Dive Brief:
- Schools are taking advantage of live video presentations and Skype to access environments, speakers and scenarios they may never have been able to encounter otherwise, offering a different approach to class instruction, according to Ed Tech: Focus on K-12.
- Programs like Skype in the Classroom enable students to ask questions directly to experts in far-flung locations and situations, with one Seattle teacher-librarian managing to connect her class with a researcher at the UK Arctic Research Station located in Norway.
- Students are using 360-degree video and virtual reality to help bring lessons to life, with 360-videos that can be seen via a laptop, tablet or VR headset, and content generators like CNN are offering panoramic views of locations ranging from Central Park to Uganda.
Dive Insight:
Many tech tools, including some that would have been unimaginable in classrooms on a mass scale previously, are increasingly affordable and within the reach of school districts’ budgets. With Google Cardboard and a smartphone, students can utilize VR technology in new ways and at diminished costs. Utilizing Skype to bring speakers in the field into the classroom can also have an impact on curriculum development, as educators have an opportunity to incorporate new aspects to lesson plans that would not have existed on a mass scale years earlier.
Such tech also has a variety of uses beyond the K-12 classroom setting, as colleges and universities offer campus tours via VR and 360 video to international students who may not have the means to physically visit the campus prior to applying. YouVisit, for example, partners with more than 500 schools to create tours for prospective students, ranging from Harvard University to North Carolina State University.
