- Welcome back to part two of Immersive pedagogy,
Virtual reality for student centred learning.
In the last episode, we looked at how to bring a VR hub
from vision to reality.
And in this episode, we'll be looking at immersive pedagogy,
the iterative process involved in course design,
and the teaching and learning outcomes
of using this approach.
(gentle music)
- When immersive pedagogy is working well,
it's the students who are driving it.
Teachers might be in charge of the teaching,
but we have to remember the student
is the agent of their own learning.
Our VR modules are designed so that students
can take charge, to direct their interest
and their attention as they wish.
The worksheets provide them with a focus, a challenge,
a problem, but the students are still self-directing.
This creates an environment where students
can enter the activities at their own ability level
or in line with their own interests.
This is supported by the core design
of the work that we're doing,
but also by making a change in the teacher's role
from leader to facilitator.
- Yeah, I've used inquiry-based learning before,
and I've led students through the inquiry-based process.
But immersive pedagogy takes it to a whole new level.
It's allowed me to shift the focus
from me, as a driver of learning,
to providing opportunities for students' agency,
and that creates student-driven inquiry.
The unique advantage of immersive pedagogy
is that it provides students an authentic experience.
They can go back in time, they can go back in history,
to another place, another civilisation,
and everything that I've taught in the classroom,
clicks into place when the students are in VR.
It adds a dimension to learning
that just can't be provided in regular classes.
Their understanding is deeper
because they're more connected.
So this year in seven humanities,
the students are learning about ancient China.
We're looking at the terracotta warriors,
and that's quite an unusual concept for some kids
that don't have a lot of world experience,
and they don't bring that into the classroom.
I had this one student, and no matter what pedagogy
or what resources I used,
she could not understand that concept.
So I tried video, I tried tactical reading,
I tried peer-tutoring, she could not understand
that the terracotta warriors weren't a real army.
We went and did the Terracotta Warrior Unit for VR
and everything just clicked into place.
It was a light bulb moment.
She could see that they were an army made out of terracotta
under the ground, because she was in the actual tomb.
It just brought that to reality for her.
(gentle music continues)
- So how do we know it's working?
Well, we are constantly reviewing our ideas,
our theories, our ways of working,
after all, we are learners as well as educators.
We always make sure for example,
that we observe students and teachers when they're working
with our modules for the very first time.
But not only that, we actively seek out a formal way
of collecting teacher and student feedback through surveys.
And this helps us to continue to improve
and understand the effectiveness of what we're doing.
This kind of qualitative data is absolute gold.
It tells us far more than just a quantitative number
on a sheet.
It tells us the quality of the experience
in the voice of the person who experiences it.
And we have seen such amazing results.
- If you want to get better marks,
you can do it in a fun way.
Like learn to get better marks in a fun way,
not just through textbooks and papers
and note-taking from videos.
- I like being able to choose what I'd like to do
instead of the teacher telling me.
When I hear there's a VR lesson coming up,
I get excited, I love VR.
- Yeah, it's the best lesson in school.
- I really love using VR
because it's an interactive and fun way of learning.
It's definitely a lot better than writing
or just watching a video.
- I've just been in World War One.
Since it's in the past,
I can't even experience it happening.
But with virtual reality,
I get to live in the moment and see for what it really is.
- So the benefits of my music students at Woree,
is they get access to music performances
that they wouldn't normally get in a regional centre.
And we can bring the students those performances
through the use of VR.
So my music students get to explore
the traditional symphonic orchestra.
They have an orchestra in front of them,
and they can choose individual instruments.
They can see the instruments
and they can hear the instruments.
They can listen to the four families within the orchestra,
the strings, the woodwind, the brass, and the percussion.
And they can listen to all the instruments
playing together in their entirety.
So in a traditional live performance, you sit in an audience
and you watch the orchestra perform from the audience space.
In the VR room, students can stand right in the middle
of the orchestra, they can turn,
they can watch any of the instruments
that they want to see, what they're interested in.
And it's an experience that you can't get any other way,
except through VR.
- [Krista] Our last VR unit was two terms ago,
and my students are still hassling me for more VR lessons.
In every student survey, they're asking me for more.
They're excited.
They're still asking me about the terracotta warriors,
even though we did it two terms ago.
They're retaining their learning,
and they're hungry for more.
Some kids are giving up their lunchtimes to learn more
and re-engage with the immersive learning experience.
And that's how I know that it's working at our school.
I love watching the kids that normally struggle
to sit in a classroom, I love watching them in VR.
It's an inclusive way of learning,
and it gets every kid involved,
and it increases that engagement and student outcomes.
- Well, the whole project
has been an amazing collaborative experience
across the three schools.
Working with the school leaders, the heads of department,
the teachers in each school,
we learned from their experience and knowledge.
And then we put this into action, in our design process.
What is produced in one school
is automatically shared amongst the others.
After all, this is about shared wisdom, shared benefits.
- The Cairns Southern Corridor Consortium
is at the leading edge of developing immersive pedagogy
using VR.
If you'd like to get started,
visit the VR hub website for more information.
And consider using the immersive pedagogy model
to implement these ready-made resources
to drive student-led inquiry.
And remember, you can always visit
the Intentional Collaboration website
for more information on creating, sustaining,
and measuring the impact of collaborative networks.