Technology that is immersive and experiential is changing how students and teachers learn. Augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) offer more options for interaction, collaboration, and hands-on learning that puts newly learned information and abilities into practice.
Through engaging images, immersive technology can help pupils understand abstract ideas. However, immersive technology can be helpful for instructors as well, supporting professional development that aids in the conversion of research and theory into meaningful practices through the use of dynamic examples.
Augmented reality creates egalitarian paths for profound student learning when it is thoughtfully created.
McGraw Hill AR is a free augmented reality software that offers interesting, bite-sized experiences that assist deep conceptual learning. It was developed in collaboration with Verizon Innovative Learning, an educational project that fosters digital equity and inclusion in education. Through strong, interactive pictures, the software helps make abstract ideas like algebra, social studies, and English language arts more understandable.
Immersive technology needs to be based on solid content and pedagogy.
In order to use immersive experiences strategically for meaningful instruction, the activities in McGraw Hill AR were carefully chosen based on which learning objectives could be best supported by augmented reality. Each standards-aligned exercise adheres to a unified pedagogy and is composed of premium content.
The ability of immersive learning to advance equity.
To make next-generation technology more accessible to all educators and school communities and to encourage all students to become innovators and creators, Verizon Innovative Learning HQ provides educators with free lesson plans that are correlated to standards that go along with each activity in the app. Immersive technology’s multimodal nature gives learners extra entry points and engages them in ideas that might have previously seemed out of reach.
Not only students can benefit from immersive learning. Teachers too should receive interesting professional development.
Teachers are perpetual learners. They should have access to creative, interesting, and worthwhile professional learning opportunities if we want them to continue honing their craft and adapt to shifting classroom environments.
Teachers can experience individualized learning firsthand through virtual reality.
The Immersive Classroom Experience, accessible through Oculus or on a desktop, employs virtual reality to assist teachers in exploring how they might use McGraw Hill Plus for PreK–12 to tailor learning and promote student agency. When teachers “enter” the classroom, they can engage with the pupils and investigate the equipment and supplies being used there.
Visitors can hear students in the virtual reality classroom describe where they are in their own learning processes and how the student-directed environment gives them the tools they need to succeed. They talk about how the Standards and Skills Graph, a data visualization tool in McGraw Hill Plus, aids them in understanding where they need to grow as well as how different curricula and resources mesh in their classroom. In the end, virtual reality (VR) offers instructors a regulated, secure, and adaptable environment to explore what their classrooms might become and how to make that change a reality.
Teachers should also be in charge of their own learning processes.
Through immersive learning, difficult concepts become concrete. Teachers may employ VR to bring breakthrough technology applications and transformative educational methods to life. Each zone of the immersive classroom has direct links to professional learning resources available on demand that are associated with the best practices that have been seen. In a way and at a speed that works for them, teachers can engage with students, study the classroom materials, and use the corresponding professional learning tools.
Immersive learning opportunities have the potential to give more students and teachers a sense of ownership.
“We’ve only just begun to explore the possibilities with immersive, experiential learning for students and teachers,” Smith claims. We can provide genuinely engaging learning experiences to more teachers and students by extending our VR and AR to more disciplines, more learning objectives, and more applications of pedagogy, thanks to strong, committed partners like Verizon Innovative Learning and our own team of learning scientists.
