When I first found out about VR tools and the goggles and using them in my classroom, I honestly thought it was a joke. I thought to myself, how will I use this in my classroom, with my students. In the past few years, I have forgotten about VR tools in the classroom until this module. In November of 2018, I won a raffle and received a free VR holder and thought, how am I going to use this? This module has opened my eyes to the engaging activities that can come for utilizing the VR goggles and program within my classroom. Since I teach social studies, a significant part of our curriculum is U.S history. Taking virtual to tours of different sights around the U.S is an engaging way to inspire my students to see real examples of the artifacts and images we view. Since I teach elementary school, not many of my students have cell phones. We do have a BYOD policy that I use every day in my classroom, but the majority of my students have tablets and not phones. This was a concern of mine when thinking about VR.
After reviewing the module, I remembered using Second Life in my Educational Leadership with a concentration in Technology Leadership course work. We used Second Life to create our ideal school. I collaborated with three other peers. This virtual world would be a great way for students to collaborate with each other in creating a reenactment of a U.S history event and have others in the class take a trip to their world and students can communicate their creation with others in the class. Google tours seemed to be a simple tool for me to use, and I thought about how it would benefit my students. This tool was great for taking trips to the different places we learn about in fifth grade. My example was taking the students to the beaches of Kitty Hawk, NC where the Wright Brothers took their first flight. Knowing that the Wright Brothers were not from Kitty Hawk, in the same presentation, we visited Dayton, Ohio to see where the Wright Brothers lived, and compared the distance from Dayton, OH to Kitty Hawk, NC. As a visual learner myself, it helps students who learn better visually to take these tours to visually see the areas in which we are learning and reading about. Now, as we review the content, students who are visual learners can visualize the places we are learning about to make better connections and internalize the content.
After reviewing the module, I remembered using Second Life in my Educational Leadership with a concentration in Technology Leadership course work. We used Second Life to create our ideal school. I collaborated with three other peers. This virtual world would be a great way for students to collaborate with each other in creating a reenactment of a U.S history event and have others in the class take a trip to their world and students can communicate their creation with others in the class. Google tours seemed to be a simple tool for me to use, and I thought about how it would benefit my students. This tool was great for taking trips to the different places we learn about in fifth grade. My example was taking the students to the beaches of Kitty Hawk, NC where the Wright Brothers took their first flight. Knowing that the Wright Brothers were not from Kitty Hawk, in the same presentation, we visited Dayton, Ohio to see where the Wright Brothers lived, and compared the distance from Dayton, OH to Kitty Hawk, NC. As a visual learner myself, it helps students who learn better visually to take these tours to visually see the areas in which we are learning and reading about. Now, as we review the content, students who are visual learners can visualize the places we are learning about to make better connections and internalize the content.
the divide
In my current school, we have a digital divide. After watching the CBS morning show special on the rural internet connection, it was an eye-opening experience. My current school is in a rural part of Paulding County. I currently live in Paulding County as well, and just two years about received AT&T fiber internet. I just thought they were rolling it out for the first time until I watched this video. My students are affected by this video. Many students do not have access to high-speed internet, and a few of my students do not have home access at all. This is my third year working for PCSD, and just last year we had a significant upgrade to our internet and wireless internet service. I never considered how expensive it would be to have high-speed internet reach rural areas. I have attempted the flipped classroom or at least a blended flipped classroom, and I had several parents reach out and said the video was difficult for their students to watch. I have also taught in urban areas where the only access that students had was cellphone access to the internet.
We provide students and parents with information about the public library and share the internet information the public libraries have to offer. We also understand that parents work and may not have the ability to get their students to the library. Once again, our school is in a rural area, and libraries and fast food restaurants are not close by, travel may be a challenge as well. We share that they can visit fast food restaurants such as McDonalds and others for internet access. During the beginning of the school year, Xfinity offers $14.99 per month internet access to those families who qualify. I do not know if families reach out or not and who qualifies and who does not, but it is offered. To be honest, I do not know what else we can do other than the information offered to families. We are not well off in the money department in our county, so offering internet access outside of school would be a difficult thing for us to do. We have half of our schools on the east side of the county closer to the city, and half are in a rural setting farther away from urban areas. Somehow I would like to offer parents to come into our school to use the computer labs for student work if needed. Then I begin to think who will run this, and where would the money come from to pay this person. This is something I am still bringing up to our administrators. I want to see if this is a possible idea.
References:
CBS This Morning. (2017, August). Digital Divide Between Rural and Urban America. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKhgnFJTpCg
Enriching Your Classroom Through Equitable Technology Integration. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.idra.org/resource-center/enriching-your-classroom-through-equitable-technology-integration/
We provide students and parents with information about the public library and share the internet information the public libraries have to offer. We also understand that parents work and may not have the ability to get their students to the library. Once again, our school is in a rural area, and libraries and fast food restaurants are not close by, travel may be a challenge as well. We share that they can visit fast food restaurants such as McDonalds and others for internet access. During the beginning of the school year, Xfinity offers $14.99 per month internet access to those families who qualify. I do not know if families reach out or not and who qualifies and who does not, but it is offered. To be honest, I do not know what else we can do other than the information offered to families. We are not well off in the money department in our county, so offering internet access outside of school would be a difficult thing for us to do. We have half of our schools on the east side of the county closer to the city, and half are in a rural setting farther away from urban areas. Somehow I would like to offer parents to come into our school to use the computer labs for student work if needed. Then I begin to think who will run this, and where would the money come from to pay this person. This is something I am still bringing up to our administrators. I want to see if this is a possible idea.
References:
CBS This Morning. (2017, August). Digital Divide Between Rural and Urban America. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKhgnFJTpCg
Enriching Your Classroom Through Equitable Technology Integration. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.idra.org/resource-center/enriching-your-classroom-through-equitable-technology-integration/