Sarah McDonagh (UAB), Marta Brescia-Zapata (UAB)
Education is crucial for preparing young people to face the challenges of the future. However, teaching complex subjects such as diversity and sustainability can be difficult. Storytelling is a powerful tool that can help students understand challenging topics by conveying complex information in an engaging format. When students participate in the process of storytelling, they can share their perspectives and find solutions to complex challenges. By incorporating technology into the storytelling process, students can create their own stories in an immersive, multisensory, and interactive environment, developing their digital and creative skills while also building empathy with their subject matter.
Our presentation explores the use of extended reality (XR) technology to promote environmental awareness and inclusivity in the classroom. Specifically, we draw on the results of two workshops carried out with 20 secondary school students between the ages of 15-16 in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain as part of the Itaca campus initiative. The workshop made use of the GreenVerse platform, an interactive and immersive storytelling platform developed as part of the H2020 GreenSCENT project (Nº 101036480). This platform is still in a beta version, and can be accessed here: http://greenvrerse.net/
The aim of the workshops was to encourage students to work together to identify and propose solutions to different environmental issues. By using XR technology, the students were able to immerse themselves in virtual environments and interact with digital elements, creating a more engaging and interactive learning experience. The results of the workshop were promising, shedding light on ways to integrate interactive and immersive storytelling digital tools into mainstream teaching to raise environmental awareness and foster empathy with people with disabilities.
The workshops followed a structured procedure consisting of several activities designed to raise awareness of accessibility and sustainability. The first activity introduced the concept of accessibility, wherein students experienced blindness and reduced sight by being blindfolded and guided around UAB campus by their peers. The goal of this activity was to introduce the students to audio description. Following this, students were introduced to the GreenSCENT project and the GreenVerse platform. The students were instructed on how to use a 360° camera to record their own interactive digital stories about specific environmental issues. Students then created their own storyboards and recorded their scenarios around the UAB campus. Once completed, the facilitators uploaded students’ content to the GreenVerse platform and instructed students on how to navigate the platform. Students then organised their stories, adding accessibility features such as subtitles and audio descriptions. Once students had completed their stories, they shared their results with their peers, identifying a particular environmental problem, and proposing solutions while keeping accessibility in mind. Students then provided feedback on the activity and the platform itself in a questionnaire and discussions with facilitators.
One of the key findings of the study was that XR technology can be used to create more inclusive learning environments. In the case of the GreenVerse platform, it allowed students to add accessibility features such as audio descriptions and subtitles to ensure that all users could access the story. Another key finding was that XR technology can be used to promote environmental awareness and encourage students to take action to address environmental challenges. While conventional teaching methods can be a useful starting point to raise environmental awareness in the classroom, a more hands-on approach to learning offers students the opportunity to take actionable steps towards addressing a particular environmental issue. As an educational tool, the GreenVerse platform offered students such an approach. Students were able to work together to co-create their own digital stories. Students decided on what topic to cover with facilitators guiding students in their inquiry. As a pedagogical approach, learning-by-doing (Gibbs, 1988), also known as “active learning” (Bransford et al., 1999, p. 12), has a positive impact on learning outcomes for students and leads to a higher overall information retention rate in comparison to traditional instructional methods (Hackathorn et al., 2011; McGlynn, 2005; Zhang and Xie, 2012). The use of technology as an educational tool, specifically XR, furthers this aim by engaging students in the learning process along with drawing on their creativity and critical thinking skills to apply what they have learnt in class to situations outside of the classroom. In this example, students applied their knowledge of sustainability to the UAB campus, working together to transpose facts into narratives using XR as a tool. Moreover, the use of XR technology also had a positive impact on students’ digital and creative skills. By using digital tools to create their own stories and experiences, the students developed skills that are highly valued in the digital age. This is an important consideration given that the workforce of the future will require a range of digital skills.
Overall, the results of the workshop demonstrate the potential of XR technology to promote inclusivity, sustainability, and digital literacy in the classroom. By immersing students in interactive and immersive learning experiences, we can create more engaging and effective educational opportunities. This is particularly important for complex subjects such as diversity and sustainability, which require innovative approaches to teaching and learning. By incorporating XR technology into mainstream teaching, we can create a more inclusive and sustainable future for all.
Disclaimer
This presentation forms part of a chapter ‘Combining XR, Accessibility, and Sustainability in the Classroom: Results of an Exploratory Study’ which is published in Bridging the XR Technology-to-Practice Gap (2023).
This research has been partially funded by the H2020 project GreenSCENT (under Grant Agreement 101036480). The Commission’s support for this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflects the views of the authors only, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein. The authors are members of TransMedia Catalonia, an SGR research group funded by “Secretaria d’Universitats I Recerca del Departament d’Empresa I Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya” (2021SGR00077).
References
Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods (1st ed.) Oxford Brookes University.
Green-SCENT project. (n.d). Homepage. https://www.green-scent.eu/
Hackathorn, J., Solomon, E. D., Blankmeyer, K. L., Tennial, R. E., & Garczynski, A. M. (2011). Learning by doing: An empirical study of active teaching techniques. Journal of Effective teaching, 11(2), 40-54.
McDonagh, S., & Brescia Zapata, M. (2023). Combining XR, Accessibility, and Sustainability in the Classroom: Results of an Exploratory Study. In A. Fegely & T. Cherner (Eds.), Bridging the XR Technology-to-Practice Gap (pp. 67–79). AACE2023.
McGlynn, A. P. (2005). Teaching millennials, our newest cultural cohort. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 71(4), 12–16. Zhang, X. S., & Hua, X. (2012). Learning by doing approach in the internet environment to improve the teaching efficiency of information technology. Physics Procedia, 24, 2231–2236.
Sarah McDonagh holds a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. She has experience working with the digital archive The Prisons Memory Archive in Northern Ireland to create descriptive guides of the controversial prison of the Maze and Long Kesh. Sarah’s principal research interests are in media accessibility, particularly subjects related to accessibility of digital heritage, which includes access facilities such as audio description, touch tours, British and Irish sign language interpreting, and captioning for the Deaf and hard of hearing.
She is currently involved in the H2020 GreenSCENT project, working as part of an international team to engage people with environmental issues in their local area through the development of accessible applications and digital platforms.
Marta Brescia-Zapata is a PhD candidate in the Department of Translation, Interpreting and East Asian Studies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She holds a BA in Translation and Interpreting from Universidad de Granada and an MA in Audiovisual Translation from UAB. She is a member of the TransMedia Catalonia research group (2017SGR113), where she collaborates in two H2020 projects: TRACTION (Opera co-creation for a social transformation), and GreenScent (Smart Citizen Education for a greeN fuTure). She is currently working on subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing in immersive media, thanks to a PhD scholarship granted by the Catalan government. She is the Spanish translator of Joel Snyder’s AD manual “The visual made verbal”, and also collaborates regularly as subtitler and audio describer at the Festival INCLÚS.