Through virtual reality, students can experience environmental processes that would otherwise be invisible to them
This article by Micheal Jerowsky, University of British Columbia and Ann Borda, The University of Melbourne originally appeared on the Conversation and is published here with permission.
Virtual technologies can also promote outdoor trips close to home and help students connect with global and local environmental issues. For example, research by virtual reality design expert Ana-Despina Tudor, with colleagues, used a 360-degree field trip of the Borneo rainforest to teach students about deforestation. Lessons were then applied to a local nature reserve being affected by railroad construction. Students worked with a local charity to help protect it.
When researchers measured the effect of this simulation by comparing student test scores, they found that knowledge of ocean acidification increased by almost 150 per cent and was retained after several weeks.AR can be effective at combining different multimedia and information sources about environmental processes. Harvard researchers developed the AR tool EcoMOBILE to help middle-school students monitor water quality.
Teachers can then engage students in self-reflection while highlighting broader issues surrounding social and environmental justice.Camosun Bog 360 is a virtual tour of a local wetland in Vancouver, and is one example of this approach. However, care must be taken. As Métis/otipemisiw anthropologist Zoe Todd explains, Indigenous knowledges are too often filtered through white intermediaries. At stake is that Indigenous voices can be lost or distorted. It is vitally important that Indigenous people tell their own stories.
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