Researching E-Learning and Virtual Reality as a Teaching Aid, Part 1

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/oculus-go/

In my previous blog post, I posed questions I had based on my reading of Will Richardson’s e-book, “Why School.” I have now done a bit of digging into each question. As the questions were quite broad, my research only partly dabbled into each question.

For my first question, in which I was interested in discovering which online course-based sites were available for students of all grades, Khan Academy was the only one I could find to offer a breadth of fleshed-out grade-school courses. The other sites I found had either a more limited focus, such as Starfall which teaches reading for grades K-2, or a limited depth of content per subject, such as BrainPop which typically has a short video, online quiz, and sometimes worksheet per topic. The interesting-looking articles/e-books I came across about the Khan Academy include:

1. “Blending Instruction with Khan Academy” by Lori A. Cargile
2. “ALAS-KA: A learning analytics extension for better understanding the learning process in the Khan Academy platform” by José A. Ruipérez-Valiente

Here’s a link to other online sites like Khan Academy (mostly geared for adults): https://www.lifehack.org/articles/money/25-killer-sites-for-free-online-education.html

On the related topic of e-learning (teaching and learning through electronic means), which also connects to my second question as to what online student resources are available, I came across these prospective e-books:

1. “The State of 21^st Century Learning in the K-12 World of the United States: Online and Blended Learning Opportunities for American Elementary and Secondary Students” by Kimberly Greene et al.
2. “E-Learning in K-12 Schools” by Paul W. Bennett
3. https://www.intechopen.com/books/e-learning

And, these two lists of e-learning sites for students to use: https://www.parenting.com/child/education/10-best-educational-websites-kids

https://www.kiwifamilies.co.nz/articles/top-educational-websites-kids/

I also came across a few new online resource sites for teachers through Susan Nichols et al. case-study of four sites in their article, “Teacher Resources Online”:

https://www.teachertube.com/documents/

https://www.tes.com/en-ca/

http://twrctank.com/

https://teacher-toolbox.com/

Finally, some interesting-looking e-books and articles I came across on using Virtual Reality in the classroom include:

1. “A Virtual Reality Application for Primary School Mathematics Class” by Ruixue Liu et al.
2. “Video Games and Virtual Reality as Classroom Literature: Thoughts, Experiences, and Learning with 8^th Grade Middle School Students” by Miles Madison Harvey
3. “On the usability and likeability of virtual reality games for education: The case of VR-ENGAGE” by Maria Virvou et al.

I own the Virtual Reality head-set, Oculus Rift. It cost $500, needed a high-end $1500+ computer attached to run it, recommends against being used for ages under 12 on the box, and when I use it I get motion-sickness within minutes. I also have a dirt rally game I played with the head-set. The first time I played it, I rolled my car and literally screamed. On the other hand, I have cheaper head-sets for my cell phone ($6 and $15) which don't give me motion-sickness, but VR requires certain phone specs in order to fully function; the cheapest phone with those specs cost me $170. The Oculus Go works without a cell-phone or computer, but costs $250. Ultimately, my question is whether a class could afford the technology and whether it would even be worth it if a class could afford it. Perhaps there are other VR devices which schools could, or do, use which are cheaper that I don't know about.