Immersive Curriculum

Purpose & objective

Immersive Curriculum - a way to capture a student audience and give them an authentic experience so that their learning is more meaningful and deeper.

The models that I employ are Virtual Reality and immersion by constructing a completely new environment that transforms the the theater into another space and time.

Role play has been one structure that has worked well. In the Civil War Field Hospital, students took on the role of surgeon, nurse, victim, etc. and played that role in a mock surgery. They had to "perform surgery" in the midst of hearing battle sounds, poor lighting, crude medical instruments and smokey conditions from all of the gunfire. The success of such an experience was shown in the reflections that students wrote in how that experience changed they way they thought about not only the Civil War but war in general. The experience had completely shifted their perspective and what they thought they had known.

Outline

The content will include a brief description of the immersive exhibits that have been constructed over the past two years. When virtual reality technology has been used, I will discuss how we incorporated the VR into the exhibit and what programs and software we used. I will also set up a mini-experience (for example a surgery from the field hospital) that members of the audience can volunteer to participate.

Timeline:
10 minute overview of immersive experiences
10 minute audience participation in mini-experience
10 minutes for questions and follow up.

Supporting research

https://itif.org/publications/2021/08/30/promise-immersive-learning-augmented-and-virtual-reality-potential/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10639-023-11981-5

https://immersivedirectory.com/immersive-technology-k-12-education-time-for-high-quality-content/