Advanced Media

Teachers from the primary grades to the post secondary college class, utilize fill in the blank worksheets to help students memorize the location of everything from states, countries, and body parts. Additionally, teachers are often bound by budgets when it comes to allowing their students to explore far away locations or would like to be able to have the ability to dissect a human heart in their biology lab. We know this can’t happen but what if teachers could augment the worksheets and create a virtual reality lab to really dissect a human heart?

Programs like Metaverse (https://gometa.io/) not only have an augmented reality library of user made material, but also allow one to create their own augmented reality and then share it with the world. Creating an augmented reality diagram of the human heart, or an interactive map on where states are located, is much more fulfilling with the student than a static piece of paper. When students are engaged, they feel safer and are relaxed. As a result, scores when using augmented reality are higher than when using a standalone diagrammatic worksheet (Nuanmeesri, 2018).

So if after the students complete some work in the augmented reality world, why not bring them into the world of Virtual Reality? Utilizing a program like instavr (http://www.instavr.co/) can get your feet wet in creating your own virtual reality science or geography lab sessions. Yes, this will cost money at first, however, when will your students ever get to dissect a human heart, or after clicking on an oil rig in the South China Sea, be swept away to take a look around and see what exists outside the classroom, while actually stay in the classroom? Most likely never. Today advanced technology makes this possible. In the Geology field for example, the difficulty of taking students into the field to solve problems is difficult. However, using virtual reality, students can now visit a site and help work on solving a problem as they connect this to what they are learning about in their curriculum (Clife, 2017).

The limitations teachers of all disciplines have faced for decades is, I wish we could (insert your wish). The time is here. Teachers need to explore the technological world more and utilize the tools which are available to enhance the world for our students. Embrace the change!

References

Clife, A. (2017). A review of the benefits and drawbacks to virtual field guides in today’s Geoscience higher education environment. Cliffe International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. 14(28) DOI 10.1186/s41239-017-0066-x.

Nuanmeesri, S. (2018). The augmented reality for teaching thai students about the human heart. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning 13(6) https://doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v13i06.8506