reimagining stem education and training with e real 3d and holographic visualization immersive and interactive learning for an effective flipped classroom

While the 19th and the 20th centuries were, in education, mainly about standardization, the 21st century is about visualization, interaction, customization, gamification and flipped teaching. What today we know about learning from cognitive psychology is that people learn by practicing, with feedback to tell them what they're doing right and wrong and how to get better. For STEM education, that means they need to practice thinking like a scientist in the field. So e-REAL is a cornerstone: developed as workplace learning system in a number of fields (from medical simulation to soft skills development within the continuing education), it's an ideal solution to root a practical – but not simplicistic - approach for STEM education.</p

Reshaping the Museum of Zoology in Rome by Visual Storytelling and Interactive Iconography

This article summarizes the concept of a new immersive and interactive setting for the Zoology Museum in Rome, Italy. The concept, co-designed with all the museum’s curators, is aimed at enhancing the experiential involvement of the visitors by visual storytelling and interactive iconography. Thanks to immersive and interactive technologies designed by Centro Studi Logos, developed by Logosnet and known as e-REALâ and MirrorMeä, zoological findings and memoirs come to life and interact directly with the visitors in order to deepen their understanding, visualize stories and live experiences, and interact with the founder of the Museum (Mr. Arrigoni degli Oddi) who is now a virtualized avatar, or digital human, able to talk with the visitors. All the interactions are powered through simple hand gestures and, in a few cases, vocal inputs that transform into recognized commands from multimedia systems

School district technology awareness: a descriptive study identifying implications for the 21st-century teaching and learning

Preparing students for 21st-century learning is a great responsibility and a challenge for many school districts across the country. A large body of research suggests that a school district’s level of awareness with regards to education technology and particularly those technologies that are on a positive trend correlates with a successful technology implementation program. District Administrators that lead the charge of developing technology policies and oversee the various aspect of the technology implementation must possess a solid awareness of modern education technologies and their interplays with curriculum and pedagogy. In addition, district Administrators must have the technological skill to overcome network infrastructure capabilities constraints as well as the leadership skill to prioritize technology. This study used a survey as its main method of data collection; the survey was guided by three research questions that helped gain valuable insight about California K12 school district Administrators’ familiarity with most relevant modern technologies and strategies for educating students in the 21st-century, knowledge of intermediation between (technology, pedagogy, curriculum), as well as what Administrators perceive as constraints that impede effective technology implementation. The data shows that majority of district Administrators reported to having insufficient knowledge of modern and emerging technologies or digital strategies that are most reliant on technology, in addition, the data suggest that district Administrators are finding funding, training, and infrastructure as main factors that impede implementation of technology appropriate for a 21st-century education. The results of this study propose recommendations that have implications for K12 school districts’ technology awareness, knowledge acquisition for technology preparedness, district technology plan, and minimum technology readiness requirement for school district Administrator positions for the 21st-century

From Extended Reality to the Metaverse: A critical reflection on contributions to education

Extended reality, a concept that encompasses virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, has seen remarkable progress in recent years and has had a great impact on the understanding of education. Research on extended reality has provided benefits in improving teaching and learning, based on two key concepts: the degree of immersion and the sense of presence. However, these contributions need to be reviewed using a grounded critical methodology to avoid falling into a technophilia without scientific evidence. This article aims to establish and evaluate the contributions extended reality makes to education and the educational challenges it poses in light of the development of the metaverse. For this purpose, firstly, each type of reality is defined and its applications in the field of education are evaluated from a critical point of view. Secondly, a critical argument is posed about the advantages and disadvantages of these technologies in educational practice. Thirdly, the challenges posed by the metaverse in education are described. This analysis shows how extended reality has contributed to the development of innovation and improvements in the teaching and learning process, although a lack of training for teachers who design learning experiences based on extended reality and a lack of interdisciplinary collaboration between the fields of technology and pedagogy are apparent. These results influence the development of the metaverse, which is another step in the evolution of extended reality that will have a great impact in the field of education. Our findings suggest there is a need to design an ethical code, develop a culture and protect the identity of users.La realidad extendida, un concepto que abarca la realidad virtual, la realidad aumentada y la realidad mixta, ha experimentado un notable progreso en los últimos años y ha tenido un gran impacto en la comprensión de la educación. La investigación sobre la realidad extendida ha aportado beneficios en la mejora de la enseñanza y el aprendizaje, a partir de dos conceptos clave: el grado de inmersión y la sensación de presencia. Sin embargo, estas aportaciones necesitan una revisión desde una metodología crítica fundamentada para evitar caer en la tecnofilia sin evidencias científicas. El objetivo de este artículo es conocer y evaluar las aportaciones de la realidad extendida a la educación y los retos que plantea ante el desarrollo del metaverso. Para ello, en primer lugar, se conceptualiza cada tipo de realidad y se evalúan sus aplicaciones en el ámbito de la educación desde un punto de vista crítico. En segundo lugar, se realiza una argumentación fundamentada sobre las ventajas e inconvenientes de estas tecnologías en la práctica educativa. En tercer lugar, se describen los desafíos que plantea el metaverso en la educación. Este análisis muestra como la realidad extendida ha contribuido al desarrollo de la innovación y la mejora del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje, aunque se evidencia la falta de formación del profesorado para diseñar experiencias de aprendizaje basadas en la realidad extendida y una carencia de colaboración interdisciplinar entre los ámbitos de la tecnología y la pedagogía. Estos resultados influyen en el desarrollo del metaverso, un paso más en la evolución de la realidad extendida, que tendrá un gran impacto en el ámbito de la educación, lo cual sugiere la necesidad de diseñar un código ético, desarrollar una cultura y proteger la identidad de los usuarios

Practical approaches to delivering pandemic impacted laboratory teaching

#DryLabsRealScience is a community of practice established to support life science educators with the provision of laboratory-based classes in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and restricted access to facilities. Four key approaches have emerged from the innovative work shared with the network: videos, simulations, virtual/augmented reality, and datasets, with each having strengths and weaknesses. Each strategy was used pre-COVID and has a sound theoretical underpinning; here, we explore how the pandemic has forced their adaptation and highlight novel utilisation to support student learning in the laboratory environment during the challenges faced by remote and blended teaching

Using Active Learning to Teach Critical and Contextual Studies: One Teaching Plan, Two Experiments, Three Videos.

Since the 1970s, art and design education at UK universities has existedas a divided practice; on the one hand applying active learning in thestudio and on the other hand enforcing passive learning in the lecturetheatre. As a result, art and design students are in their vast majorityreluctant about modules that may require them to think, read and writecritically during their academic studies. This article describes, evaluatesand analyses two individual active learning experiments designed todetermine if it is possible to teach CCS modules in a manner thatencourages student participation. The results reveal that opting foractive learning methods improved academic achievement, encouragedcooperation, and enforced an inclusive classroom. Furthermore, andcontrary to wider perception, the article demonstrates that activelearning methods can be equally beneficial for small-size as well aslarge-size groups