5th Entry: My Thoughts on Classroom VR Introduction
Greetings,
My last post delved deeply into the costs associated with
classroom VR introduction and your comments helped to spur my thoughts for this
week's entry, and for that, I thank you all.
After my last entry, I was wondering what it would look like to begin to
integrate VR into an entire school system and it occurred to me that it would
ultimately bankrupt our educational system. While private institutions
may have a better prognosis, our public school systems that teach the majority
of students would fall flat. Therefore,
I began thinking of an integration plan and then I read Pitt's response that
talked about how the cardboard headsets may be appropriate for grade schoolers,
but beyond that, they may not have much effect.
If we, as instructional designers, started there, with the
elementary schools, I feel that we would have a much better shot at growing VR
as an educational platform across the educational enterprise, over time.
Phase 1: Introduction of VR in grade schools
By integrating cost-effective cardboard headsets to be used with
smartphone platforms into elementary schools, we can design the beginnings of
VR curriculum. Further, children, at
this stage, now have access to smartphones and would be more accepting of the rudimentary
level of a simple cardboard headset.
Ultimately, educators, designers, and students would all start off
small.
Phase 2: Incrementally increasing VR technology
As time passes, these students will move on to middle and high
school where they will take their VR knowledge to the next level. Simultaneously, educator and designer
proficiencies in the VR world will expand.
In addition, as time passes, technology prices tend to decrease. I think our first VCR cost us over $1,000
back in 1986! At this point, we begin to
integrate more sophisticated soft and hardware into classrooms.
Phase 3: Capitalize on gains in institutions of higher education
By the time these students reach university level studies, their
proficiencies will have grown exponentially and they will begin to lobby for VR
use in the classrooms. Having reaped the
benefits of this technology, these students will begin the development and
integration efforts needed to expand the VR learning environment.
Ultimately, we, as educators and designers, will grow our
proficiencies and initiatives related to VR classroom integration as our
students grow their understanding and perception of benefit from it. Widespread VR integration is not feasible,
but starting somewhere is a must. Until
next time...
-Donny
Donny,
ReplyDeleteThat plan sounds like a good start to VR in the classroom. Start small and increase as time and user experience increases. As they advance in grade maybe the public schools can start with a VR room that is shared and rotated through by classrooms. I believe that sill reduce the cost to manageable. Just a thought... Good post as always my friend.
Andy D.
Donny,
ReplyDeleteYour integration plan is spot on in my opinion, but I am not sure if I agree that the use of VR may bankrupt public schools. If anything, I think it may replace some of the old ways of doing things, and possibly become more cost-effective. You are right though, some schools may not be so fortunate to be able to afford this type of technology, but eventually, prices drop and they will be able to.
Donny,
ReplyDeleteI like your plan...start off small and progress/develop as the students do. Kind of like a string and two cans thing then build up to smart phones. I completely enjoyed the 1986 VCR reference...showing your age Brother! As of now I would think schools would be more open to other forms of education virtually due to the pandemic. VR capabilities in my opinion would be welcomed into the classroom...if the teachers are willing to learn how to use them...and the school districts would be willing to pay.
v/r
Andy E.
Donny,
ReplyDeleteI think you're on to something. I, like you, see value in implementing VR into Elementary Education first. Let's face it, for some of the technologies that we have discussed in this class not only is the barrier to access due to cost but opposition to change also has a lot to do with it. I think, as instructional designers, we should work to incorporate some of these technologies as early as possible in our educational system. As you point out, once elementary kids get to the point they're in college (and we are likely fully retired from the military and instructional design by that time) they will see the value in the technology and be more comfortable with not only implementing VR but advancing it. The important thing to remember, as we look at incorporating technology into instructional design solutions, is we have to start somewhere. Great post.
Anthony
Donny,
ReplyDeleteAs with all technology, we are developing so rapidly we may not even be able to fathom what the future holds. I like the idea of building a strong foundation of VR use at an early age, as long as we can verify the need for it. That use turns into later demand and when combined with the decrease in cost over time it seems like it might well work. But maybe by then there is something even better and we are having this same discussion about it. Technology, I can’t keep up and neither can our budgets :(
Mike W.
Donny
ReplyDeleteThis plan sounds like an excellent idea. Regardless schools will have to incorporate changing technology into the curriculum. I remember back in high school 1986-1989 we had basic computers with floppy disk drives that were only used in computer lab. When my kids attended school in 1996/1998 they had computer access in Kindergarten. Now children attending Kindergarten are using iPads. Who knows what technology will be introduced in the next five years. The problem is that technology becomes obsolete or outdated so quickly so it is hard to justify the cost when it has to be updated after a few years. Great post thanks.
Tammy
Donny,
ReplyDeleteI like your implementation plan, I just think that most areas will be very hesitant to move forward with this because of the cost and the lack of foresight on the benefits. Maybe it we start with a small population as a pilot in each school they may be more susceptible. For example if they were to incorporate VR into special needs, classrooms it will demonstrate the these tools can be used with all populations to benefit the education process.
Some schools are very hesitant to move forward with some technology, normally based on funding. Since in most situations, something else has to be sacrificed to move forward with innovation. This is very unfortunate because we end up losing time and some children end up having to play catch up.
The bottomline is as long as we continue to educate Instructional Designers that can bring research and innovative teaching techniques we will move forward with times.
Keep it up with the blogs!
Walt