As technology continues to improve and we push the limits of computer science, education must adapt. Immersive experiences have the ability to take students out of their seats and lets them explore all of the wonders of our world. The future of immersive experiences is limitless. It truly is an exciting time to be an educator! Our OER examines immersive technologies primarily through the lens of K-12 education. Explore these experiences by taking time to view each tab of the website and by taking the opportunity to share your thoughts using the activities at the end of each page.
Activities for the week:
- Read through the OER website and view the relevant videos.
- Respond to two of the four Padlets in the following sections: Immersive /360 Video, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality.
- Contribute your final thoughts in a video using the Flipgrid link at the end of the Market Analysis. You will need to follow the steps to create an account for this part of the activity.
- Share any remaining thoughts as a discussion below this post.
Many thanks,
Katie M. and Joseph V.
Hi Katie and Joseph, thank you for such a great OER this week! Wow – I learned a lot and feel like you did an incredible job of introducing us to this topic, and also provided some great “food for thought” as we consider future opportunities in the immersive technologies market in education. I also loved the Flipgrid (new item for me) at the end. To be honest, I have always been a bit weary of VR and AR and what intrinsic changes they may make to our society as a whole. After going through your OER, I feel optimistic about the potential for positive impacts in education, in particular in increasing accessibility and enhancing engagement within certain topics. Coming from a conservation background, I’m immediately thinking of all of the opportunities to bring people closer to environmental issues and concepts that are challenging to experience firsthand (for example, the impacts of climate change, deforestation, changes in ice fields, etc.). I also really appreciated your clear breakdown of the market opportunities and threats – it makes sense that many would be reluctant to introduce such new technology into classrooms with both the price tag and the huge investment in time to learn a new way of teaching and evaluation. I’m curious, in your readings, did you also come across perceptions from educators that are reluctant to introduce more “screen time” into the classroom, or do you think there is a general consensus that this is the direction we are heading? Thanks again!
Hi Kendal,
Thank you for the feedback! I also feel a bit weary of what the future of immersive experiences will hold for our society. From the technological standpoint, it does have the ability to change how we function in major ways which do have their positives and negatives. Bringing our global business community closer through immersive experiences means we can foster new relationships with business partners faster compared to traditional methods. When it comes to classroom potential, I think you mentioned the positive impacts perfectly! Being able to captivate all students into learning about topics using these technologies does sound super exciting.
The screen time component is something that has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while now. Many parents of young children do try to limit screen time, yet we often promote screen time in classroom settings simply because it is able to introduce topics in fun and exciting ways. I can see this disconnect between home screen time and classroom screen time widening as more immersive experience devices are introduced to schools. From an educators perspective, I really do think it will be difficult. Many educators will simply want to use these devices if they are easier and simply do a better job of introducing a topic. Our traditional ways of focusing on 2D resources such as textbooks and other paper resources may be phased out, which could push educators to have to use immersive experiences more regardless of their thoughts of screen time.
What I am personally hoping for is for more studies relating to screen time in educational settings to be done. That way, educators can have proper guidance on how much screen time is too much for students. I think this way may be the only option for limiting screen time once we begin using immersive experiences in the classroom as they may become too important to limit unless scientific proof is given.
Hi Joseph, thanks for the response! I agree that we will gradually see immersive experiences replace traditional learning materials in many situations, especially as the cost comes down on equipment… and more research on the impacts and effectiveness of new technologies is always so beneficial! On the same topic of screen time and introducing students to immersive technologies, I think educators will be in a unique situation where they will in most circumstances be introducing students to immersive technologies for the first time, and in that, will be able to introduce them to ethics and proper use of these technologies as they introduce them to this new learning landscape. Thanks again!
This is such a timely topic given Meta’s Connect event recently. With their announcement of the Quest Pro, looks like they’re really looking for early adoptors of the product and I feel like we’re at least 5 years away from mass market and another 5-10 years away from adopting MR/VR/AR in daily life. However, I do think this opportunity comes with its own set of risks. It’s been 20 years and the internet still can’t be regulated. Switch websites and social media with a totally immersive experience that’s also unregulated and I feel that the dangers of the internet (fraud, inappropriate content etc.) will be even more abound. If anything, I think it’s more important now than ever to teach digital citizenship.
If MR/VR and the metaverse will be mainstream in the future – technically we can have fully virtual classrooms for some subject areas. All they would need is a desk and a headset. I am especially excited for the possibility of students sitting in different classes of the same subject around the world, as well as open lectures with virtual attendance and interaction as a possibility. No doubt, we are headed for an even more connected future.
I am curious. Instead of imagining VR/XR/MR/AR as an addition to the classroom of the future. I wonder what education would’ve looked like in your opinion if we started with these technologies? Ten years ago, many teachers had to get used to integrating the Internet into the classroom. We are just beginning to integrate online communities and social media into the classroom. If instead we didn’t have to ‘integrate’ any of these to begin with, and started with all these technologies from the beginning, and you could throw away all existing conceptions about ‘school’, How would you reimagine the learning experience?
Hi Leon,
We did luck out with how much immersive experience topics have been in the news lately (I think Microsoft just announced a VR version of Word and Teams). That is also a super interesting question! I believe that if we started with these technologies that the idea of school being restricted to a building would have been thrown out the window long before the pandemic. I think this would also have given us an opportunity to properly explain and show younger students that learning doesn’t only happen in the walls of a school. Students then may have become even more curious about the world around them and have the skills and abilities to research their own questions anytime they have them. Although we can teach students this now in our traditional classrooms, I think it is difficult for them to understand that idea. For many primary students, learning happens at school and that’s all that they know. If we had immersive technologies in our schools the whole time, they could attribute technology to learning and not so much the building, teachers, and traditional resources. Overall, I think it would mimic how people eventually learn in the world once they are done with their schooling.
Hello Katie and Joseph,
Thank you for this excellent OER this week. I was truly fascinated with what I was reading on your website and the videos you posted. As I mentioned on the Padlets and the video clip I submitted at the end of the “Market Analysis” page, I truly feel that the creative opportunities are endless with this technology. As I was writing for the VR and MR section my mind was racing and I was thinking about how I would be able to incorporate this technology in my ESL classroom. Students of today would be so engaged and intrigued with this immersive technology. I still do believe we are not yet at a point where institutions or school boards can afford to buy VR headsets in bulk, but I do look forward to the day where this will become reality.
Hi Petros,
When I was reading up about how schools could begin to access VR headsets some of the suppliers of headsets for schools had some creative solutions. Some mentioned that it might be more realistic to have school boards buy sets that could be sent around to multiple schools as needed. I know that at Vancouver School Board they have iPad carts that can be sent to libraries as needed for STEM units, so I think that this would be the most likely way for schools to adopt them. Other companies provided instructions for applying for grants, or using inner city funding to purchase VR headsets. I don’t think that they will be used everyday, especially not in elementary schools, but it would be fairly realistic for a secondary school to purchase a class set to share among several departments.
Katie Muzyka
Hi Katie and Joseph,
This is a wonderful OER that was quite comprehensive with introducing us to the different types of immersive experiences. Prior to viewing your website, my knowledge was limited to AR and VR so it opened up new possibilities with mixed reality and 360 videos. The future of education looks promising with these potential ed techs! From a teacher’s perspective in response to the limitations in education, given how archaic some educational institutions can be, I think it will take change at the teacher education level (ie. teachers college) to incorporate training for these technologies. It would be akin to learning about a subject matter. Moreso, there could be a specialist in the school that prepares lessons using AR/ VR/MR or coaches assigned to these immersive experiences. The metaverse or these options in education seem a distance away, but soon I imagine it to become part of our daily lives similar to how we are so attached to our smartphones.
Hi Jocelyn,
I enjoyed your thoughts on how it could be rolled out in schools from the point of view of teacher expertise. I think it is much like any technology where there will be an enthusiastic few who are early adopters and help pave the way for others to implement it in their classes. There will always be some that do not incorporate it into their classrooms, but Pro-D opportunities will likely help more teachers feel able to use VR with students.
Katie Muzyka
Hi Katie and Joseph, great job on the detailed OER website. It was a great time going through and navigating the materials. I particularly enjoy reading the discussion on padlet and doing the flipgrid video. The future of AR / VR education look promising, yet I wonder how sustainable these materials could potentially become in the future? Despite all the uncertainties in the future, the current development with these technologies are swiftly developing and creating an impact in the classroom. Hopefully, these technologies will be able to be more sustainable and bringing more changes in the classroom.
Hi,
I also hope that this technology will be sustainable in the classroom well into the future. What will help with this are quality, curriculum aligned VR experiences. I think that having more companies dedicated to introducing VR into the classroom with pre-made lessons and content will facilitate its integration into education. As it becomes more popular, I imagine the content will become even more plentiful and tailored to a number of learning contexts.
Katie Muzyka
Thanks for the great resource you two! It was so interesting to learn about the different types of IE and explore all the tools and resources you compiled, many were new to me. The Market analysis section was really clear and well organized, and cited some interesting research. The Flipgrid was a fun and different way to share my feedback too!
I mentioned this in my video but I thought I’d mention two other platforms: through this Master’s program I’ve been introduced to Adobe Aero, where you can easily create AR interactives, and Co Spaces where you can create AR and VR for classroom use. Both are quick to learn and use and I think really interesting demonstrations of how accessible educational AR and VR has become.
Thanks again that was fun!
Hi Emily,
Thanks for the recommendations of Adobe Aero and Co Spaces. They sounds like great resources that I can’t wait to try out!
Katie Muzyka
Great job Katie and Joseph with the OER this week. I’ve always had the impression that VR devices and educational content is costly, probably because in regular media we usually hear about for-profit, entertainment-drive VR (for example, a META VR Oculus is between $500-700 USD). I really appreciated that through your module I’ve been able to learn that there are much more affordable options for VR, starting as low as about $10/device. I was also delighted to see institutions like National Geographic creating content that can be used by educators and emphasizing that it is the connection, based on empathy and understanding, that if forged between the learner and the content that allows for interest in a subject to grow. Knowing that there are more affordable options for VR, and that there are now credible educational institutions creating vetted content for these devices, I would explore new ways to incorporate this technology into my web design classes. I would love to give students a tour of the old computer devices that used to take up an entire floor (like IBMs early labs), so that they can understand how much our technology has changed just in the last 50 years.
Immersive technologies in week 6 were a refresh of these tools and opportunities to remember all possibilities to captivate students that have already been consuming virtual, augmented, mixed realities in other areas, but Education. Thanks, Katie and Joseph, for your job that reminds us and exemplifies activities in Immersive technologies. Indeed, I imagine plenty of situations to explain Health conditions to students and patients after reading your assignment.
To end off the week I wanted to share a video from Linus Tech Tips, a Tech YouTuber located in Langley, BC. The latest episode of his podcast covers the recent Meta event and Mark Zuckerberg’s hope of having VR/AR headsets be as essential as our mobile phones. They do an excellent job of covering the current state of immersive experiences and how far we’ll need to go to reach mass adoption. If you’re interested, feel free to watch from 1:03:15 – 1:17:05.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8iy4qYONAc&t=3795s
I really enjoyed further exploring the concept of Immersive Technologies through your presentation. As an EdTech specialist, this area is one I am least confident in when it comes to introducing it to my students. I feel as if this area will be the slowest to grow in the education system as there remains many barriers (including cost, quality, privacy and training) that will prevent classrooms from making these learning experiencing a TR (True Reality). In discussing this subject to the Tech Support team our school works with, entry level AR is the most feasible option when it comes to immersive technologies in today’s classrooms. I look forward to exploring AR with my students this year through the 3D Bear and ARmakr apps. For now, I’ve considered field trips to VR rooms and looked into renting a set of ClassVR headsets (which isn’t yet a ‘thing’) – two options that could make exploring this less accessible technology, a reality. I appreciate the video Jospeh posted from Linus TechTips and sharing their honest views on the future of AR/VR. I agree with Linus that there is still a ways to go before society becomes fully dependent on wearable devices and I feel we are decades away from achieving Mark Zuckerberg’s Immersive Technologies wonderland. One question I wonder about is what short-term and long term physical effects that these wearable devices (lenses and goggles) will have on the human body? Further research into this could be the determining factor of just how immersive these technologies will actually become in our future.
An incredible presentation! I especially enjoyed the immersive video of persepolis! Augmented and virtual reality are incredibly amazing tools!! I’d love to see ways that you have tried to implement these methods into your educational journey! Are there any AR/VR/MR tools you would recommend for workplace training?