This post provides an excellent example on how to design curriculum that integrates the use of 360-degree VR content creation for authentic research and problem-solving in the design and technology subject area. Ella Camporeale, teacher, and co-researcher on the VR School Study, discusses how she went about producing a unit of work for her Year 9 students that allowed them to use VR to create their own virtual world on the topic of sustainability at school.
The unit of work scaffolded students towards understanding the creative potential of VR and how it might be used to allow students to demonstrate deep understanding of digital design and content knowledge of sustainability based on research into the school’s sustainability practice. Students needed to investigate the issue of sustainability at school by engaging with key stakeholders to collect and represent data in their virtual worlds. They were required to produce a range of original content including 360-degree scenes of the school and different media (text, photos, video, gifs, sound files) to embed into the scenes that would tell a story about the broader issue of sustainability and their school’s approach to it. There was also the opportunity to integrate game mechanics to increase user engagement in the VR product.
The unit of work can be found here.
In the video below Ella Camporeale and Erica Southgate discuss curriculum design that integrates VR for deeper learning:
~This post bought to you by real humans, Associate Professor Erica Southgate and Ella Camporeale.
~The platform used in the project was VRTY.
~This research has been funded by the Association of Independent Schools of South Australia (AISSA).
~Cover image from Pexel by Polina Tankilevitch.
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