In my teaching so far, I have not used any technological innovations such as AR, VR, remote learning, immersive worlds or personal assistants. Since I am on mat leave, I have not had the experience of teaching my students remotely yet. I have had experience as a student using remote learning through this MEd program, but I did not have experience with remote synchronous classes until the pandemic.
I plan to use AR and VR in my classroom this coming fall. I think AR and VR could help students connect learning to the real world, make learning more meaningful, and help students better understand abstract concepts. Specifically, I hope to use Google Expeditions in my classroom for students to take virtual field trips and bring abstract concepts to life in the classroom (AR). In my teaching, AR and VR would connect to cognitivism and constructivism. I will be planning thoughtful activities for my students in the hopes of increasing their knowledge and ability, while covering curriculum content. I will be observing the students while they are doing the activities to ensure they are understanding the content and to share their learning with their families. Students also enter school with their own experiences and knowledge and will be building upon that through AR and VR.
One of the challenges to using AR and VR will be that I do not have prior experience with AR and VR, so I will first have to learn these technological innovations myself, then teach my students how to use them. Also, every student has different experiences with technology, and students learn at different paces, so I will ensure to have more adults in the classroom to help groups of students as it can be difficult using technology with kindergarten students and only one adult in the room to help. Lastly, due to the pandemic, new rules are being put in place, including not allowing students to share resources, so students may need to use their own devices (if they have them) or I will have to teach them how to clean the school devices before and after each use. Having parent volunteers will help greatly in this case.
Hi Gurreet,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I agree with your that there will be challenge for both teachers and students. As a teacher, we are always the first persons to test and try the new technology, and it is teachers’ responsibilities to make sure that each student can get the opportunity to use the technology although it is difficult to get each student accessibility to use the educational technology in classroom. How to guide students use the technology in a proper way is an issue for educators and teacher to think about.
Hi Gureet and Eden,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I agree with you that there will be a challenge for both teachers and students. We are lifelong learners. The best teacher is one who is a learner too. We keep on learning new things in our lives. First, the teacher needs to be innovative and face new challenges. Thus, he/she will teach his /her students with innovative ways to get the required outcomes.
Regards
Jaspreet Kaur
Hello Everyone,
It’s great to know how everyone is planning to cope with this unexpected and remarkable change in education. I agree that being a teacher, we should have a great command of the tools so that we can use and teach with those more efficiently. When I see the enthusiasm in others, it really inspires me. Moreover, I also believe lifelong learning is the beauty of this profession. It is our duty to prepare the learner so that they become able to contribute in societal betterment and secure a living.
Regards,
Rajman