virtual reality – Michelle Shields

Today in class we learned about (and got to play around) with Virtual Reality, Multimedia Learning Theory (sketch-noting), Augmented Reality, QR codes, and 3D Designs with Tinkercad. Here is a brief description of everything:

Virtual Reality: The University of Victoria has its own virtual reality gaming centre and today in class we were allowed ten minutes to play different games on it. Its extremely awesome and entertaining. I highly recommend trying it for yourself if the opportunity arises.

Multimedia Learning Theory: A cognitive theory based on the assumptions that there are auditory and visual channels for processing information that have limited channel capacity. For information to be incorporated into long term memory prior knowledge should be utilized. One way in which to activate Multimedia Learning Theory is through sketch-noting. Sketch-noting allows for a combination of words and quick images that allows the note-taker to listen, digest, and capture on paper the essence of what has been heard.

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Augmented Reality: We saw a brief tutorial on how a school incorporated augmented reality into a history lesson through ARIS. Another way that augmented reality has been used is through Pokemon Go!

QR codes: We briefly discussed QR codes with regard to augmented reality.

Here is a QR code that leads to my blog with any scanner application. Enjoy.

3D Designs with Tinkercad: We also briefly played around with Tinkercad creating our own 3D dice. We didn’t actually print our dice (although we could have if we wanted to pay around 80c for them). I found Tinkercad to be a bit confusing but I do like the idea of 3D printing.

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There you have it,

My Friday in a nutshell.

Last Friday my class visited the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. Although I had never heard of this school before I was pleased to find out that it is a high school that personalizes education through a formal inquiry process where learners create projects and activities that take them through the curriculum on their own. Seeing this type of learning environment in person was very eyeopening for me.

Previously, I had loved watching the documentary “Most Likely to Succeed” in class. Although there are differences between HTH and PSII, both schools are doing some pretty different stuff compared to the traditional model of education. Plus, watching a movie barely compares to physically visiting a school. While walking around PSII I could feel the energy of the students and see how well that type of learning environment can work. Every single student was engaging with something throughout the hour that I was there. While talking to different students I felt like I was having a conversation with my own peers. I could see each student light up when talking about their current project. They were genuinely interested in the material that they were learning about and they loved talking about it. To me, it is without a doubt the future of education.

One thing that I would like to learn more about at PSII is assessment. Jeff Hopkins briefly described this process stating that students and teachers work together to discuss evaluation and grading. I got the sense that there is a lot of formative assessment during the year where teachers are working one-on-one with students, although there is still summative assessment where student learning needs to be compared to curriculum standards.

On another note, I really liked the integration of technologies like WordPress and Trello into the classroom, as I didn’t start using these technologies myself until taking this course. In fact, many of the students Trello accounts were much more creative and better organized than my own. It’s super awesome that students are getting acquainted with these sites as I believe that the internet provides a vast amount of entrepreneurial opportunities. If students are already starting to explore some of their ideas online they could have a successful business already built by the time that they graduate high school.

It was also interesting to hear how students are using virtual reality in the classroom in different ways. For instance, some students were using it for building, others gaming, and others art (I have mostly viewed virtual reality as a type of 3D gaming device, but it can be used for so much more!)

Although I can’t describe everything that I loved about this school, because there simply is too much, I encourage you to browse the schools website https://learningstorm.org/ and watch Jeff Hopkins TED talk about an inquiry approach to education.