Changes: Elaborated limitations
Virtual reality (VR) allows students to immerse themselves in an environment unlike what they experience every day. For example, virtual worlds, which is a digital reality allowing a full camera manipulation on a device or a headset reality that utilises physical actions and motions to observe environments (Southgate, 2018). VR can be an efficient way to gain empathetic and experiential knowledge by exposing students to unfamiliar circumstances to manipulate or observe (Bertrand et al., 2018).
This is seen through CoSpaces as it allows students to design their own virtual world to portray stories or information.
Using CoSpaces’ coding functions, students input creativity to create an immersive and interactive environment.
This program is effective for science classes as stage 3 students can complete outcome ST3-4LW-S to demonstrate their understanding of how animals can adapt to physical changes within the environment (NSW Education Standards Authority, 2017). My video below shows how students can utilise computational thinking to display understanding. After grasping the basics of block coding, I can express my understanding of evolution through an immersive virtual world by manipulating animals to show how giraffes have evolved due to the trees growing taller.
Constructivism
Constructivism within CoSpaces allows students to trial-and-error their way through creating an exciting, immersive world, allowing them to code and manipulate objects while utilising their prior knowledge to explain practical concepts. Through constructivism, students can observe and manipulate an authentic experience to actualise their reasoning to ensure accurate understanding through higher-order thinking (Huang & Liaw, 2018).
Constructing codes to create engaging content to portray their understanding of content
Limitations
Unfortunately, CoSpaces can be incredibly complex for students new to block coding and requires time to get used to the functions, which can decrease motivation and engagement when struggling. These limitations also mean that more time is required to learn, teach and problem-solve to create desired outcomes, which delays further learning about the topic (Wang & Sun, 2021).
Fostering creativity CoSpaces fosters problem-solving and creativity skills to solve inquiry-based projects through students personalising their responses to open-ended prompts, showcasing their creativity within concepts observed, for example, animating the impact of climate change, as seen below.
(Kim et al., 2022)
With this, Creativity is fostered by providing opportunities to create and observe 3D concepts outside their usual pen-to-paper artwork, including 3D coding animations to portray concepts, visual and auditory stimuli and interactivity implications (Kim et al., 2022).
References Bertrand, P., Guegan, J., Robieux, L., McCall, C. A., & Zenasni, F. (2018). Learning empathy through virtual reality: Multiple strategies for training empathy-related abilities using body ownership illusions in embodied virtual reality. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2018.00026 Huang, H.-M., & Liaw, S.-S. (2018). An analysis of learners’ intentions toward virtual reality learning based on constructivist and technology acceptance approaches. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i1.2503 Kim, H., So, H.-J., & Park, J.-Y. (2022). Examining the effect of socially engaged art education with virtual reality on creative problem solving. International Forum of Educational Technology & Society, 25(2), 117–129. NSW Education Standards Authority. (2017). Science and technology K-6 :syllabus. NSW Education Standards Authority. Southgate, E. (2018). Immersive virtual reality, children and school education: a literature review for teachers. DICE Report Series, 6(1). Newcastle: DICE Research.
Wang, H.-Y., & Sun, J. C.-Y. (2021). Real-time virtual reality co-creation: Collective intelligence and consciousness for student engagement and focused attention within online communities. Interactive Learning Environments, 1(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2021.1928711
Hi Jeremy,
Really loved this blog. Love all the references you used, really shows you have properly backed up your statements. I love all the tutorial videos you included in the post, socially the three that were from your own channel on YouTube, really shows how you have engaged with the technology instead of simply telling us about it or how great it is without having tested it out or used it before, it makes everything you've mentioned that much more credible and reliable. I particularly love the fact you linked what you were saying to the New Syllabus and included syllabus outcomes in the post. Overall really enjoyed reading this post!
Shira Charif
Hi Jeremy,
This blog is so clear to read and offers great insights into VR. I think any prospective teacher would benefit from reading it. I love the link to constructivism because it directly explains how creativity occurs within the process of creating something on CoSpaces. Your example animation is awesome and makes me consider what other concepts within the curriculum could be created through CoSpaces. I wonder if you could have an entire class create different animations that showcase different adaptations, this would allow students to evaluate differences and further develop those higher-order thinking skills.
Thanks for this great blog!
Calum Byers
Hi Jeremy,
What an extremely well written blog that was both insightful and engaging. Your linking between CoSpaces and fostering creativity is very clear by you mentioning the specific pedagogy, constructivism. This was furthered by a really well thought out example that was linked to the NSW syllabus. I also really like how you have made original content of you using CoSpaces to show a demonstration of the example activity you provided. Overall, I believe this blog is incredibly beneficial to introducing teachers to CoSpaces and its possible uses within the education context to foster students' creativity.
Thanks,
Olivia Spanswick
12/04/23
Hi Jeremy,
Wow, you've written a amazing, insightful and beneficial blog, which I greatly enjoyed reading.
You've effectively linked CoSpaces to a constructivist pedagogy approach and provided a specific example on how teachers can use this technology to teach a stage 3 Science class. I agree with the limitation you mentioned, however I would suggest you could maybe use an academic reference to back up your statement. I appreciate the effort you put into creating your own virtual world, and the demonstration videos you posted.
This was a well thought out blog, that ticks every component of the rubric.
Djoumana Aoun
Wow. Your blog is always incredibly well written, researched, and articulated, and I really enjoy collecting your perspective on the different topics we cover weekly. You've clearly put a lot of effort into your animation, giving you lots of hands on experience as to what the limitation of CoSpaces could be in the classroom. Your direct syllabus links are incredibly beneficial.
You've done a great job with this post, but I would've loved to have seen just a tiny bit more information on any other potential limitations of using VR/CoSpaces in the classroom.
04/04/2023