Using mobile virtual reality to enhance fieldwork experiences in school geography

GeoEPIC: Innovating a Solution to Implement Virtual Field Experiences for Education in the Time of COVID-19 and the Post-Pandemic Era

“…As the GeoEPIC platform launches, additional workshop opportunities are planned. User testing through these workshops is intended to provide insight into what works well for educators in developing and implementing virtual field experiences in the classroom (lesson creation and lesson use), highlight areas in which teachers may need more support (areas for technology support/content support) (Kitchen, 2021), and identify how they want that support provided. Follow-up studies on the platform's effectiveness for building field-based, place-based lessons and the impact and efficacy for both educators and students are needed.…”

“…Digital collection of physical objects requires site visitation by the designer of these virtual experiences. In-situ data collection of 360° photographs (photo spheres), close-up imagery of physical and biotic features, field notes, and potentially data collection for samples can help bridge from in person field trips and fieldwork to virtual field trips and field work (Kitchen, 2021).…”

“…Lesson content parts featuring multimedia such as: imagery, virtual reality, GIS tools, and interactive maps are published under the Wiki-commons license to allow educators a space to freely develop and share lessons. Kitchen (2021) highlighted challenges educators may have with even the simplest of technologies to transform their classrooms with virtual field experiences, and that without educator training and resources, adoption of these technologies may be limited. In March 2021, a workshop for teachers was hosted by the Arizona Geographic Alliance that we called GeoDay Iceland.…”

Virtual reality as a spatial prompt in geography learning and teaching

“…Geographical literature on the implications of immersive VR for teaching practice in geography remains scant, but in some works there are important insights as to certain elements of its efficacy. The capacity of VR platforms to inculcate in students a sense of presence within diverse environments has been heralded as offering a venue for meaningful experiential learning, enabling, for example, forms of role play that might complement or even replace more traditional work placements (Howard, 2011) or providing an experimental space to practise methodological skills and techniques (Kitchen, 2020). Furthermore, as Šašinka et al (2019) have suggested, VR platforms have a specific relevance for geographical study, given their capacity to move between and juxtapose abstract geographical representations such as contour lines and concepts such as scale, which is achieved using visual simulations of environments and spatialities that these representations and concepts are intended to signify.…”

“…Like other digital technologies that have become integral features of university curricula, virtual reality (VR) applications have found their way into geography education (Detyna & Kadiri, 2020). VR has been described as a computer‐generated visual environment that allows for different levels of interaction and sensory immersion (Bos, 2021; Kitchen, 2020). As a technology, VR generates three‐dimensional (3D) representations of real and fantastical phenomena, objects, places, and/or events that can be accessed using various devices including desktop computers, game consoles, headsets, smartphones, and theatre screens.…”