March 26, 2020

Giving Students the Steering Wheel in their XR Education, with ARVRinEDU’s Jaime Donally

19 minutes

For any learning to take place in the next few weeks, parents and educators are going to have to get creative in their teaching methods. Jaime Donally founded ARVRinEDU to help them find ways to introduce XR into their curriculum, and she tells Julie how right now is the perfect time to experiment.

Julie: Hello, my name is Julie

Smithson and I am your XR for Learning podcast host. Every podcast

session is meant to provide you with a value in micro-learning, about

the way technologies will change the way that we learn and we teach.

So today on my podcast, I have Jaime Donally, who is a passionate

technology enthusiast, and she began her career as a math teacher,

later moved into instructional technology. And her desire to build

relationships has brought about opportunities to collaborate with

students and educators around the world. She provides staff

development and training on immersive technologies as an ed-tech

consultant. And her latest adventures include the launch of Global

Maker Day and the ARVRinEDU community events and presentations. She

works as an author and speaker to provide practical use of augmented

and virtual reality in the classroom. Thanks for joining me today,

Jaime.

Jaime: Thank you so much. I'm

excited.

I'm excited to have this conversation,

too. And I think the discussion about education and learning,

obviously with the situation that we have going on in the world

today, everybody is pivoting their eyes to how do we learn online,

and the virtual collaboration that we can begin to have. But why

don't we start with what you're working on? Maybe do a little bit of

a presentation on your mission and your goals in the education space.

And let's teach somebody about XR for learning.

Julie: There is so much

happening. I feel like I've been sharing immersive technology for

several years now, really before people quite understood or knew what

it was. As time has transitioned and moved on, course it's become

more popular and people are more aware. And it certainly finally got

a stand in education, which has been an exciting journey. But really,

my goal in all of what I do is sharing from a practical lens, though

I don't get caught up into just the hype, but really looking at what

is this practically look like, what are the tools we should have in

our classrooms? Where is the money that should be spent? Where is the

time and value for our students? Where are those opportunities? A lot

of that discussion is coming from administrators, it could come from

teachers. And oftentimes people are making decisions based upon what

they see at a conference or an event. And then what's being marketed

-- of course -- are the things that are quite expensive. And so

they're taking a leap without actually thinking about what that means

for our classroom. So that is kind of where-- more of what I stand

and what I share on today is what does this mean for our classroom,

and what how should this really be used so that we can maximize the

usage, maximize the opportunity for our students, and maximize our

our money, our budgets to use it effectively.

Julie: So with the changing

times advising teachers on how to implement these strategies -- and

the XR strategy, shall we say -- into the classrooms. Maybe you can--

we'll give a little bit of instruction on how to implement into your

classrooms, but maybe we'll pivot that afterwards into what can

teachers do today in these situations, where kids are at home. So I

know that those are two very different conversations. So why don't

you present a little bit about the practical use? And if I was a

teacher, where would I start to begin to implement these technologies

into the classroom?

Jaime: Yeah, absolutely. So from

the beginning, I always get the question of what one tool do I need

to download? What does that one thing that everybody should be aware

of? And I can never answer that question, because that one tool or

that one thing looks different for everybody. Actually, my second

book -- that I'm getting ready to have go public here soon -- is

specifically about that, that every tool is going to look different.

So when it comes to practical, I always recommend before just jumping

in headfirst and spending $20,000 on a kit, to think about where your

students are struggling. Where do you need support? Why are you using

this technology? And if it's just for the wow factor, then you're

going to just get it for the wow factor. And that is short lived. But

if you're really purchasing something because you have a need and

your students have this area that they really struggle, then you're

really going to have the best approach on how you're going to go look

for those right resources. So on a practical sense, the best way to

get started is really one, knowing your kids, knowing their needs,

knowing their desires and wants and how they learn, then really

targeting and honing in on where their gaps are at, and what

traditional education has offered that is obviously not hit the mark

for those kids to make sense of that content using even technology.

But AR/VR really does offer something much different, a deeper

learning experience, a way for them to personalize that experience

for them. So we really could be starting off looking at where our

students are struggling, where we really need support and help to

present the material effectively. And I think more importantly, our

admin need to be aware that, before they go out and buy things, and

push it into the class, or not have discussions with everybody across

the board. I think another common problem is you have an excited

teacher, an excited administrator, and they want to bring it in. But

not everybody else is on board or there's been no collaboration, no

discussion. So your technology department isn't supporting what

technology you just purchased. And your teacher isn't ready to put

that in, because your curriculum hasn't allowed for that to be

brought into the classroom based upon their strict guidelines of what

needs to be presented every day. So until you really get everybody on

board, then you're going to run into a million blocks along the way,

if you're really just one person who's pushing that out. So I really

do believe the starting point is the collaboration. And then when you

are ready to make those purchases, you're making purchases based upon

the student's needs. And that's really the most practical way to get

started.

Julie: Can you give an example

of maybe school or institution that you've worked with that they have

found that practical use?

Jaime: Yeah. So I have worked

with a school out of New York. [Lake Shore Central School District's]

Michael Drezek is the instructional technologist that really was the

one seeing the vision of bringing in immersive technology. So they

brought me out on two different occasions, working with different

groups of teachers and kind of progressing them along. They see a

lot. And to some extent, I think all of us can relate to this as

teachers. "OK, what's next? I got to learn this next. And is

this really going to be something that we even keep around?" So

I absolutely understand the hesitancy that you often find --

especially in immersive tech -- that people think, "Do I really

need this?" But on their level, they really had a vision of how

to use it. So they spoke to the teachers. They were talking about

what the kids needed to create, what they needed to do. And their

goal was really student creation. And so the student creation

portion, they took a project that they did with codebases that just

blows my mind. They had a teacher and a couple folks from the

instructional technology team in the district come together and put

together the periodic table in a virtual setting. And then every

single element on the periodic table had it hyperlink to a new slide,

new page for that student then to create that element. They had to

visualize it. They had to explain it. They had an experience on every

single element. So their school -- I think -- has done a fantastic

job of essentially taking what they learned, and they took parts of

that of where they really needed to run with this. And then they

just-- they went crazy with it. Something I could have never done in

a single training. You know, something that they really have just in

that passion of student creation, and where our students can be, and

what they should be creating and making. They did a fantastic job and

they certainly hit on the standards where their students needed to

be, not just in consuming information, but obviously creating

content, demonstrating knowledge in a super unique way. And it was

collaborative, and they were able to share it globally, where other

people can come in and see. They've even presented it to their

parents, and parents were able then to go in and see what they've

created. So that's an example -- I think -- of somebody doing it

right. They brought in the training, they understood exactly what

their vision is and what they wanted to do with it. And then they

brought it back into the classroom, and the students were a part of

it. It wasn't put on a teacher's shoulders. It was a collaboration

across the board, across the district. And I think that they're

continuing to do amazing things because of it.

Julie: I think this is where

education really changes, and it's about getting the students

involved. And I've had a couple of conversations now that with this

situation, with the pandemic and students at home, parents now have

to be involved in their kid's education, and restructure their days

so that it's full of activities or things to do, and obviously the

leadership in to finding out what they're passionate about, so that

they can learn. And for the longest time, our education institutions

have not allowed that student creativity to take place. One of the

things that I took upon myself yesterday was -- and today, actually

-- I allowed my kids to just create; let them be creative and

discover what they like to do. And that'll obviously stem into XR

applications and technology applications of solving problems in the

world, that we hope that they will all do. But I think in the

classrooms, having the kids become part of the solution, and

discovering how they can also solve a problem and they can build out

resources that leads to their creativity. Maybe you can speak a

little bit more to how teachers approach this. Obviously there's a

different way of becoming more of a mentor to kids, as opposed to

being their-- stand in front of the classroom and be their teacher.

Jaime: Yeah, the perfect example

for me is Rachelle Dene Poth and her classroom, based out of

Pennsylvania. She is such a great example of saying, "I don't

know it all, but my students will. My students can run with this, and

I can give them an assignment and I can show the basics of how to get

started." And she said it really is unlimited when you give it

to them. When we limit them by what we want them to accomplish and

give them every detail of what they need to do, we get the basic, but

when we give it to them to own it and to show us what they're capable

of doing, we get projects and content that we would have never

envisioned is possible. And I think that's the powerful part. We

don't need to know everything. Teachers sometimes are afraid of this

technology, because they feel like they don't know all the answers.

But we don't need to know the answers. We just need to give it to our

kids, give them the opportunity, let them demonstrate what they're

capable of doing. And just from there, it really just empowers them

to take it to that next level. And that's what we need. You're

exactly right. It's a change, it's a shift in the way that we view

education as a whole, and certainly given them the opportunity to

take it, know it, and move it forward.

Julie: There's so many

conversations now about how the next generation has this massive

opportunity to learn whatever they want. And after the last couple of

days, the access to online classes, to learn how to dance, how to be

a cartoon drawer, how to learn about-- yesterday I took a class on

quantum computing. You can learn about self-driving cars. And through

this troubling time for us, the opportunities have just unleashed

themselves online, for both teachers and students. And maybe you can

shed a little bit of light on if you were a teacher, what to do right

now, in this time where maybe the schools are closed and opens up

that time to help teachers understand about all of these

technologies. Where we do direct a teacher to best use their time

over the next weeks, to engage themselves with this technology and

learn the most that they can about them?

Jaime: I've had several

conversations. I guess it's a little bit of frustration, too. My

husband is also a teacher. And just to kind of hear what educators

are going through to scramble, to make this work, I feel like I've

been sharing virtual connections in virtual reality for a long time.

And I feel like it's been dismissed for a long time. It's been,

"That's great and all. But we don't have time for that. We've

got to get ready for this exam." And now it's finally come to a

point, where admin aren't ready for this. They weren't ready for what

this could possibly bring. We'd never seen anything like this, to be

fair. And so with that being said, I think that there are many

opportunities to connect and collaborate online. When we talk about

coming into virtual spaces and having community there, some of my

very best friends were made through social media, and those social

media connections have become stronger and stronger, whereas people I

would work next to every day in office, I didn't maintain that kind

of relationship and friendship. So I think that there are some

powerful opportunities, and the way that we need to think about how

we connect should no longer-- I think every conference needs to take

this into perspective as well, because all of them are getting

canceled. But this should not just be a face-to-face or virtual. It

should be both. We need to offer both. And when one doesn't work and

the other one does, we go to that direction, but we need to be

prepared. And so some of the tools that I've shared, even just this

month I'm doing a 31 day of ARVRinEDU campaign, and every day I have

a blog going out. I shared Mozilla Hubs, where people can come in and

collaborate. It's a perfect opportunity for people to bring in their

students and create 3D content, and redesign spaces together, have

presentation slides up, drawing, taking selfies. It's a lot of fun,

but it also is a virtual classroom that we can have our students in.

Zoom is something I use almost every day. And I have done virtual

events with Global Maker Day for several years. And I did other

virtual events before Global Maker Day, where I'd host them

completely virtual, using multiple different platforms. I think that

there are a million different opportunities. And really, what it

boils down to is, were people really ready to jump into that? No. So

even Zoom, for instance, this is a platform that people have had

access to and maybe have used at some point, but it also looking at

the accessibility of how that works out for all of our students, not

all of them having access to the Internet. How do they join in? But

Zoom does a great [thing], where they allow you to join in by phone.

So even if you don't have the connection through Internet, you can

have a phone call in and still hear content, still hear people, still

connect and collaborate. So there's opportunities that go beyond

that. I do think that there's a lot of concerns for sure, but it

doesn't mean we shut everything down because not every single person.

Let's just open up a floodgate of resources, bring out Flipgrid,

bring out YouTube Live, bring out Facebook Live, bring it all out,

and bring out many opportunities and see where things happen for our

students and start seeing where they're gravitating towards, and meet

them where they're at and where they want to be at. And try to meet

as many different opportunities, if it has to be something where they

come and pick up a packet, well, that's one option. But don't make it

for all kids, because not all kids are online. Let's offer a

multitude of opportunities and just allow them to flourish in the way

that they're capable and able and excited to do.

Julie: I think that's great.

Maybe you can highlight some of the work and offerings of your

community, the ARVRinEDU community, which I know you've been working

on. And there's a website, and maybe we can wrap up with a little bit

of summary on how people can find you and the resources that you

offer, for both teachers and students.

Jaime: Yeah. The community is

incredible. Everything we're covering right now is beta testing, in

my opinion. I don't feel like anybody has any product set in stone

and perfectly defined and worked out. All of them, like any

technology is always going to change and be modified. We're going to

see new things coming out. And that's an exciting journey, as it

constantly changes. That might sound scary to some people, but they

don't need to know it all. They don't need to know everything. None

of us know it all. All of us are constantly learning. But to embrace

even just one or two things that really impact your students, I think

are powerful. And some of our tools really range from kindergartener

can hop on and create, all the way through our college students

coding and creating content. I think that it really offers a broad

range of different tools. ARVRinEDU was really started initially

because of discussions from-- I started a Twitter chat that started

over three years ago now, and I put it off for a good year because I

knew the commitment. But we meet every week on Wednesday night on

Twitter. And right now, because of the 31 days of ARVRinEDU with the

blog post coming out every day, there's constant content coming out

through that. So we're not doing the Twitter chat this month, but

remainder of the month, it's really just getting connected to people,

having people to ask questions, and to share and highlight what

you're doing. And everybody in the community has been so great,

because we're all in this kind of exciting beta testing journey

together. And then we're gonna find tools that don't hit the mark,

and sometimes have some things great. Some tools that are doing

amazing work, things that we've never even thought about before. And

so the spectrum of tools is enormous. But at the end of the day, it's

just really coming together to support one another. And yeah, Global

Maker Day is a whole different content. But yeah, for sure, on

arvrinedu.com, if you subscribe, you get those resources shared with

you pretty regularly and giving you opportunities of ways to connect.

Julie: Well, Jaime, I think

that's a great way to wrap up our session. And I would love to invite

you into another conversation in a few weeks from now, because

obviously our situation is changing. Maybe you and I can have another

conversation to provide further resources for all these educators out

there looking to transform their own knowledge. Looking into your

resources, you seem to have pretty much every grade covered. So thank

you so much for being on my podcast today. I really appreciate it.

Jaime: Absolutely. Thank you for

the honor of being here.

Julie: Thanks again, Jaime. I'm your host, Julie Smithson. This is the XR for Learning podcast.

...more

View all episodes

By Julie Smithson

11 ratings