School Project Launch - VR for English Language and Future Skills
We have finally launched the VR for English and Future Skills project at the southern-Italian secondary school in Bari, Italy. The central purpose of this course is to help students learn English in VR.
The course itself has undergone considerable reorganisation however, in order to ensure that we can guarantee as safe and hygienic learning as possible. Measures in this regard are:
- Students have been broken into two groups of 10 as opposed of 1 group of 20, and will come into school on rotation. This means that nobody needs to share a VR headset on the same day, and that the headsets are quarantined for 7 days before the other group uses them.
- Students thoroughly clean with medical-grade alcohol the headsets and controllers after use.
- Silicone facemasks have been purchased to ensure that they can be more easily cleaned after use and reduce the risk further.
- Students will be doing a mix of Zoom distance learning and practical learning at school. The course itself has been streamlined to ensure that whatever can be done at a distance, will be, as opposed to gathering one large group together at any one time.
- Students and teachers where facemasks continuously throughout the lesson.
In the first practical lesson last Friday, the group started creating their own VR experiences using the browser-based Mozilla Hubs. Unfortunately the computers in this particular laboratory were not up-to-date so we couldn't install some of the VR meeting and collaboration platforms like rumii and ENGAGE, but thanks to Hubs and its Spoke content-creation tool, students could immediately get hands-on in creating their own immersive content.
The theme for this project spanning 6 months is to improve their English language skills using virtual reality, in addition to their skills for the future. This covers areas such as presentations, public speaking and other activities harnessing the power of VR in order to best prepare them for their futures in a globalised, dynamic working world.
If you or your school or college is interested in joining us on this program, or learning more about VR can be effectively integrated into the school curriculum (particularly within language learning) then please get in touch here.
Stay tuned for more updates!
