In #COM000848 – Facilitating Online Learning this week, “we explore Immersive Reality as an EOR to support online learning that supports learner exploration and authentic online learning environments”.
Pre-Reflection
The question I have relates to education/learning that is about actual interaction with humans in all their diversity and about respecting the strengths, needs, values, beliefs and experiences of people from diverse backgrounds. How do we teach/learn about responding effectively to situations that do not (and should not) be categorised or generalised, or responded to in a way that dismisses context (including sensory, emotionally, dis/comfort, familiarity, implicit/unconscious bias, tone, status…) and incorporates cultural sensitivity, understanding of appropriateness in terms of neuro- and gender diversity, and the above mentioned aspects of diversity?
How can virtual reality provide opportunities to truly experience these diverse and often unexpected or ungeneralisable ‘realities’, let alone test or measure the appropriateness of student responses? It is the unknown and unexpected ‘human’ response variations that concern me here. How can virtual/immersive reality prepare one for such events?
I work in the Faculty of Education (MSGE and across various other institutions) with pre-service teachers. I can fully understand the benefits of Immersive /Virtual Reality in terms of methods (ie teaching areas, or disciplines), particularly since COVID where experiential access is now far greater and so many new opportunities to ‘experience’ locations, information, ideas and become ‘immersed’ exist.
However, my area of interest and expertise relates more to education issues in general – in terms of diversity/difference, pedagogy in terms of relationships, in issues that relate less to the ‘disciplines’ and content (the what) and more about the who, the how and the why.
AITSL (The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) has instituted a number of Standards (APSTs – Australian Professional Standards for Teachers) that include the following:
Of particular relevance are those detailed under Standard 1 :
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards
1.2 Understand how students learn
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability
So again, I reiterate my question, can these pedagogical considerations be achieved or improved or be better implemented through augmented reality technology?
Post Seminar Reflections
Two guest presenters were brought in to present their overviews and experiences with Immersive Reality – Stephen Aiello (Links to an external site.) and Claudio Aguayo (Links to an external site.).
- https://tinyurl.com/MESH360summary (Links to an external site.)
- https://spark.adobe.com/page/btNQ4RjzQMi1L/ (Links to an external site.)
- https://figshare.com/s/862b15d642a8fafc79b1 (Links to an external site.)
In the module content, design principles were introduced, each of which still seem to bypass the human/relational ‘authenticity’ question that relates to my concerns outlined above (and in our presentation on ‘Authentic Learning’).
Design Principle 1: Rather than Perfectly Duplicate, Replicate where Possible and Innovate where Necessary
Design Principle 2: The Collaboration that Is Essential to Instantiating Authentic Tasks-Based Learning Strategies Online Is a New Experience for Most Learners and Must Be Carefully Nurtured
Design Principle 3: The Fidelity of the Simulated Experiential Learning Environment Does Not Have to Be Exceptionally High as Long as it Enables Learners to Suspend Disbelief and Feel that What they Are Experiencing Is Real.
Kartoğlu, Ü., Siagian, R. C., & Reeves, T. C. (2020).
Aguayo, C., Eames, C., & Cochrane, T. (2020, 03/09) offer a framework for complementary mixed reality (XR) and free-choice learning education. Content from Table 1. Pedagogy/heutagogy (teaching and learning principles) is copied below (my highlighting).
i. Focus should be placed in self-determined (heutagogical) learning, where the learning is guided by learners’ motivations and needs.
ii. The placement of the outside-the-classroom visit within a teaching unit is pedagogically important.
iii. The structure of the outside-the-classroom visit is pedagogically and logistically important.
iv. Pre-visit resources can help to sensitise learners and initiate connections to place (the visit site).
v. Use of the mobile learning resources (virtual/immersive environments) should be designed to complement and not detract from sensory (embodied/haptic) experiences in the real environment.
vi. The visit should allow freedom to experience but also have some focus to scaffold learning, and to promote interactions between learners (social learning).
vii. Opportunities for learners to interact with both real and virtual/immersive learning environments increase learner autonomy and engagement.
viii. Learning needs to be reinforced post-visit to deepen knowledge, clarify attitudes and support next learning steps
Whilst this is an excellent list of ways to set up and use mixed reality learning opportunities most effectively, particularly for adult learning, it does not address the types of skills that may be required from instructors (or school teachers) in relation to diversity in terms of i) needs/motivations; iv) sensitisation and initiating connections; v) sensory experiences (or responses); vi) interactions; or viii) attitudes.
After the two presentations, I had the opportunity to ask my question directly to the presenters. Claudio Aguayo (Links to an external site.) outlined a number of projects utilising XR such as “Explora XR Chile” and “Cultural Heritage – Virtual Maroe” that looks at ways of interacting with places of cultural and geographical significance. “Rethinking the future of Maori community health with digital media and warm data” provoked particular interest in terms of the possibilities of utilising qualitative data that centres on “interrelationships that integrate elements of a complex system” – potentially inclusive of cultural and other types of diversity.
Stephen Aiello however, shared the following project with us, that seems to finally acknowledge my recognition and suspicions relating to ‘authenticity’ and diverse relational human dilemmas. He said that my concerns were important ones, and that little research seems to exist on how this might be effectively incorporated into XR simulation.
In the link below, he directly talks about the issues that always concern me – the necessity for cultural competence to be considered and taught; the necessity for us all to examine our own biases, which he associates with “attitudes, assumptions, stereotypes and personal characteristics” and how we need to develop the appropriate skills and knowledge to provide culturally safe and contextually relevant practices and treatments (and in my case, pedagogy).
I am happy now to see some hope in ways that XR simulation/Virtual Reality can be developed and potentially utilised in ways that are able to consider how we can all develop our cultural competence and tackle some of the many issues around how we respond to and get to know other perspectives and beliefs, and ways of understanding the ‘real’ world(s).
References:
Aguayo, C., Eames, C., & Cochrane, T. (2020, 03/09). A Framework for Mixed Reality Free-Choice, Self-Determined Learning [Journal]. Research in Learning Technology, 28(Mobile Mixed Reality – Themed Collection). https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v28.2347
Kartoğlu, Ü., Siagian, R. C., & Reeves, T. C. (2020). Creating a “Good Clinical Practices Inspection” Authentic Online Learning Environment through Educational Design Research. TechTrends : for leaders in education & training, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-020-00509-0
Leve, A & Sayers, R (2021) Authentic Learning https://spark.adobe.com/page/Mc1Uj5DRZPjkK/
Hi Annabelle,
I really enjoyed reading your deliberations on context. As as someone who works in a wide variety of contexts, I think their influence, impact and the challenges they represent can be underestimated. In my context here in Australia in paediatric hospital we have thought about using VR as a tool for providing perspectives on different scenes or experiences safely. For example, viewing a scene from the perspective of a child and allowing our staff or students to walk or sit in their shoes while the business of the hospital goes on around them. Then utilising these with students and looking whether they can prompt reflections on situational awareness or generate empathy. Ultimately you would love to see if that alters their behaviour when they hit the ward in person for the first time. One could argue that you can achieve the same from getting the students to watch rounds or interactions and reflect on the situation, rather than on the technical content of medicine. So what is the value of the VR version? Well, I am not sure yet. Certainly when physical restrictions were (or are) in place it provides access which is not possible in person. I think there is a sense of safety in a VR world and time to explore a scenario. In real life students are ushered in and out by the directions and according to the time constraints of others. What we are doing is not new – other interventions have created auditory hallucinations for students while challenging them to undergo takes, others have taken away sight, vision and dulled senses to get an understanding of ageing. (see review by Batt-Rawden et al, 2013). But we thought we could start simple and see where it makes sense (without too much effort or expense). For out students the first thing they reported was that VR was novel and new…above all they reported it was fun. So perhaps beyond anything else it is a new way to engage.
As I reflected on the VR/XR session you describe above and your postulations on cultural competence the idea of using VR to put someone safely into scenes that may be unfamiliar, cause discomfort and potentially distress (if not handled well) began to grow in my mind. In medicine I think we often think about emergencies and or critical situations which may be rare. Yet, I began to wonder, what about a situation where translation is needed, what about observing a ward round where there are language, cultural and/or social barriers to eliciting the story or explaining the problem to a family – and using a 360 film for an observer to scan the room and pick up on actions/responses/biases/non-verbal and verbal communication. What if we put them in a world where they cannot understand what is happening (by making the setting in a language not of their own). Then of course your blog led me to Stephen Aiello’s excellent presentation. I wondered what others had done and here are a couple:
1. A simple example from international business meetings (https://online-distance.ncsu.edu/teaching-cultural-competencies-through-virtual-reality/) looking at empathy and understanding form reflections on an observed interaction.
2. A study of STEM students exposed to a VR scenario filmed on 360 where they are expected to respond to and reflect on a scenario involving collaboration with international colleagues (partly prompted by the inability to do so with pandemic restrictions, but acknowledging a global view of the world is needed). (Akdere et al 2021) They demonstrated some increases in intercultural competence but interestingly more realistic self reflection by the students of their own competence. I must say after reading this article I realise I have a whole lot to learn myself about this area of work!
Lots of potential. It feels like the challenge is understanding where best to invest our energy and time in these interventions, with a clear idea of why we are turning to VR and what we hope to achieve or impact upon.
References
Batt-Rawden, Samantha A. MBChB; Chisolm, Margaret S. MD; Anton, Blair; Flickinger, Tabor E. MD, MPH Teaching Empathy to Medical Students, Academic Medicine: August 2013 – Volume 88 – Issue 8 – p 1171-1177 doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e318299f3e3
Mesut Akdere, Kris Acheson, Yeling Jiang,
An examination of the effectiveness of virtual reality technology for intercultural competence development,
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Volume 82,
2021, Pages 109-120, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2021.03.009.
Great to see reflection on how your conception of XR in education could be applied Annabelle. Keep in mind that any design principles form a DBR/EDR project will be transferable to similar learning contexts and not necessarily universally applicable to a broader learning context – where perhaps more contextually specific design principles may need to be identified. The examples illustrate the identification of design principles for specific contexts.