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What if your students could literally reach out and touch one of the 12 baboons painted in King Tut’s tomb—without ever leaving the classroom? Immersive reality and interactive 3D learning experiences have become more common in K-12 instruction on their own, but when combined in a designated space, the technologies rewrite how students learn, and engagement soars.
During the edLeader Panel “Immersive Reality’s Role in the Future-Ready Classroom: Presence, Not Just Content,” experts shared how interactive 3D curricula and immersive learning environments helped one school reverse chronic absenteeism rates and achieve a 90% average daily attendance.
“I think the sky’s the limit here for what you want it to be. We’re at the very, very, very, very start of this whole phenomenon,” said Tom Davis, Advisory Board Member and Consultant, Center for Educational Innovation and Classroom of the Future Foundation.
East Allegheny School District (PA) was one of the first in the nation to implement immersive learning with 3D curricula. The district sits outside Pittsburgh amid a hub for immersive learning. Joseph DiLucente, Superintendent of East Allegheny, thought it could help “meet our first core value of student engagement” and ensure spaces that students wanted to connect with and physically attend.
Inspired by what they saw at a local college, district leaders implemented an immersive, headset-free learning environment in both general and special education classrooms. DiLucente said the lesson on King Tut’s tomb exemplified how this technology transformed learning. In the past, teachers, many of whom only knew details from a book or pictures, would do their best to describe and help students imagine the tomb. “However, you put (the students) in the immersive learning room, and they’re able to interact with the walls. They’re able to actually walk through a simulated environment that has an awestruck quality that really hooks them and pulls them in,” he explained.
What Makes Immersive Learning Spaces Different?
Presence
According to Dr. Freedom Cheteni, Editor in Chief of The Superintendent’s Journal and Superintendent and Board Member of The VR School at Stanford University, teachers are not writing a lecture but deciding what students can encounter, actively engaging students and eliminating passive learning.
Educators have had the most success when they plan for experiences students will never be able to see, touch, or feel within the classroom. “It’s about being there or being present. We learn through the body. Knowledge sticks in context and emotion fixes memory. When headset free, a whole class can be there together with the teacher at the same time,” Davis said.
More Inclusive
Immersive learning spaces lack equipment and sensory barriers that VR headsets and other 3D technologies present. There are no headsets, and the programming is browser based. “There’s no fitting, there’s no sanitation protocol between periods, no students excluded for vestibular sensitivity, for example, for glasses, for head covering, for even a cochlear implant, perhaps even a seizure history, and no student singled out as the one kid who can’t wear the thing,” Dr. Cheteni explained. The panelists shared ways to make accommodations so immersive learning spaces can be more inclusive for all students, including:
- Provide multiple routes to the same content so a student overwhelmed by the visual channel can arrive through audio or text without having to leave the lesson
- Offering a student-controlled pace and a student-controlled exit so students can learn and exit at their own pace
- Focus on navigation and decide delivery formats prior to use, “so accommodation isn’t bolted on at the end,” said Dr. Chenteni
Lasting and Measurable Impacts
DiLucente acknowledged that the upfront costs for the space were expensive, but said ongoing maintenance has been minimal, including a few 3D cameras and lighting. He argued the benefits are worth the investment. Before implementing immersion spaces, East Allegheny’s absenteeism rate had soared above the 50th percentile. In the first year of having immersive reality spaces, absenteeism fell to 36%, and day attendance rates reached 90%. More importantly, more students were excited about school, inspired to create content and dive deeper into their experiences.
Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Immersive Reality’s Role in the Future-Ready Classroom: Presence, Not Just Content, sponsored by Immersive Reality USA, GBCStories, and The VR School.
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Emerging Tech for K12 Learning is a free professional learning community where school librarians, teachers, and administrators can explore all the ways to integrate technology into 21st century learning.
Immersive classrooms and 3D courses are moving out of pilot programs and into everyday K-12 instruction—and the classrooms already using it are seeing real shifts in engagement, access, and retention. GBCStories works with The VR School and Immersive Reality to create the learning spaces of the future and bring them to schools throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Article by Suzanne Bell, based on this edLeader Panel
