Jaime Donally and Jon Spike deliver educational virtual reality sessions and how they offer unique learning opportunities

This year’s IDEAcon took place in Illinois in the US and was attended by over 5000 educators.  A four day event, it provided an opportunity for US EdTech speakers and influencers to share their projects and ideas.

Jaime Donally, a former maths teacher, presented a number of educational virtual reality sessions including Using AR/VR for the individual learner and AR and VR Playground.  Very active on social media, Jaime often holds tweetmeets on how VR and AR can improve learning.  She recently released a book titled: Learning Transported: Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality for All Classrooms.

Jon Spike, Coordinator of Instructional Technology Integration Services at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, shared a variety of VR apps that educators can integrate into lessons to enhance, engage and extend learning goals.  This was described as the Triple E-Framework and the concept originates from the work of Professor Liz Kolb at the University of Michigan in 2011.

“Our classrooms are full of diverse learners. Using immersive technology in our teaching strategies should target students’ interests, provide flexibility for a range of skill levels and empower our students choice in their learning. The shift from general to personalized learning requires using the tools beyond the intended use to maximize the benefits. Finding the greatest gain of the tools demand app smashing and hacking to create the opportunities that would otherwise not exist,” Jamie Donally, Speaker, Author and Consultant

Jon discussed the VR hardware options available to educators and suggested that the first step for an educator is to select a budget level.  Following this the next decision should be to choose between one of the following three recommended devices, listed from least – most expensive: Google Daydream, Oculus Go or Quest and the HTC Vive.