can only become more critical as we develop the future classroom.”

Quelle:

https://www.raconteur.net/technology/future-classroom-digital-education

3. Oktober 2019 0 comment

Knowledge Research

Virtual Reality for Teachers

A new virtual reality project aims to help teachers develop and practice their skills before they enter the classroom.

As new technology is changing the look of classrooms around the world, a new project from two HGSE students aims to harness the power of virtual reality for teachers.

For the past year, Ed.L.D. candidates Hassan Brown and Kevin Bryant having been working on a virtual and augmented reality project called VRsatility, with the goal of providing teachers with an immersive virtual space to engage in realistic mock simulations to practice high stakes decision-making scenarios before entering the classroom.

“Research states that teachers make over 1,500 decisions per day,” Bryant says. “As former teachers, we understand the stress that accompanies many of these decisions. Learning through virtual simulation has become a common practice in other fields, so why not education?”

Both Brown and Bryant came to HGSE with an interest in educational innovation and technology. Brown, a former social worker and public middle and high school science and math teacher, had worked with the Gates Foundation around workforce development and teacher diversity in the Pacific Northwest; Bryant studied computer science as an undergraduate and worked in New York City schools as a math teacher and principal who led efforts to embed technology in his classrooms.

The idea for VRsatility was hatched during a January Term trip to Singapore and Tokyo, during which Brown and Bryant bonded over a mutual interest in culture and technology and a desire to explore what made the educational systems in those countries so successful in adopting and implementing new technology in their classrooms.

“In Singapore and Tokyo, we saw how comfortable students and teachers were with virtual reality and augmented reality,” says Brown. In Singapore, the two watched students in an aeronautics class scan QR codes that simulated malfunctioning equipment on board a virtual plane and then work in small groups to fix the issue.

Back at HGSE, the two began what they described as “a second job” outside of their Ed.L.D. Program, designing the early version of VRsatility. They spent months testing software and writing scenarios.

The early version of the program places the user into a virtual classroom as a student surrounded by classmates who are bullying you because of a poor grade on a recent test. “It’s a social-emotional example, and during the simulation you are fully immersed and part of the experience,” Bryant says. “You see real people in front of you and you decide how to react.”

In another scenario, a team is working on a presentation when another member walks in late. The screen freezes and the user decides how the team will respond, either positively or negatively, and then how the late team member will react. Brown and Bryant say future versions will have even more classroom examples and response options for users.

Following the virtual experience, users debrief with Brown and Bryant in the real world through a set of scripted questions to drive additional reflection. In future versions, the two will aim to provide school administrators with the tools to use VRsatility to work with teachers to adjust instructional practice.

“There are a vast array of scenarios that teachers can benefit from using VRsatility and we want to make sure we’re working with educators to figure out where we go with the next iteration,” Brown says.

This summer, Brown and Bryant were selected by the Harvard Innovation Lab (iLab) as a venture team to work on developing their project. VRsatility also received two rounds of funding from the Harvard Initiative for Learning & Teaching (HILT). The two had a chance to share an early version of the project during the HILT education showcase, where invited organizations like VRsatility could demonstrate their projects and receive feedback from other education innovators across disciplines.

“Both the iLab and HILT gave us a lot of confidence in VRsatility, and now we can really take it to the next level,” Brown says. “The education showcase at the iLab gave us the chance to get it into the hands of over 50 users, and it also allowed us to meet with different folks with interest in virtual reality who are supporting us in moving forward.”

After their summer work with the iLab, Brown and Bryant will serve as educational innovation fellows with HILT during the 2019–2020 academic year, where they’ll support other entrepreneurs around Harvard while also connecting with more potential future collaborators.

Besides refining their project, Brown and Bryant have spent the summer in talks with local school administrators as well as conducting research with a number of districts to learn how to bring VRsatility to a wide audience of educators.

“Our big picture is spurring social innovation in education,” Brown says. “We have one more year on campus, and we want to make sure we walk away with a viable project that can go to market.”

Quelle:

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/19/09/virtual-reality-teachers

Links – Lernangebote in Deutschland

Immersive Learning Academy

21. September 2019 0 comment