EDET-6130 Journal Entry 5

Constructing this virtual reality field trip has required a great deal of design work to ensure that students are gaining the required knowledge, the assessment is appropriate, and at least some of the material is relevant to students. Using virtual reality in the classroom is exciting to students, because it’s something they don’t get to do often, and it’s an immersive experience. Student enjoyment is often credited with more time on task and improved learning outcomes (Kiryakova, Angelova, & Yordanova, 2018).

Teaching students about the landscape regions of New York is a unique opportunity for students to experience parts of the State that they may not, or ever be able to visit. Doing so in virtual reality shortens an adventure that would take more than a week, into one that can be completed in as little as one class period. When these landscape regions are coupled with underlying bedrock characteristics and an explanation of the primary economic drivers in the area, students can build a more in-depth understanding than they would from studying the same content with paper maps, a worksheet, and something to write with.

As with most of my lessons, this lesson utilizes the concept of scaffolding, and the “I do, we do, you do” learning strategy. Students begin with a tour of a few typical landscapes to get an idea of what they look like. Students are then transported (virtually) to three landscapes that match the first examples so that they get an idea of how those landscapes look in New York. Once students are primed with the necessary knowledge, they are tasked with determining the type of landscape each of the remaining stops most closely resembles.

To ensure that my lesson is successful, I will need to compare students’ Regents Exam results from previous years. Part of the breakdown we receive is how wells students do on specific performance indicators. I have those records of earlier years, which will let me compare and contrast my instructional strategies. As students take more assessments, I’ll be able to develop a better understanding of the effectiveness of the lesson and modify or improve it as time progresses.

I’ve also developed a plan for presenting my project to my peers. I found that the program Google Poly allows me to view a tour on a web browser. The program also has access to the various pieces of information I’ve added as points of interest and will draw the viewers’ attention to those points on the 360-degree image. I liked this program so much I integrated it into the assessment portion of my lesson. I also think that permitting students access to a tour is critical if they are absent or can’t use the virtual reality headsets. It still allows them to enjoy the experience and gain the necessary content knowledge.

References

Kiryakova, G., Angelova, N., & Yordanova, L. (2018). The Potential Of Augmented Reality To Transform Education Into Smart Education. TEM Journal, 7(3), 556–565. doi: 10.18421/TEM73-11

EDET-6130 Journal Entry 4

As work on my project progresses, I have started to think about how I would go about presenting my final product. The virtual reality equipment at my school has dedicated cell phones, VR headsets, a wireless router, and a tablet used to control the experience. The software the phones and tablets use to communicate and coordinate the tour all run on Google Expeditions. The program is easy enough to obtain through the Play Store, but I don’t know if it’s feasible to expect everyone to install it on their device. I also don’t know if I can run an expedition through the internet, or if it needs to run on a localized wireless network. If that is the case, and I have a feeling it is, I may have to determine a way to showcase the experience on my devices, record everything, and upload it to YouTube. When I look ahead, it appears that we will be presenting on Zoom, which I believe has the screen share capability if it’s turned on.

EDET-6130 Journal Entry 3

In my previous entry, I outlined the steps I needed to take to get Tour Creator running and what I wanted to do for my tour. After working with tour creator some, I am getting the hang of putting together stops, finding 3D images of locations, and entering them into my tour.

However, after working through my projects student learning outcomes, I realized that students needed more background knowledge about landscapes. To do this, I am going to add four more stops to my tour. These stops will be at the beginning of the journey to show students the differences between plains/lowlands, mountains/highlands, and plateaus in moist and dry climates. Although my thirteen landscape regions don’t have to be in any particular order, I am considering organizing them in a way that creates a baseline of knowledge (I can move around the sequence of the stops I’ve already created). Then when students have had some exposure to the key ideas and concepts, the tour switches the stop order so that students have to identify the landscape based on their observations. I think this will include two stops in highland regions, two stops in lowland regions, two stops in plateau regions, and then mixing the rest up so that students have to use what they know to identify what they are observing.

My last step in the project will need to be an assessment. I haven’t determined how I want this aspect to play out, but I feel that the bulk of it can’t be a traditional multiple choice quiz, but that students do need to see how they may be asked about landscape regions on the Regents exam. I may go through the last few years of tests and pull out the constructed response questions concerning this topic and build a “show what you know” style assignment. I could also probably have students do projects highlighting the characteristics of a landscape region. I’ve tried that before in a General Earth Science class, and the result was unfortunate.

EDET-6130 Journal Entry 2

To realize my ambition of creating a Virtual Reality Tour of New York State landscape regions, I am going to use the Google Tour Creator program (https://arvr.google.com/tourcreator/). When I went to get into and use the program for the first time, I discovered that I was locked out and needed to get permission from my Google Administrator. After some emails back and forth and some extensive explaining of what I was trying to do, I was granted access.

Once I was able to get into the program, I wanted to learn how to add interest points, modify stops on the tour, and add new stops. I thought the best way to learn was to modify an existing tour. I spent a few hours doing this before I developed the comfort level necessary to make my own tour, add stops, and identify points of interest. The next thing I did was start to lay the groundwork for my own tour. To do that, I pulled out my copy of the Earth Science Reference Tables and identified the names of the locations I want students to visit. They are, in no particular order:

• The Atlantic Coastal Plain
• The Manhattan Prong
• The Newark Lowlands
• The Hudson Highlands
• The Taconic Mountains
• The Hudson-Mohawk Lowlands
• The Catskills
• The Allegheny Plateau
• The Tug Hill Plateau
• The Erie-Ontario Lowlands
• The Adirondack Mountains
• The Champlain Lowlands
• The St. Lawrence Lowlands

My next step will be to build a stop in the Tour Creator for each location. When that’s done, I’ll need to start populating each stop with points of interest, talking points, and important information.

EDET-6130 Journal Entry 1

I work with mostly 9th and 10th grade Earth Science students. I sometimes have 11th or 12th graders, but they certainly aren’t my typical demographic. Over the past several years, I have seen an increasing trend (anecdotally) in the frequency and duration of electronic device distraction. These distractions entail mostly cell phones and other mobile devices, but include the school provided Chromebooks as well. I feel that some of this distraction may be due to the level of “media richness” my instruction entails. As students’ attention economies become strained, my lessons have not transitioned into realms that can capture and hold their attention.

One of the mediums Tony Bates identified as being media-rich is virtual reality (p.243). As a tool, virtual reality will permit me to take students to locations they otherwise would not be able to visit. My idea is to create a virtual tour of the Landscape Regions of New York State, as outlined on Page 2 of the Earth Science Reference Tables. If I counted correctly, there are thirteen different regions, which will give me plenty of stops on my tour. At each stop, I hope to have students identify the type of landscape, be it lowlands, highland, or plateau, discuss the region’s drainage patterns, as well as determine which watershed dominates. I believe this subject will work well as a virtual reality tour, which is why I chose it. Landscape regions and characteristics are one of the topics students need to understand and be able to identify on the Earth Science Regents. It’s also helpful for them to know these locations, so when they hear their names on the news or a weather report, they have an idea of where the events are occurring.

Bates, T. (2016). Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. British Columbia: SFU Document Solutions.

The Big Bang – Revival

It’s been some time, but I believe it’s time to blog again!

The Big Bang!

Even though the origin of the universe is still debated, the origin of this blog is written in 1s and 0s. Today is that day.