Such an issue can only be addressed with time and well-defined creation tools targeted at educational development. Software such as this can allow educators without a coding background to create learning experiences specifically for the needs of their students. Another benefit of such software is that it enables all users by drastically reducing the time needed to create such content. However, in K-12 education, the amount of time given to educators to create content is very limited. It has become expected that content creation should be done on their own time. Such expectations undervalue the specialized development of content for student consumption and the educators’ role in and out of the classroom.
Thus, it becomes important to focus on the current systems in education. Questions like, what is the role of a teacher in the classroom, or what skills are needed to develop specialized content utilizing appropriate technology, need to be addressed. In a perfect scenario, the front-line educator (teacher or lecturer) would be directing and creating classroom content as they have the best understanding of the needs of their students and, most likely, the best approach needed to make meaningful learning experiences. However, such usages require a highly trained individual and are most likely unrealistic in the near future. Thus, what is a more realistic solution in the short term? A few researchers have addressed the idea of learning technologists (or some similar deviation). The idea is that we train or hire highly specialized individuals that help current educators connect the content and pedagogy piece of education to the technology. Such an approach most likely would create the least amount of tension as technology specialists have become the norm in many educational facilities. Nevertheless, for many, the cost of such a specialist is hard to justify as many results may not be as visually tangible or take time to become rooted in the organization’s ethos. It is clear that this is one of those problems that need to be addressed from organization to organization; still, I wonder if some framework can help would-be organizations ease the process.
This post got me thinking about the development side of educational VR and where this skillset fits within current educational systems. Let’s say an instructor miraculously has enough time, knowledge, and skills to integrate an effective pedagogical strategy with VR technology. Who then develops the VR application? I assume the answer is a software developer or programmer of some capacity, so is this a position that currently exists amongst education institutions? Is there a budget for such a thing? I suppose working internally with CS students could be a workaround for institutions to support gamification efforts.
Have you run into anything about who builds the VR applications in your research or practice thus far?
Jon,
No, I do not have know of any development software besides game engines for VR content. It would be nice to have something like Scratch by MIT for VR development applications as it would lower the level of entry.
Jon,
I just remembered CoSpaces (https://cospaces.io/). I found it okay when I used it in the past, I wouldn’t say it was a good drop in solution for VR educational solutions, but it is a start.