Google Cardboard, Virtual Reality in the Classroom

New technology is opening doors to enhanced classroom experiences. In most cases it's hard to bring beyond the classroom experiences to brick and mortar classrooms. That's where virtual reality can help. VR can bring the world to the classroom.

There are many tools available for implementing VR into your curriculum. Many options can be expensive. The Oculus Rift, which is produced by Facebook, starts at 199$ for the "Go" stand alone version on up to 399$ for the pc connected version. In addition to the cost of the Oculus it's also owned by Facebook and there no protections in place for student data. This in my opinion is a steep entry price. Google has a different approach to VR. They have a product called cardboard. The cardboard VR unit comes as a sheet of cardboard that students fold in to a headset that attaches to the face using an elastic band. A cell phone slides into the front of the device to provide content. The largest caveat to adoption is that it requires a cell phone. It can integrate into Google apps for education which is a big plus for K-12 schools that are already subscribed to the platform.

Google cardboard can be purchase directly from Google https://store.google.com/us/config/google_cardboard or through many online retailers such as Amazon.com and Newegg.com. The apps for the cardboard can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. It is available on both Google Android and Apple iOS handsets. The cost is 35$. Bulk discounts for Edu are procurable as well. Third-party cardboard headsets are available for varying prices.

The landing page for finding out more about cardboard is https://vr.google.com/cardboard/ . If the app store does not have an app suited to your needs there is a developer kit available for building custom apps. With Google cardboard your students can visit museums all over the world. From the Met Museum https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/met-360-project to the Lourve Museum https://www.youvisit.com/louvremuseum they are available to visit using cardboard.

For learning environments using Cardboard, Google has created an application called Expeditions https://edu.google.com/products/vr-ar/expeditions/ .  With Expeditions your class can be taken on a curated tour of sites around the world like a virtual field trip. As a side note Expedition does not require the Cardboard device for use. In addition to Cardboard it can be setup on tablets and Chromebooks.

Google provides a robust set of VR tools with the Cardboard platform that can be customized for any classroom at a low entry price point. The largest draw back is that it requires a cell phone to work.

Images from vr.google.com/cardboard

Cyberbullying and Teaching Netiquette

Cyberbullying is a complex and growing problem in our society. 17.4% of students said they were a target of cyberbullying in 2019(Patchin, 2019). Cyberbullying, as defined by stopbullying.gov, is the unwanted aggressive behavior perceived or real power imbalance that takes place on digital devices like cell phones, computers, or tablets across services such as social medial, email, SMS, instant messenger, or internet forum.  

In the early nineties the word netiquette started appearing in reference to proper behavior on the web and in digital communications. The words etymology comes from a combination of the words "net" and "etiquette". The foremost principle of the concept is to respect others online. The internet does not have a policing entity so enforcement is up to the community and/or moderators/service administrators.

The core rules of netiquette are as follows(Shea, 1997):

1. Remember the human
2. Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
3. Know where you are in cyberspace
4. Respect other people's time and bandwidth
5. Make yourself look good online
6. Share expert knowledge
7. Help keep flame wars under control
8. Respect other people's privacy
9. Don't abuse your power
10. Be forgiving of other people's mistakes

The rules of netiquette are a key part of digital citizenship. The term digital citizenship refers to anyone who uses digital technology and the internet in an ethical way. It's important to raise awareness about the responsible use of technology through education. Incorporating lessons about netiquette, cyberbullying, and internet safety into the curriculum is one of many ways to help start the process of dealing with these issues. Teaching students to become good digital citizens may help to remedy some of the current societal woes.

©Shutterstock.com/mmstudiodesign

To find out more about cyberbullying and bullying in general please visit the sites below.

https://www.stopbullying.gov

https://www.stompoutbullying.org


Resources:

Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015). From the sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts, and solutions of bullying in k-12, higher education, and the workplace. Journal Of Education And Training Studies, 3(6), 111-125.

Future of Education Technology Conferences. (2018). Cyberbullying, internet safety and netiquette lesson lans for high school students. Retrieved from https://blog.fetc.org/2018/12/12/cyberbullying-internet-safety-and-netiquette-lesson-plans-for-high-school-students/

Patchin, J. (2019). School bullying rates increase by 35% from 2016 to 2019. Retrieved from https://cyberbullying.org/school-bullying-rates-increase-by-35-from-2016-to-2019

Shea, V. (1997). Netiquette. Retrieved from http://www.albion.com/catNetiquette.html

WebAIM: Website Accessibility Evaluation Tool

Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires that federal agencies make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 255 of the Communications Act, as amended by the Telecommunications act of 1996, requires that electronic communications for the purpose of goods and services be accessible to people with disabilities. What does this all mean for most people? These acts clearly state that if you provide goods or services through a public facing website it must be accessible to people with disabilities.

It is much easier to create websites from the ground up with accessibility in mind than to retroactively make them accessible to satisfy a check list. As a whole the web still has a long way to go before it's truly accessibly by everyone. Don't get me wrong, it's much better than it was even 5 years ago.

 WebAIM, a non-profit organization founded in 1999 and based at Utah State University, is committed to making the web more accessible to people with disabilities. They provide training, evaluation, and consulting services on how to make the web a better place for everyone. As a part of the services provided by WebAIM they have created a tool called Wave. Wave is a tool for evaluating the accessibility of websites. There are three ways to use Wave. The first is to use the http://wave.webaim.org main page and enter the URL/weblink into the field and press or click return. This will generate a report detailing any issues the site may have. The second is to use a web browser plugin for Firefox or Chrome. When using this method there is a button added to the browsers navigation that allows for report generations. The third is more for enterprise/corporate level websites. DinoLytics, which uses the Wave engine, can provide accessibility reports on a site-wide level.

When using the Wave tool it is important to remember it's just a tool and method for evaluation. The tool will sometime flag things that are not exactly errors. In the report side bar red icon indicates accessibility errors that need to be corrected. The green icon represents areas in the site where the accessibility features can be approved upon. Additional icons, mainly the yellow icons, are things that should probably be checked.

More information on the tool and website accessibility can be found at https://webaim.org and http://wave.webaim.org.

Adobe Spark, Tell Stories in the Classroom

Teachers need help with incorporating technology into their learning outcomes and classrooms. Librarians have a wealth of knowledge about technology integration and are a great source. Institutions need librarians to lead in integrating technology into instruction. Librarians are a good fit for this role because of their commitment to personal growth and learning (Johnson, 2012). One example of how they can do this is to recommend tools to help instructors with specific needs.

One such tool I found while reading an ed tech blog titled, MrKempNZ by Craig Kemp. He is a Google certified teacher that is based in Singapore. Mr. Kemp, who is originally from New Zealand, writes a blog about digital learning transformations. In one of his recent post he talked about what he thought were the top 10 EdTech tools for 2019. In this post he referenced a tool called Adobe Spark.

Adobe Spark is a beginner level tool that consist of three components: Spark Page, Spark Post, and Spark Video. It has almost zero learning curve and does not require an Adobe creative cloud  membership. I think this tool would work really well for my faculty and graduate students trying to share their research content on the web. I could also see librarians helping teachers add it to their curriculum for assignments. The tool can be used in a web browser or through apps that are available for both apple and google device platforms. I think Spark page will be the most useful for my because it allows novice users to create simple web pages with minimal effort so that they can focus on the content. This could be a life saver for my faculty who are required to have web pages for their research. The video component, Spark video, is nice too but it is limited in the length of video that can be produced. I am not sure that the social media integration would be of use to most of my colleagues.

Picture used from commons.wikipedia.org

More information about Adobe Spark can be found at https://spark.adobe.com/.


Resources:

Horne, K. (2019). Adobe spark review. Retrieved June, 5, 2019 from https://www.whoishostingthis.com/hosting-reviews/adobe-spark/

Johnson, M. P. (2012). School librarians as technology integration leaders: Enablers and barriers to leadership enactment. School Library Research, 15, 22-24.

Kemp, C. (2019). Top 10 edtech tools for teaching and learning in 2019. Retrieved June, 5, 2019 from http://mrkempnz.com/2019/01/the-top-10-edtech-tools-for-teaching-and-learning-in-2019.html

AASL and ISTE Standards

Librarians are a good choice for advocating the integration of technology into learning outcomes for courses and instruction. They should be both competent with American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and Standard and International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). AASL focuses on problem solving, critical thinking, and analytical skills while giving teachers some flexibility and options in delivering the curriculum while ISTE centers on evaluating the core skills and knowledge base that educational coaches need to advise and support teachers in an always connected global society (Dotson, 55). Both standards focus on skill sets that work in tandem to develop individuals that are literate in the use of technology for a workplace.

These standards offer guidance for teachers and librarians to help move learners forward. Use of these standards can help with developing students' digital literacy skills as defined by the America Library Association. ALA defines digital literacy skills as the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills (American Library Association [ALA], 2017). The largest challenges for preparation programs is to be able to equip professionals to grasp and integrate the standards to better meet the needs of teachers and students they will serve (Dotson, 55).

As a technology professional working in education I find that many faculty/teachers are unaware of the resources available to help them with integrating digital literacy skills into their curriculum. As a future library technology professional I plan to help advertise and promote these standards when possible.

Dotson, K.B. & Dotson, K.P. (2015). Factors of Engagement: Professional Standards and the Library Science Internship. TechTrends, 59 (3), 54-64.

"Professional Tools for Librarians Serving Youth", American Library Association, February 28, 2017. http://www.ala.org/alsc/publications-resources/professional-tools (Accessed May 24, 2019) Document ID: 64e40bc2-dbe3-5be4-05ae-9595032c4f78