In my blog post last week, I wrote about how my colleagues and I took on the perspectives of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and intersectionality and gave one another feedback on our Innovative Learning Experiences. My colleagues pointed out ideas that I had never thought of, such as letting my students create their own VR experience and discussing the gender intersectionality lens within the Civil Rights Movement. I also began to think about TPACK and whether or not this experience is near the sweet spot. So, with the feedback from my colleagues and my own reflections, I made some additions to my learning experience.
One change I made was within the reflection and discussion at the end of the lesson. In my first draft of the lesson, I have my students discussing how sit-in protest tactics were used effectively in raising awareness of the injustice of racial segregation. Now, I ask my students to not only have a discussion about the oppression these four men faced, the obvious racial inequality and non-violent protests, but also the underlying role of gender. I agreed with my colleague that the male vs female aspect during the Civil Rights Movement is very important to bring up, especially in this particular all-male class that this lesson was made for. Social justice literacy is vital as explained in an article by Mary Breunig called, Beings Who Are Becoming: Enhancing Social Justice Literacy in the Journal of Experiential Education. Breunig said people “...need to be taught and encouraged to understand how their privilege enables them the opportunity to make choices in a manner that those whom are already marginalized or oppressed do not” (2019). I have mentioned before that intersectionality is a challenge that I don’t always look at with intention. Intersectionality is so important because students come in with so many different backgrounds and are experiencing different forms of oppression.
Through reflection from my peers and within myself, I also began wondering if Virtual Reality reached all learning styles and how I can use VR goggles to deepen my students’ understanding of the content. In an article called, Analysis of Use of Virtual Reality Technologies in History Education “...it was determined the use of this technology in course activities as useful. Especially, the real feelings and the feeling of being present in the related environment” (Yildirim, Elban, & Yildirim, 2018, p. 68). Utilizing VR goggles in the classroom can increase excitement and motivation. My hope is that when the students are engaged at this level they will absorb more of the information within the lesson. The article also mentioned, “Additionally, virtual reality implementations were considered as they had a big potential in creating an environment that individuals with disabilities could use in learning processes” (Yildirim, 2018, p. 68). So, this means VR goggles can be a useful tool for my resource students with disabilities to access the curriculum.
With this understanding and feedback, I made another small addition in the reflection or next steps portion in the innovative learning experience I created. I added that I would want my students to create a VR experience for a classmate now that they are familiar with VR. My students will choose what expedition and the questions their classmate must answer during the expedition. I think this would push even further for a deep understanding of the content and the overarching ideas of the unit, which is answering the question, what made nonviolent protests effective during the Civil Rights Movement? I want to continue to try to work to be in the sweet spot of TPACK, by connecting technology, pedagogy, and content. Putting on the lens of intersectionality and UDL encourages us to create an accessible environment while avoiding stereotyping by making sure we look at each of our students for the individuals that they are.
References:
Breunig, M. (2019). Beings Who Are Becoming: Enhancing Social Justice Literacy. Journal of Experiential Education,42(1), 7-21. doi:10.1177/1053825918820694
Yildirim, G., Elban, M., & Yildirim, S. (2018). Analysis of Use of Virtual Reality Technologies in History Education: A Case Study. Asian Journal of Education and Training,4(2), 62-69. doi:10.20448/journal.522.2018.42.62.69
Computer Screenshots taken by author
Intersectionality and UDL Poster created by author using Adobe Spark
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