* Please click on the image above to see the full lesson plan

I used the Google Expeditions VR experience in this lesson for Living Things for two reasons:

– The new experience of VR viewing underwater life “up close and personal” addressed a non-content objective- “exhibits curiosity, interest and willingness in learning new things and having new experiences.”.

– I was able to evaluate, as an informal formative assessment, my students ability to apply the living vs. non living and plants vs. animals knowledge we had already covered in previous lessons to a new situation.

I decided that the VR underwater Google Expedition was an appropriate use of technology as it was providing an experience to my students that they couldn’t normally get. Not only were they able to virtually scuba dive (something they couldn’t do as 3 years olds) and apply their knowledge, but they were transported to parts of the world untouchable to them as students living in Saudi Arabia and observe the different aspects of an underwater habitat around the world. In this way, the implementation of ICT use was in the form of a tool and not the purpose of the lesson, is free from expenses (the VR headsets could be replaced with projecting the web-based content) and does not require professional development. These decisions were made with direct consideration of the “big lessons” learned from Sanders, et. al. (2017) literature review of ICT implementation successes and mistakes.

References

Sanders, M., & George, A. (2017). Viewing the changing world of educational technology from a different perspective: Present realities, past lessons, and future possibilities. Education and Information Technologies, 22(6), 2915-2933. https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/article/10.1007/s10639-017-9604-3