|
Volume 1, Issue 2 ISSN 1528-5804
Print
Version
Commentaries
Submit a Commentary
Sherman, G., & Hicks, D. (2000). Using a
historic site to develop virtual reality-enchanced web-based
instructional material: Learning to use technology as a partner in
the classroom. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher
Education, [Online serial], 1 (2) .
Available:
http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss2/currentissues/socialstudies/article1.htm
Using a Historic Site to Develop Virtual Reality-Enhanced
Web-Based Instructional Material: Learning to Use Technology as a
Partner in the Classroom
GREG SHERMAN
and DAVID HICKS
Virginia Tech
The computer has the potential to facilitate widespread access
to ideas and information. Information that might otherwise be
unaffordable can be reviewed, and students can explore the world on
virtual field trips that would otherwise be impossible (Berson,
2000, p. 127)
Over the last decade a growing number of social studies
educators have mirrored Berson’s contention that interactive
technologies hold a great deal of potential for transforming the
teaching and learning of social studies (Braun, Jr. & Risinger,
1999; Diem, 1999, 1997; Martorella, 1998, 1997; Hope, 1996; Klenow,
1992; Mason, et al, 2000; NCSS, 1994; Saye & Brush, 1999;
White, 1999; Yeager & Morris, 1995). Today, social studies
teachers wishing to use computer-based technology to help them
develop, define, and support effective learning environments have
many options at their disposal. Some of the more obvious choices
teachers can make surrounding the instructional use of computers
include selecting potentially effective commercially produced
social studies content applications, using the World Wide Web (WWW
or Web) to access resources and conduct research, and authoring
text-based as well as multimedia instructional material. However,
research continues to suggest that despite the perceived potential
of technology, many social studies teachers are currently reluctant
or unable to utilize content specific uses of technology in their
professional practice (Ehman & Glenn, 1991, Berson, 1996;
Freiwald, 1997; Martorella, 1998;
National Assessment of Educational Progress , 1999).
Although a variety of factors ostensibly contribute to the
actual decisions that teachers make about the role computers might
play in the instructional process, one important factor common for
all teachers is their level of awareness regarding the
instructional uses of computers (Hardy, 1998; Roblyer &
Edwards, 2000). If technology is truly going to play a role in
transforming/reforming a subject that has been observed by
generations of researchers and students as clinging to a pattern of
didactic teaching (Baxter, Ferrell, & Wiltz, 1964; Goodlad,
1984; Shaver, Davis Jr., & Helburn, 1980; Wiley & Race,
1977), the challenge for teacher educators today is to provide
opportunities for preservice and inservice teachers to use
technology as a partner within and through their teaching so they
can begin to independently make decisions surrounding the type of
instructional material to be developed or augmented with
computer-based technology, as well as define the role that
computers themselves will play within the instructional experience
(Allesi & Trollip, 1991; Grabe & Grabe, 1996).
The types of different instructional material available as well
as the different ways in which computers could be used within
various learning environments represent important areas within the
professional practice of teachers that need to be continuously and
consistently updated in order for them to make the best possible
decisions about the instructional use of computers in the
classroom. In an effort to address the needs of practicing
educators concerned with improving their ability to use
computer-based technology more effectively in the classroom, a
week-long intensive course was facilitated through the
instructional technology program at Virginia Tech during June,
2000. This course was designed to help make teachers more aware of
one specific, emerging area of computer-based technology: virtual
reality (VR) on the WWW.
The overall purpose of the course was to provide an overview of
the different ways in which VR is currently used within web-based
environments in general, to examine the possibilities of web-based
VR within effective instructional experiences, to instruct the
participants in a variety of ways to construct VR for web-based
instruction, and finally to immerse the teachers in a project that
used the contexts of a local historical site and the Virginia
Standards of Learning (SOL’s) to generate a VR enhanced
instructional website for their classrooms. Although the course was
open to all educators, the nature of the course activities and make
up of the class led to a series of projects that were social
studies-focused, and subsequently the results (teacher-generated
projects) of the course were examined from a social
studies/instructional design and development perspective. The
purpose of this article is to describe the project development
experience and reflect on the results of the course in light of the
way the participating educators generated VR-enhanced web-based
social studies instructional material.
Description of the Course
The overall goal for the week-long instructional VR course was
the following:
After experiencing the week-long course, the students will be
able to create websites that incorporate the use of VR within an
instructional experience. Specifically, the course project website
created by each student will present one or more aspects of a
Virginia historic site and it will support in some way the learning
of specified Virginia Standards of Learning. In the process,
students may also learn how to utilize a variety of software
packages to develop web-based VR material.
The historic site referred to within the goal statement was
Yellow Sulphur Springs, a piece of property located less than three
miles from the Virginia Tech campus in the surrounding Blue Ridge
Mountains. Today, Yellow Sulphur Springs includes a hotel and
springhouse constructed in the early 1800’s, a series of row
cottages constructed throughout the past 150 years, the remains of
a two-lane bowling alley, and various foundations from other hotels
and structures occupying the property throughout the past 200 years
(see Figure 1). The property was used as a health spa in southwest
Virginia from antebellum times to the early 1920’s. Following
the Civil War, Yellow Sulphur Springs entertained a number of
famous Confederate military leaders, including Generals Jubal Early
and P.T. Beauregard (Cohen, 1981). After falling into disrepair
during the Great Depression era, the property was used by the
Virginia Transient Bureau to house up to 400 hobos in the late
1930’s. A number of stonework structures, including the
prominent fairy garden, were constructed by transient men learning
masonry trade skills (Fishwick, 1978).
Figure 1. This picture presents
the old hotel at Yellow Sulphur Springs in the background, with a
portion of the Fairy Garden presented in the left foreground. June,
2000.
The course began with a brief electronic presentation of the
history of the Yellow Sulphur Springs property, complete with
digital pictures of some of the structures and artifacts located
within the historic site. Following this overview, the students
were presented with a brief description of the project that each
student, working alone or with a partner, would need to accomplish
by the end of the week. Students were informed that they were going
to tour the property at the end of the first day of class, and that
their entire project would involve the creation of an instructional
website that incorporated the use of VR files to represent Yellow
Sulphur Springs visual content to support the learning of specific
Virginia SOL’s. These standards can be accessed at the
following site: http://www.pen.k12.va.us/go/Sols/home.shtml
. The following outline depicting the major steps involved in the
project was provided:
Project Development Outline
Step One: Decide on a partner if desired. Consider
existing technical and ID experiences before making such a
decision.
Step Two: Decide which SOL(s) the instruction will
address. The website can address any of the Virginia SOL’s.
Single outcomes are fine, as well as any combination from the
various content areas.
Step Three: Identify a meaningful learning context for
the facilitation of the SOL(s).
Step Four: Determine which instructional components will
be addressed within the VR-enhanced web experience. Websites do not
need to be a complete instructional program; they can address any
of the instructional components representing good design
(introduction, activity, practice/feedback, review, assessment,
transfer).
Step Five: Describe the role of the VR files within the
instruction experience, and decide the location and type(s) of
images to capture. Note: A good idea in planning the development of
VR files is to sketch a bird's-eye-view of the Yellow Sulphur
Springs site and then mark on this map the locations of all the
panoramas and/or objects to be created.
Step Six: Capture the images. This may also involve
scanning in existing historical images from print sources.
Step Seven: Create the VR files using one of the
applications provided: Quicktime VR Authoring Studio (Apple
Computer, Inc.), VR ToolWorx (VR Toolbox, Inc.), Canoma
(MetaCreations Corp.), PhotoVista/Reality Studio (MGI Software
Corp.).
Step Eight: Create the website that will display all the
text, image, and VR files. Place all files in assigned folders on
the server.
Step Nine: Make sure the final project includes the
following information regarding "Notes to Educators" is somewhere
within the site:
-
SOL's addressed are clearly
identified.
-
Instructional context that is defined by
the website is clearly identified and described.
-
Instructional components of the website
are clearly identified.
-
Conditions for each type of SOL or
outcome supported by the website are clearly
identified.
-
Suggestions for implementing the
instructional website within a classroom setting (directions for
group assignments, external resources needed, pre- and
post-implementation activities etc.).
Step Ten: Present the final project on the afternoon of
the fifth day of class. Once the nature of the instructional design
project was made clear, the course proceeded with the presentation
of some of the important vocabulary associated with VR, starting
with the term “virtual reality” itself. Although many
different definitions for virtual reality exist (McLellan, 1996),
the following definition was used as a starting point for the
presentation of VR as an instructional tool:
Virtual Reality represents a computer-based, highly interactive
3-dimensional (3D) approximation of something that is designed to
be perceived as real as possible, and/or represent reality in as
concrete a manner as possible while enabling users to freely
explore the represented environment and/or those objects contained
within the VR environment.
Following the presentation of this definition of VR, information
and examples were presented that illustrated the concrete manner in
which VR is currently used within web-based environments (and the
manner in which the students might choose to use VR in their own
projects). These examples included the most common ways in which VR
content is represented on the WWW: the presentation of panoramas,
objects, and scenes. A panorama VR file is usually a 360-degree
(though it can be a partial circle) display of a photorealistic
scene as viewed from a stationary point in the “middle”
of the display (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. A sample virtual reality panorama
file depicting a room in an art museum.
Objects are usually photorealistic 3D renderings of discrete
objects. The user can manipulate the object by clicking and
dragging to display the object from virtually any angle. Objects
can also represent audio files that appear to emanate from a fixed
point within a panorama. In addition, objects can be
high-resolution photographs displayed within a fixed point inside a
panorama (see Figure 3).
Figure 3. A sample virtual reality object
file depicting an ornamental clock.
Scenes are combinations of panoramas and objects, usually linked
together as “nodes.” Nodes are normally accessed by
clicking within a hotspot designated as a geometric space inside a
panorama. Nodes within a panorama typically represent links to
other panoramas, other websites, high-resolution digital picture
files, animated digital picture files, object files, digital movie
files, or digital audio files see Figure 4).
Figure 4. A sample virtual reality scene
representing many files linked together to depict the various
chambers and passageways within one of the Great Pyramids.
Once the basic terminology associated with web-based VR content
was presented, the students received a brief overview of the types
of VR files that are typically authored for the WWW. To date, there
are two popular ways in which VR files are written and delivered
across the Internet: Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and
Quicktime Virtual Reality (QTVR). VRML represents an international
standard file format for delivering and presenting 3D objects and
scenes (Hartman, Wernecke, & Carey, 1996). Created by Silicon
Graphics, Inc., VRML files usually contain rendered images, rather
than digital photographs, along with the VRML code controlling the
activity of these graphic files. VRML files bring together objects,
frames, textures, and sounds and present them within scenes or
virtual worlds” ranging from simple rotating 3-D artifacts to
complete video game-style environments. Creating VRML-based worlds
are fairly labor-intensive and generally require programming
knowledge. Apple Computer’s QTVR is a cross-platform file
format standard which allows extremely high-quality photographed or
rendered 3D environments or objects. Although other photorealistic
VR file types exist, QTVR generally represents the standard for
this type of VR file and will be used throughout this article as
the definitive example of this type of VR. QTVR technology allows
computer users to quickly and easily create and view either a
panorama from a 360-degree perspective or an object from all sides.
Most QTVR panoramas or objects are created from digital photographs
with little or no programming required, and can be used without
corresponding code files if desired.
Once the nuts and bolts of VR files and content were presented,
the students in the course were provided with an overview of the
different ways in which both VRML as well as QTVR have been used on
the WWW throughout the past couple years. As might be expected, the
most widespread use of VR on the web throughout the past 5 years
has been within commercial applications. Real estate property
previews, online auctions, architecture and landscaping proposals,
and automobile advertisements represent some of the different ways
in which products are displayed in detail within VR files across
the WWW. In addition to a variety of business applications, VR is
also used on the Web to display 3-D data within scientific web
environments, such as molecular modeling and topographical
renderings. VR content is also used to enhance websites designed to
promote artistic, entertainment, and educational interests. Table 1 presents a variety of
examples describing the different categories of VR use on the WWW,
including some corresponding links to VR-enhanced websites.
After the students were oriented to the different ways in which
VR has been used on the WWW in general, they were presented with
some specific information about the manner in which VR might be
used specifically for instructional purposes. This information was
based on the different roles that interactive computer-based media
play within the instructional design and development process. Since
the class project involved the development of instructional
material to support the learning of specified outcomes, the entire
development process was placed within the framework of a
prescriptive, systematic instructional design (ISD) model. The ISD
model presented to the students in the class was based on the Dick
and Carey (1996) model of instructional design. Within this model,
instructional goals are defined and then analyzed to determine the
scope and sequence of subordinate outcomes to be facilitated by the
instruction. Once the goal and objectives are clearly articulated,
instructional experiences are designed to facilitate all or some of
the objectives defining the goal. In the case of the assigned
project, students were compelled to include the Virginia
SOL’s of their choice as the goal and/or subordinate
objectives. The instructional experience itself needed to include
one or more of the components constituting a complete instructional
plan in accordance with the Dick and Carey model employed:
introduction, activities, practice/feedback, review, assessment,
and transfer. Table 2 VR Within
Instructional Components presents a description of the
different elements included within each instructional component. In
addition to simply listing the elements for each component, Table 2
also identifies which elements could be readily supported through
the use of VR technologies within an instructional experience. This
information was presented to the class in great detail, with an
emphasis on the different ways in which VR might be used for
instructional purposes. For example, a website introducing learners
to an instructional experience about ancient Egyptian culture could
use a QTVR scene to present the inside of a pyramid. As presented
in the list of elements for an effective introduction (Table 2),
the VR pyramid tour might serve to gain learner attention, present
a “Big Picture” for the entire lesson, or help
establish relevancy for learning the outcomes intended by the site
developers (i.e., after the tour, the instruction may ask
“why” or “how” questions pertaining to
pyramid construction). The students were provided with examples of
the instructional uses of web-based VR for most of the elements
indicated within Table 2, and were encouraged to imagine how
different VR representations of Yellow Sulphur Springs might be
used within an instructional experience.
Just addressing specific, discrete instructional elements does
not represent the only way in which VR, or any other form of
mediated message presentation, could be used to support and define
an instructional experience. Helping to establish a meaningful,
purposeful context for learning and/or applying an instructional
goal is also one of the roles that media play within instruction.
For example, because VR is highly interactive and controlled by
sophisticated computer software, it can be used to structure
simulations that enable users to make decisions about the
development and subsequent operation of a simulated environment or
situation. As informational tools, VR files can readily be
implemented within reference exploration as well as more
traditionally instructional tutorial contexts. Table 3: Classification of
Technology-Supported Educational Contexts presents all the
different types of instructional contexts that were presented to
the students in the course.
Following the brief presentation of the different ways in which
VR has been used within web-based environments, and the manner in
which VR could be used for instructional purposes through context
definition as well as through the delivery of one or more types of
instructional components, the students were presented with the
specifics of the course project. The major activities surrounding
the development of the course project included planning the
instructional website and constructing the VR content to be used
within the website. Based on the information and examples
presented, the students were provided with the project grading
criteria before entering into the planning stage. The following
list describes the three different categories of project grading
criteria presented to the students:
General Instructional Nature of Website
The website must present “information for educators”
that should, at a minimum, include the following information:
-
SOL’s addressed are clearly
identified;
-
Instructional context that is defined by
the website is clearly identified and described;
-
Instructional components of the website
are clearly identified;
-
Conditions for each type of SOL or
outcome supported by the website are clearly identified;
and
-
Suggestions for implementing the
instructional website within a classroom setting (directions for
group assignments, external resources needed, pre- and
postimplementation activities, etc.)
Instructional Use of VR
VR is present and is used to improve the effectiveness of the
learning experience in one or more of the following way(s):
-
Define motivation-meaningful-purposeful
context;
-
Introduce the instruction;
-
Provide meaningful-purposeful-motivation
discrete activities;
-
Present information in as concrete a
manner as possible;
-
Provide practice/feedback over specific
skills;
-
Help learners review instructional
experience;
-
Assess the learning of specific skills;
and
-
Provide an opportunity for students to
transfer or apply previously-learned skills to new
environment.
Creative Use of VR
VR used in creative ways to address the learning of specific
SOL’s. For example:
-
Site navigation;
-
Presentation of multiple bodies of
information (history, biography, art, architecture, science,
culture, literature, writing etc.);
-
VR as interactive art;
-
VR as a way to compare/contrast times,
places, people, and so forth;
-
VR as a game; and
-
VR to encourage exploration.
Once the particulars surrounding the evaluation of the final
products were presented, the course participants were given a tour
of the actual Yellow Sulphur Springs property and then left to
their own devices to proceed with development of their
instructional VR project. Many students had already selected
partners by the end of the first day, and most of the teams
attended one of the informal sessions on using digital cameras
during the evening of the first day. Throughout the week,
individual tutorial sessions were facilitated through the on-campus
educational technology computer lab at Virginia Tech. These
tutorial sessions included panoramic camera operations, using
various VR software products, and constructing basic web pages.
Participants were encouraged to attend those sessions addressing
skills that they needed help learning outside the independent route
of trial-and-error and consulting user guides and manuals. In
addition to the on-campus support, the course instructor as well as
a graduate assistant remained available at the Yellow Sulphur
Springs site to answer questions and troubleshoot technical
problems, of which there were many.
By the afternoon of the last day of the course, all project URLs
had been submitted to the instructor, and links were made on a menu
displaying all course projects. The current URL of the course
itself, along with the menu of projects, is: http://www.learning.ed.vt.edu/webvr
. (Note: the address of the project menu is http://www.learning.ed.vt.edu/webvr/projects_menu.htm
).
Projects were presented to a panel of judges consisting of the
course instructor, a distance learning faculty member, and the
owners of the Yellow Sulphur Springs property. The results and
discussion section that follows describes the projects in more
detail and summarizes some of the more common features between the
different projects.
Results and Discussion
Eleven interdisciplinary VR projects were developed in the
course, with most students choosing to work with a partner
throughout the weeklong experience. Two of the final projects were
specifically designed for elementary school, one for middle school,
one for high school, and four for middle and high school. In almost
every case, the primary instructional objectives/outcomes were
based upon the Virginia SOL's, with the majority falling into the
social studies/history category. Table 4: Number of Projects
Addressing Different Outcomes Types displays the number of
projects addressing all the different discipline-specific outcome
types addressed. The only project not specifically addressing at
least one social studies SOL was a website that focused on art
history and the work of a specific folk artist. Objectives from the
visual arts were represented within this project.
Table 5: VR Course Project
Activity and Outcome Descriptions, provides a brief description
of the projects developed, including each project’s context
type classified from Table 4, as well as a listing of the general
social studies outcomes addressed. What becomes clear in examining
each project is that the nature, history, and location of Yellow
Sulphur Springs led different groups to use particular sets of
social studies objectives to drive their projects. Five projects
were developed along the theme of people, places, and environment.
Two of these in particular focused on the influence of urban
development and the environment in direct response to the location
and impact of the building of a nearby freeway extension on Yellow
Sulphur Springs. The other three people-place-environment projects
used the historical site to either examine how humans influence or
are influenced by their environment in relation to the use of the
springs. Table 5 also
describes five different projects that focused on more
history-based outcomes. These five projects used Yellow Sulphur
Springs as a historical source that could be examined, explored,
and analyzed by students to make generalizations about life in
Virginia. Three of these projects sought to layer the history of
Yellow Sulphur Springs within the context of ideas and events in
the 1920s and 1930s.
It is also worth noting that while the teachers were introduced
to a range of instructional context types for their VR project,
upon categorizing each project it became evident that the teachers
favored specific context types. Table 6 presents a tabulation of
the different context types structured by the VR-enhanced,
web-based instructional material. These data indicate that nine
projects used creation as a key guiding principle within the
learning experience, in which students were provided with
opportunities to create something as they worked with the various
resources presented within the site. These creation activities
predominantly involved writing papers and journals. The use of
writing may explain the emphasis given to language arts SOL’s
in conjunction with social studies SOL’s within many of the
projects as depicted in Table 4. One particular project,
“Pieces of the Past,” is noteworthy within the creation
cluster because students experiencing this website are expected to
use the teacher-generated VR project as a foundation or template in
the development of their own VR project focusing on a local
historical site of their choice.
The data in Table 6: Number
of Projects Incorporating the Different Content Types indicate
that six projects provided students with the opportunity to explore
and access references and gather information by way of the use of
historical scrolls or dictionary definitions as they moved
throughout the sites. The data in Table 6 also specify that four
projects provided students with an opportunity to freely explore
the Yellow Sulphur Springs site within a contrived situation;
examples of “situation exploration” context types. For
example, in the website titled “My Walk Into the Past:
Journal Entries from Yellow Sulphur Springs,” the intended
users (middle- and high-school students) were presented with the
following directions at the beginning of the web-based
experience:
On your summer vacation, your family traveled through
Southwestern Virginia and spent a few days exploring Yellow Sulphur
Springs Resort in Christiansburg, VA. The resort is now abandoned,
however, your parents recall their grandparents (your
great-grandparents) recounting visits to the resort during their
younger years. Use the following links to explore the resort and
develop your personal journal of your walk into the past.
This constitutes an excellent example of a structured learning
environment in which learning and applying targeted outcomes are
given meaning and purpose when facilitated within the context of a
pretend situation. Situation exploration contexts are also used
frequently in combination with game contexts. One such project,
“Yellow Sulphur Springs VR Visit,” incorporated the use
of a motivating game within the context of situation exploration by
encouraging students to complete a series of puzzles as they moved
through the simulated environment of Yellow Sulphur Springs. It is
also worth noting that, while incorporating VR files of Yellow
Sulphur Springs into the information presentation display, four
projects served no other purpose than to present information on
aspects of the site’s history.
It was not easy to readily categorize every single project into
one or more of the different context types, and it was even more
difficult to clearly identify which instructional components the
websites themselves were addressing within a complete instructional
experience. This was due in part to the limited amount of time the
participants had to design and develop their VR-enhanced, web-based
instructional material. If they had enough time to generate a
complete instructional program, it would have been easier for the
students to describe the specific instructional components
addressed by their projects. However, the participants were asked
to briefly describe how and where their web-based material would
fit into a complete unit of instruction. Readers are encouraged to
examine the “teacher notes” within each site to
discover how the participants chose to describe the instructional
role(s) of their web-based material.
Conclusion
The variety of completed projects developed within the one-week
intensive course illustrates the potential uses of VR for teachers
who want to use local historic sites and locations to study such
themes as Time, Continuity, and Change; People, Places, and
Environment; and Civic Ideals and Practices. The VR course
described within this article provided teachers with an opportunity
to collaborate with colleagues and teacher educators to learn the
mechanics of web-based VR, as well as learn how and why they might
choose to integrate VR technologies within their own professional
practice. As one participant noted:
The whole process was very enlightening for me. I can understand
now exactly how some of the VR is created and I felt like it gave
me the opportunity to be a voice in the development of a program
and purchase of equipment for our school…I think there is
much potential for helping students to experience places and things
that they would have little opportunity to see or visit. Whether it
is a historical location or simply a part of world culture they
might be studying. VR presents an incredible opportunity to
experience of visit somewhere with a sense of first hand
impressions.
A similar perspective was shared by one of the developers of
“Pieces of the Past” who, upon completing the course,
stated ‘ I can see a variety of applications within the
classroom that would help enhance learning in the social studies
…’
In terms of instructional contexts, the range of projects
developed within the course does highlight the importance of
helping teachers move away from learning how to use technology
simply for the sake of using it toward learning how to use various
technologies to transform their teaching. Such projects as
“Spring into History: Yellow Sulphur Springs” uses the
power of computers to establish a rich situation exploration
learning context. As one of the site developers commented,
Virtual Reality has many possibilities in the classroom. One of
the most significant is that it creates a situation exploration
environment in which the students can travel to and through
different time periods. Here, students can experience firsthand
what life would have been like to live during a specific time
period. They are not only reading about the given topic but placed
within the environment so that they must make decisions concerning
that context. For the visual learner, this type of historical
context helps them remember what they need to know. To begin to do
this in terms of encouraging and motivating students to begin
situation explorations etc., to create and to…. As one
participant pointed out learning the technology was only the first
step in integrating technology into her teaching. Integrating such
technology for her involved having her students develop their own
VR projects ‘I teach 8 th grade students. I
don’t believe that they would have any trouble creating the
web- based VR content given a little bit of instruction.’
Although most of the projects supported and defined situation
exploration, simulation, and reference exploration experiences as
their principle history-related contexts, they all incorporated the
use of a creation context as well (generating reports, journal
entries, stories, etc.). The three projects that simply defined the
presentation of information as their context did not include
creation as part of the learning experience. Upon closer
examination, these projects did little more than transmit
information to students while providing VR shots of the historic
site. Although these linear-based information presentation sites
could be used in conjunction with other material to produce a more
meaningful learning experience, as stand-alone instruction these
projects reinforce the instructionally incomplete information
delivery genre of traditional social studies teaching.
Based on anecdotal evaluation data, many teachers not only saw
the potential and possibilities of using such technology within
their teaching, but also gained both a degree of comfort with, and
feeling of control over, how VR technology could be used within
their classrooms. It is important to note, however, that practical
concerns such as the availability of hardware and software within
the participants’ schools were seen as stumbling blocks that
would need to be overcome. This situation was clearly explicated by
one participant who noted,
If given the software and several digital cameras, I could
easily use my community and school to create a VR environment. It
would be a wonderful collaborative learning experience to have my
students create VR. I would use this in context with the Virginia
SOL’s in a number of ways. The students could create VR while
learning good computer skills, the targeted SOL’s, group
skills, and how their community fits into our state and the country
as a whole. I feel that teachers need to have experiences with the
learning material before it can be truly successful in the
classrooms.
Such comments punctuate the legitimate need for the development
of supportive networks within and through institutions of teacher
education, including on-going technology training, collaboration
and adequate technical support. Without such support, it will
continue to be difficult for teachers to truly learn how and why to
integrate interactive technologies like VR into such content-rich
subjects as social studies. In addition, the danger remains that
teachers, while ready, willing, and able to learn the mechanics of
technology in teacher education courses, will fail to implement
what they have learned when they return to their classrooms simply
because the networks of collaboration and support have been broken.
And on this final note, the need for resources above all else was
clearly communicated in an e-mail correspondence to the instructor
following the conclusion of the course:
I am certainly glad I have had this experience. I definitely
think my 6th grade students could create web-based VR. I would have
them use the school and community environments to create VR. The
community where I teach used to be the cabbage capital of the
world. There are wonderful opportunities just waiting to be
explored and combined with the Virginia SOL’s. I would also
use VR to help my students with vital communication, decision, and
group skills. But of course, money is an issue. If you have any
extra copies of a VR program dusting up your office, just let me
know!
References
Allesi, S., & Trollip, S. (1991). Computer-based
instruction: Methods and development . Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Baxter, M.G., Ferrell, R.H., & Wiltz, J.E. (1964). The
teaching of American history in high schools . Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University.
Berson. M.J. (1996) Effectiveness of computer technology in
social studies: A review of the literature. Journal of Research
on Computing in Education 28 (4), 486-499.
Braun, J.A., & Risinger, C.F. (Eds.) (1999). Surfing
social studies: The Internet book . Bulletin 96 (pp.
121-128) Washington D.C; NCSS
Cohen, S. (1981). Historic springs of the Virginias: A
pictorial history . Charleston, W. Va.: Pictorial
Histories.
Diem, R. (1999, September October). Editor's notes. Social
Studies and the Young Learner, 2 (1). p. 2.
Ehman, L.H., & Glenn, A.D. (1991). Interactive technology in
the social studies. In J.P. Shaver (Ed), Handbook of research on
social studies teaching and learning (pp. 513-522). New York:
Macmillan.
Fishwick, M. (1978). Springlore in Virginia . Bowling
Green, OH: Popular Press.
Freiwald, W.D. (1997). Computer use in elementary social
studies . (Eric Document Reproduction Service No, ED 418
024)
Goodlad, J. (1984). A place called school . New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Grabe, M., & Grabe, C. (1996). Integrating technology for
meaningful learning . Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Hardy, J. (1998). Attitudes toward and knowledge of computer
technology. Computers in Education, 14 (3-4), 119-136.
Hartman, J., Wernecke, J., & Carey, R. (1996). The VRML
2.0 handbook: Building moving worlds on the Web . New York:
Addison-Wesley.
Hope, W.C. (1996). It’s time to transform social studies
teaching. The Social Studies 87 (4) 149-151.
Klenow, C. (1992). Electronic social studies Instructor,
102 (3), 65-66.
Mason, C., Berson, M., Diem, R., Hicks, D., Lee, J., &
Dralle, T (2000). Guidelines for using technology to prepare social
studies teachers. Contemporary Issues in Tecnology and Teacher
Education, 1 (1) [Online serial].
Available:http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss1/currentissues/socialstudies/article1
Martorella, P. (1997). (Ed.). Interactive technologies and
the social studies . Albany, NY: State University of New
York.
Martorella, P. (1998, Fall). Technology and the social studies
or which way to the sleeping giant? Theory and Research in
Social Education, 25 , pp. 511-14.
McLellan, H. (1996). Virtual realities. In D. Jonassen (Ed.),
Handbook of research for educational communications and
technology (pp. 457-487). New York: Simon and Schuster
Macmillan.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (1999). Results
from the 1998 civics assessment . [On-line]. Available: http://www.nces.ed.gov/
nationsreportcard/civics/civ_new_results.asp.
National Council for the Social Studies. (1994). Expectations
for excellence: Curriculum standards for social studies.
Washington, DC:Author.
Roblyer, M., & Edwards, J. (2000). Integrating
educational technology into teaching . Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Merrill.
Saye, J., & Brush, T. (1999). Student engagement with social
issues in a multimedia-supported learning environment. Theory
and Research in Social Education, 27 (4), 472-504.
Shaver, J.P., Davis, O.L., & Helburn, S.W. (1980). An
interpretive report on the status of precollege social studies
education based on three NSF- funded studies in what are the needs
in precollege science, mathematics, and social studies
education . Washington, DC: National Science Foundation.
White, C. (1999). It's not just another new thing: Technology as
a transformative innovation for social studies teacher education.
Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 7 (1), pp.
3-12.
Wiley, K.B., & Race, J. (1977). The status of pre-college
science, mathematics, and social science education: 1955-75, Vol.
3: Social science education . Boulder, CO: Social Science
Education Consortium.
Yeager, E.A., & Morris III, J.W. (1995). History and
computers: The views from selected social studies journals. The
Social Studies, 86 (6), pp. 277-282.
Submit a Commentary
|
