For my resource sharing, I examined multiple versions of VR and AR that could be useful for the math or science classroom. In this post, I will be evaluating them to see how they match up with different affordances that info-vis has to offer.

• Consider the cognitive affordances of the software examined.
  • Edens & Potter (2008) tell us that “an important process of the problem-solving cycle is the translation of the problem into a meaningful representation.” Since these are all VR and AR apps, it is very clear how these types of programs would lend positive cognitive affordances to any teacher or student using them. By being able to interact and see a life-size or immersive representation of the topics being discussed. VR and AR can take a student to places that they physically could not or that wouldn’t be feasible in the classroom like the body or outer space.
• Speculate on how information visualization software (name the software) could be embedded in the design of authentic learning experiences
  • The ability to embed AR and VR into authentic learning experiences would match up with Info-Vis to create experiences that naturally transport students. Exploring a phenomenon and connecting it to the mechanisms is the basis for Model-Based Inquiry (MBI) as told by Xiang & Passmore (2015). Learning about the body or outer space and then having the chance to manipulate the simulations would let students test their own hypotheses against what reality to see how they hold up. “Schematic representations are associated with successful problem solving,” (Edens & Potter, 2008). By manipulating these schematics, students will be able to actively problem solve and take ownership of their learning. All of these working together make for an authentic learning opportunity.
• Suggest active roles for the teacher and the students, as well as a suitable topic. Endeavour to make connections with your future personal practice in this entry.
  • By working with simulations in groups and explicitly communicating with each other to verbalize and denote their predictions and explanations, exercises like these further match the MBI model (Xiang & Passmore, 2015). In my classroom, it would be very easy to follow the T-GEM model to introduce a simple MBI anatomy lesson. A rough outline may look something like this:
    • Generate
      • Ask students to start to think about how they think a germ moves through the body to infect a person and make them feel sick.
      • Make a list of organs and processes in the body that students know.
      • Ask students to make a hypothesis about germs and sicknesses.
    • Evaluate
      • Give the students a place that the germ enters the body and use the VR anatomy website to allow them to travel down the corresponding pathway.
      • How does your hypothesis hold up?
    • Modify
      • Using the simulation, modify your hypothesis. When you think it is a working hypothesis, compare with another group or try a new entry point.
      • Where do germs need to reach to cause different sicknesses?

By doing all of these different explorations with the simulations, something that before was not as easily visualized or experienced is brought to life in a meaningful way that is focused on keeping the learner active and engaged in the learning process. For this reason, Info-Vis, T-GEM, MBI, and VR are all extremely compatible and useful in daily classroom practice.

Resources:

Edelson, D. C. (2001). Learning‐for‐use: A framework for the design of technology‐supported inquiry activities. Journal of Research in Science teaching, 38(3), 355-385.

Edens, K., & Potter, E. (2008). How students “unpack” the structure of a word problem: Graphic representations and problem solving. School Science and Mathematics, 108(5), 184-196.

Xiang, L., & Passmore, C. (2015). A framework for model-based inquiry through agent-based programming. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 24(2-3), 311-329.

For my post about Information Visualization, I will be combining information visualization with the LfU laid out in Edelson (2001) in order to design a lesson that helps them explore and arrive at the proper calculation of π.

• Motivation
  • Create a story for the students about how the classroom is going to be getting new carpet (or any other story that would actually work). But, the budget is pretty tight, so we need to order the best amount of carpet. What’s more, the warehouse is offering us a special incentive: if we can guess the exact area of the carpet we are trying to buy, then we get a huge discount.
• Elicit Curiosity
  • There’s only one problem: the school board can’t approve carpet SQUARES or RECTANGLES. They can only get around the wording if we measure it using circles. (A long shot, I know, but hey, what’s written is written!)
• Observe
  • Students would first need to visualize, measure, and draw on background knowledge of areas.
  • Measuring the room would allow students to arrive at the borders of the room. Also, students would be asked to use pictures to illustrate their ideas, as Edens & Potter (2008) tell us that “an important process of the problem-solving cycle is the translation of the problem into a meaningful representation.” Students could begin doing this on paper, drawing schematics, that is, illustrations that represent proportions, not details. Think, diagrams for problem-solving.
• Communicate
  • Next, students would need to talk to each other about differing methods they have devised for measure the circle that is going to take up the middle of the room.
  • Using The Geometer’s Sketchpad, they would be able to graph and measure different polygons that fit into the circle, as shown below:
  • 
  • By using increasingly complex shapes, students would be able to explore and start to be able to deduce methods of finding the exact area of a circle.
  • This process of exploring a phenomenon and connecting it to the mechanisms is the basis for Model-Based Inquiry (MBI) as told by Xiang & Passmore (2015).
  • Throughout this process, students would be encouraged and required to explicitly communicate with each other to verbalize and denote their predictions and explanations, to further match the MBI model (Xiang & Passmore, 2015).
  • At some point, Xiang & Passmore (2015) would say that students may require further scaffolding. This could be provided in varying formats depending on how the students are progressing. For example, if students are drastically struggling, a bare-bones formula could be given to them A= ? ?^2 and allow them to fill in the blanks through more discovery. If they are progressing nicely, perhaps another way would be to instruct them to map out and figure the area of the spaces that are not taken up by the shapes as closely as they could.
  • At every point, students would be pointed back to the model being created on the Geometer’s Sketchpad, as “schematic representations are associated with successful problem solving,” (Edens & Potter, 2008).

• Reflect
  • When most groups have come up with the solution or gotten close, students would be given a chance to now verbally express and represent the knowledge that they have earned through the geometric representation of A=πr^2.
  • A chance for reflection and correction of the process that they took to arrive at the equation would further enlighten them and cement the ideas in their mind.
• Apply
  • At the very end, the equation could be used to then measure out the size of a circle that would fit in the room, or any other location that they wish to choose.
  • To extend the learning, they price per square foot of the carpet could be provided and further calculations with that data could be done to figure out how much it would cost to cover the circle or the room.

It may seem like quite the lofty goal for students to be able to arrive as the equation on their own, but with a visualization tool like the Geometer’s Sketchpad, the amount of tinkering that is easily possible is immense, therefore the potential for learning is also immense. The easy access of tools could scaffold students as they inquire, explore, and build. The ability to quickly construct multiple models and compare them would give students a chance to use further geometric knowledge and proportions to arrive at answers, all while the teacher is there as a support and fellow questioner, encouraging and spurring on further inquiry. In a worst-case scenario, a teacher could even design a model that students could then use to explore the measurements of and arrive at a deeper understanding than if they had designed the model themselves.

The combination of these different methods create a situation where both student and teacher are active, inquiring, and learning in authentic ways that are truly useful, with applications that extend far outside the classroom. Futhermore, with the technology enhancing the learning, students are not limited by their own drawing ability, a factor that was noted as a potential stumbling block to learning (Edens & Potter 2008).

Resources:

Edelson, D. C. (2001). Learning‐for‐use: A framework for the design of technology‐supported inquiry activities. Journal of Research in Science teaching, 38(3), 355-385.

Edens, K., & Potter, E. (2008). How students “unpack” the structure of a word problem: Graphic representations and problem solving. School Science and Mathematics, 108(5), 184-196.

Xiang, L., & Passmore, C. (2015). A framework for model-based inquiry through agent-based programming. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 24(2-3), 311-329.

I already wrote about InCell VR (Cardboard) in my Embodied Learning post, so for this one, I wanted to add another couple of VR resources that I came across while searching.

Anatomyou VR is a human anatomy VR experience that is free from the App Store for iOS.  By using this app, students are able to explore the inner workings of the human body and explore how they all work together. Inlays of information are available for student to access as they go through the body so that they can extend their learning at every twist and bend.

For those on Android Titans of Space is an immersive VR experience for exploring the solar system. It works with any Samsung VR set, including the Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard.

On any mobile device, you can explore the Space Shuttle Discovery just by navigating to this link. This free resource lets students experience what is like to be on a real live space shuttle. I have even used this resource in my creative writing class to allow students to try and bring their writing to life in a more authentic way. Something like this website coupled together with a guided Google Earth tour of a launch or even the ISS bring these far-reaching topics home for students in a more tangible way.

I could go on and on, but there are millions of resources out there with free VR experiences for students. (Just look at this!) What better way to let students have embodied experiences than with immersive technology. They’ll feel like they are there!

For my readings this week, I chose to look readings that were more focuses in on virtual and augmented reality. What really drew me to this was a quote in Winn (2003) that talked about how our cognition is really just a way of “embodying distinctions.” Winn (2003) posed  that learning follows this process:

1. Declaring a break (in the environment)
2. Drawing a distinction (between what the environment usually does and is currently doing)
3. Ground the distinction (to make it compatible with is already known)
4. Embodying the distinction (to apply it in other situations)

Looking at learning from this point of view would find countless situations to use virtual reality and augmented reality in the classroom, as it would allow students to experience and to draw distinctions in situations that they may not normally be able to (due to location or size).

For example, Zydney & Warner (2016) reviewed numerous mobile apps that could be used in the classroom. Looking at what they examined, I did my own search of the app store to see what else has been added since they wrote their review. Numerous apps exist that, in true Ms. Frizzle fashion, allow students to shrink down to microscopic sizes and really experience what is going on at that minuscule level. Experiences like these allow students to have that moment of a break, draw, ground, and embody a distinction so that learning can take place.

*One such app is called InCell VR for Cardboard. This free app allows students to explore a cell using the assistance of the Google Cardboard VR viewer. When in the app, students can explore a cell, try to save it from agents that may destroy it, and even try to survive a virus that takes attempts to take it over. This blending of VR, action, gamification, and science is sure to leave a lasting impression and give students a chance to truly embody the learning.

Previously, these types of role-playing activities may not have been done in the classroom as they would have been “too childish” or too inaccessible to try and recreate a human cell in a meaningful way. But nowadays, with the full computation power of the devices in the classroom, these experiences are able to come to life in full HD experiences. With the cost efficientness of Google Cardboard and other VR devices, students are now able to be transported into experiences that before would have been relegated to museums or field trips. These experiences are invaluable to students, as role-playing affords students the opportunities to be fully immersed in their own world when before, it would have simply been something that could only be illustrated in a textbook.

Yet with all of these experiences, it will take a particular set of TPCK in the teacher to be able to manage and develop these types of learning situations. Many of these apps are not aligned to standards and have varying levels of scientific accuracy. Added on top of that the level of technological knowledge that would be necessary to implement this in the classroom, and the pedagogical knowledge necessary to be able to manage and develop all the resources together into a way that will be beneficial to the students. However, when done correctly, the introduction of these resources poses a strong potential for bringing experiences and learning to life for the students.

Questions:

1. Do you think that there is a difference, theoretically speaking, in an experience that is virtual as compared to one that is physical? Are they both able to bring that “break” in the environment that Winn (2003) would say is necessary for learning?
2. What special considerations would a teacher need to have in order to implement a VR experience in their classroom with solid TPCK?

References:

Winn, W. (2003). Learning in artificial environments: Embodiment, embeddedness and dynamic adaptation. Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning, 1(1), 87-114.

Zydney, J. M., & Warner, Z. (2016). Mobile apps for science learning: Review of research. Computers & Education, 94, 1-17.

(*For my final project, I am doing the ePortfolio option, so I am also combining this post with my posting for that, as I wish to keep them all together. A question that was addressed in my posting was: 

• According to Resnick and Wilensky (1998), while role-playing activities have been commonly used in social studies classrooms, they have been infrequently used in science and mathematics classrooms.
  • Speculate on why role-playing activities may not be promoted in math and science and elaborate on your opinion on whether activities such as role-playing should be promoted.)