I Choo-Choo Choose You! STE(A)M Education & Virtual Reality

As a former English major with a history background turned librarian having a love affair with technology, it may be surprising that I am completely in love with the revitalization of STEM and STE(A)M education. Curriculums all over the world are transforming with the push towards STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education) as something like 80%+ of new jobs will be STEM related in the future (Benken & Stevenson, 2014, p. 3). Even though statistically the majority of students will not pursue STEM specific degrees, it is important for students to have STEM literacy as many day-to-day tasks in both personal and professional lives require STEM knowledge (Benken & Stevenson, 2014, p. 4). STE(A)M incorporates art with science, technology, engineering, and math as people are now realizing how important the arts are to our everyday lives. Art is equalizing between wealthy and impoverished students and art education is proven to help math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skills and also is shown to improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork (Smith, 2009). The site STEAM not STEM (2010) believes art education is a necessity, as art begets creativity, creativity is the key to innovation, and innovation creates new industries and our future economy.

It’s no surprise that the future of our education system will focus on STE(A)M education, but what focus will STE(A)M education have? Many believe that new technologies focusing on virtual reality or virtual learning are the perfect tools to enhance STE(A)M education. In fact, 2016 is predicted to be the year of virtual reality with an abundance of affordable VR headsets hitting the market, broadening the possibilities of VR for both consumers and schools (Bodekaer, 2016; Fildes, 2015). Since many concepts within STE(A)M are based in theory, take place in other worlds or in other time periods, or are difficult to visualize in a 2D world, virtual reality now opens new possibilities, engagement, and differentiation to modern students. Reid and Sykes (2016) note, “With Virtual Learning and 3D internet technologies, the abstract becomes real. Three-dimensional visualization brings STEM ideas to life – abstract concepts like gravity and the Big Bang Theory become experiences to be explored.” Virtual reality allows for exploration, experimentation, design, adaptability, and the reduction of learning barriers. KOI Computers (2016) makes several notes on the distinct possibilities of VR in education, specifically on learning with the tool zSpace. Experiments that were never before possible in a K-12 classroom environment are now not only possible, but easily attainable and reproducible with VR; further, VR allows students to explore the metaphysical world for a personalized learning experience, utilize creative software to design 3D models or replications, and support a differentiated learning experience for different types of learners (KOI Computers, 2010).

Virtual reality allows students to see and experience worlds never before felt by K-12 students. Certainly, medical students were able to see human anatomy, but now it’s possible for students of all ages to see a 3D Brain or even the whole body. Google is even pushing for VR field trips with their Expeditions Pioneer Program where they will work with schools to introduce their new Expeditions virtual reality platform built specifically with education in mind. For this endeavour, Google “worked with teachers and content partners from around the world to create more than 150 engaging journeys - making it easy to immerse students in entirely new experiences” (Google, n.d.). VR can provide amazing experiences never before dreamed of by the common man, such as the heavily awarded and incredibly immersive Apollo 11 experience and the much anticipated Earthlight, which is an authentic experience that immerses players on becoming an astronaut using the Oculus Rift and designed with the partnership of space agencies and astronauts (Earthlight, n.d). Google Cardboard is

leading the way in educational virtual reality, offering such immersive experiences like The Wild Within (360° interactive journey along the British Columbian coast), Orbulus (photo sphere tours of various places around the world and galaxy), InCellVR (exploring cell microworld), KingTutVR (exploring Egyptian art and King Tut’s tomb), among many others. Even toymaker Mattel (partnering with Google) is getting into the VR game by updating its classic View Master and integrating it with a smartphone virtual reality technology (Prpic, 2015). Discovery also dove into the world of virtual reality, offering an app that takes watchers from shark-filled oceans to investigating 3D robotics to taking spacewalks from the International Space Station.

The positive evidence for virtual reality in education is quite significant and growing by the day. Merchant et. al (2014) noted that students who received combination traditional, game, and virtual reality instruction outperformed students who received traditional instruction only. Shin (2002) saw the benefits of even incredibly pixelated VR in STE(A)M education over a decade ago. One area that VR excels in is helping the student recognize spatial behaviour, which is necessary in the study of earth science and that it is much easier to perceive and explore in a 3D environment (Shin, 2002). Burton and Martin (2013)found VR empowering for students, allowing them to take on a myriad of roles (e.g. leader, encourager, etc.) to solve problems when working in a collaborative environment. Han (2013) noted that, because humans are visual, people using VR “are not only watching, looking, and seeing, but are also learning from what they see” (p. 93). Further, virtual learning allows for learning anywhere as “instructors can easily take students off campus for field trips or students can travel outside the campus independently. The whole virtual world can be seen as a learning environment” (Han, 2013, p. 94). Chen and Zap (2013) found STEM projects and interactivities within a 3D, virtual reality setting highly motivated students and provided students with positive feelings of self-efficacy.

Of course, there are some drawbacks to virtual reality. Merchant et. al (2014) emphasized the need for careful decision-making when choosing virtual reality hardware and software and the it “not only involves financial cost but also the efforts to train the teachers to use them effectively” (p. 36). Further, Merchant et. al found that, while virtual reality does add a layer of reality to the learning, game-based learning was more effective than virtual reality and “there is no systemically analyzed evidence of the instructional effectiveness virtual reality-based instruction at different levels of retention” (p. 36). Burton and Martin (2013) found in their research that not all students engaged with virtual reality would necessarily be engaged with the learning task. When too much effort is placed in navigation and creating avatars, “mental resources accessible for the task itself diminishes” (p. 3). Reede and Bailiff (2016) recognized that the statistics on VR in K-12 education have not been gathered yet there has been a recent huge growth in the market, possibly skewing opinions, needs, and usefulness of VR.

Virtual reality is a tool to provide an immersive experience for a variety of subjects, but most of what is currently being developed for VR in education revolves around STEM. Despite many claiming VR changing the face of education forever, it’s simply a really cool tool that can add dimension, interactivity, differentiation, and visualization to lessons that were previously quite flat. I am completely in favour of modernizing our education system as our modern students do learn differently than students of the past. Virtual reality will help connect digitally entwined students to theory and abstract thought never before possible. The prospect of teaching and learning STE(A)M subject with virtual reality is honestly quite exciting, but educators must remember that VR is simply a tool to aid education, not a replacement for it, and just as in classroom technology can be distracting and inadvertently push students off of the task, so too can virtual reality. Lastly, most VR is too new, too costly, too under-utilized, and too under-developed for any researcher to really have any notion on how much it is going to positively or negatively affect K-12 STE(A)M education. That being said, the future of a reinvented STE(A)M curriculum with the addition of virtual reality apps and hardware looks engaging, powerful, motivational, and really, really fun.

References

Benken, B., & Stevenson, H. (2014). STEM Education: Educating Teachers for a New World. Issues In Teacher Education,23(1), 3-9.

Bodekaer, M. (2016, January 23). Virtual Reality is Coming to Classroom Near You. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://gettingsmart.com/2016/01/virtual-reality-is-coming-to-classroom-near-you/

Burton, B. & Martin, B. (2013). Student Engagement and the Creation of Knowledge Within a 3D Virtual Learning Environment. In Steven D’Agustino (Ed.) Immersive Environments, Augmented Realities, and Virtual Worlds: Assessing Future Trends in Education. (1-15). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Chen, J. & Zap, N. (2013). Using Virtual Environments to Motivate Students to Pursue STEM Careers: An Expectancy-Value Model. In Steven D’Agustino (Ed.) Immersive Environments, Augmented Realities, and Virtual Worlds: Assessing Future Trends in Education. (43-56). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Earthlight. (n.d.). Earthlight. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://www.earthlightvr.com/#earthlight-landing

Fildes, N. (2015, December 17). 2016 set to be year virtual reality takes off- raconteur.net. Retrieved May 27, 2016, from http://raconteur.net/technology/2016-set-to-be-year-virtual-reality-takes-off

Google. (n.d.). Expeditions Pioneer Program - Google. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from https://www.google.ca/edu/expeditions/

Han, H. (2013). Visual Learning in the Virtual World: The Hidden Curriculum of Imagery in Second Life. In Steven D’Agustino (Ed.) Immersive Environments, Augmented Realities, and Virtual Worlds: Assessing Future Trends in Education. (89-104). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Merchant, Z., Goetz, E. T., Cifuentes, L., Keeney-Kennicutt, W., & Davis, T. J. (2014, August 6). Effectiveness of virtual reality-based instruction on students' learning outcomes in K-12 and higher education: A meta-analysis. Computers & Education, 70, 29-40. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2013.07.033

Prpic, H. (2015, October 26). The Learning World of Tomorrow - Can Virtual Reality Impact STEM Education? Retrieved June 8, 2016, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-world-tomorrow-can-virtual-reality-impact-stem-prpic?trkSplashRedir=true&forceNoSplash=true

KOI Computers. (2016). Virtual Reality for Education: Transforming and Accelerating STEM Educaiton. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://www.koicomputer.com/virtual-reality-for-education/

Learning Liftoff Staff. (2016, February 08). How Virtual Reality Can Enhance STEM Education - Learning Liftoff. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://www.learningliftoff.com/how-virtual-reality-can-enhance-stem-education/#.V1iIwpMrLqT

Reede, E., & Bailiff, L. (2016, January 23). When Virtual Reality Meets Education. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://techcrunch.com/2016/01/23/when-virtual-reality-meets-education/

Reid, B., & Sykes, W. (2016). Learning in 3D: Making STEM Real. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://www.advanc-ed.org/source/learning-3d-making-stem-real

Shin, Y. (2002). Virtual reality simulations in Web‐based science education. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 10(1), 18-25.

Smith, F. (2009, January 28). Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who's Doing It Best. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development

Steam not Stem. (2010). Steam Not Stem Mission Statement. Retrieved June 08, 2016, from http://steam-notstem.com/