Truth with Hope: Teaching the SDGs through Immersive Learning
Keywords:
Immersive Learning, Sustainable Development Goals, Virtual Reality, Pedagogy, StoryAbstract
Earth and its inhabitants are on a crash course to destruction. To remedy this trajectory, the United Nations created 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which implore both developed and developing countries to join together and tackle climate change, preserve our oceans and forests, end poverty, and improve health, education, and inequality [1]. Teaching these complex issues to students can be a daunting task. This session will present two case studies to explore how immersive learning environments can help students develop critical thinking skills, empathy, and a sense of agency concerning the SDGs. We will cover best practices for designing and integrating immersive learning environments into existing curriculum and strategies for assessing student learning. The social, pedagogical, and ethical challenges will be discussed. Our goal is to ignite thought on how immersive learning can accelerate progress toward the SDGs and inspire students to take action to create a more sustainable world.
References
United Nations. The 17 goals for sustainable development. https://sdgs.un.org/goals, last accessed 2023/01/14.
UNESCO. Education for sustainable development. https://www.unesco.org/en/education/sustainable-development, last accessed 2023/01/14.
Fauville, G., Queiroz, A. C. M., Hambrick, L., Brown, B. A., Bailenson, J. N. Participatory research on using virtual reality to teach ocean acidification: A study in the marine education community. Environmental Education Research, 27(2), 254–278 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1803797
Mensink, P., Brar, R., Sajid, A., Decoito, I. Marine XR: The impact of an immersive learning AR app on student motivation and engagement with the biology, ecology, and conservation of basking sharks. In Practitioner Proceedings of the 8th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN), pp. 67–70 (2022). https://doi.org/10.56198/A6PFY4TUG
MacDowell, P., Beaumier, A., Gaetz, C., Lambert, C., MacKay, M., Olson, B., Thompson, C., Wang, Q.
Designing AR/VR experiences for K-12 and higher education. In Practitioner Proceedings of the 8th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN), pp. 113–118 (2022).
https://doi.org/10.56198/A6PFY55T8
Brenner, C., Hendrix, J. O., Holford, M. See it and be it: Designing immersive experiences to build STEM skills and identity in elementary and middle school. In P. MacDowell & J. Lock (eds.) Immersive Education: Designing for Learning. Springer, Cham, pp. 89–103 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18138-2_6
MacDowell, P. Teachers designing immersive learning experiences for environmental and sustainability education. In P. MacDowell & J. Lock (eds.) Immersive Education: Designing for Learning. Springer, Cham, pp. 171–186 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18138-2_11
Markowitz, D. M., & Bailenson, J. N. Virtual reality and the psychology of climate change. Current Opinion in Psychology, 42, pp. 60–65 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.03.009
Markowitz, D. M., Laha, R., Perone, B. R., Pea, R. D., & Bailenson, J. N. Immersive virtual reality field trips facilitate learning about climate change. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, pp. 23–64 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02364
Petersen, G., Klingenberg, S., Mayer, R., & Makransky, G. The virtual field trip: Investigating how to optimize immersive virtual learning in climate change education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(6), 2099–2115 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12991
MacDowell, P. Design principles for teaching sustainability within makerspaces. In D. Scott & J. Lock (Eds.), Teacher as designer: Design thinking for educational change, pp. 133–147 (2021). Springer, Cham. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9789-3_10
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2023 The Immersive Learning Reseach Network
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright ©2022 by the Immersive Learning Research Network. All rights reserved.
Copyright and Reprint Permission
Abstracting is permitted with credit to the source. This work is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
The terms are defined at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
The papers in this book comprise the proceedings of the meeting mentioned on the cover and title page. They reflect the authors' opinions and, in the interests of timely dissemination, are published as presented and without change. Their inclusion in this publication does not necessarily constitute endorsement by the editors or the Immersive Learning Research Network.
Immersive Learning Research Network
E-mail: publications@immersivelrn.org