Searching for application areas for using AI and VR in HE classroom in Ireland
- 1. Searching for application areas for using AI and VR in HE classroom in Ireland Dr. Zeta Dooly SETU, Dr Lisa Moran TUS, Dr PJ Wall TUD, Emer Lodge SETU Fawns, T., 2022. An entangled pedagogy: Looking beyond the pedagogy—technology dichotomy. Postdigital Science and Education, 4(3), pp.711-728.
- 2. setu.ie 2 “Learning in the Age of AI: Towards Imaginative Futures” EDEN 2024
- 3. Overview － Collaboration on AI, ethics and socio-technical futures in Higher Education － Trans-disciplinarity humanities, business, education, nursing － Intricate questions about knowledge and co-creation － Knowledge Legitimation － Reimagined Futures － Purposeful design & development of using VR in classroom
- 5. 5 Education Strategy An Open, Safe and Creative Learning Space • Fundamental rights apply both in physical and digital world • Education depends on and contributes to protecting fundamental rights • Access for all • Democratic and efficient multi-stakeholder governance • Education is a shared responsibility
- 6. setu.ie 6 • many online programmes affiliated with options for lifelong learning rather than mainstream education. Ireland traditional in- person educational experience • experimentation zone - fail safe SEERLab to design and develop teaching and learning artefacts • using both physical hardware (VR headsets) and software (AI) to accentuate critical thinking and immersive learning in the classroom. SEERLab focuses on strategies to build a sense of community in HE (virtually) of educationalists who through their own learning experiences gain empowerment to dramatically change the classroom composition • Kavanagh et al., 2017, Campos et al., 2022, Humble and Mozelius, 2019, Holmes et al., 2019, Flink et al., 2019, Enhanced engagement of students, learning experiences & personalised learning
- 7. Move to digitized society This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC Change Fear Equality Opportunity
- 8. setu.ie 8 Challenges •Resource constraints •move from experiential learning to implementation •Wifi •Central management systems •Resistance •our culture holds on to traditional teaching and learning methods and delivery mechanisms •Not the norm; •science = apparatus •using tools such as VR and AI in our everyday T&L is uncommon •need further evidence to support its implementation to becoming the norm. Enablers •Mobilise the vision of a multi- campus education lab to support lecturers and students •Collaborate with industry •Try out the VR headsets and have a chat about opportunities, impact or challenges •Promote innovative teaching and learning •DEC23 & DEC24 •GrowthHub •NTUTORR •National Forum T&L
- 9. Raison D’etre － Skill acquisition to actively engage students to achieve learning outcomes through use and assessment of emerging technology － Design and planning are critical elements of education provision, need more disruptive transformative learning in the HE classroom. － Present a pedagogical approach that tightly couples classroom activities with the application of existing technology for T&L outside of our comfort zone in a multi-faceted learning ecosystem. － Case studies address complexity in the classroom, acknowledging the ‘valley of death’ approach used in transitioning research into practice (Maughan et al., 2018). － Lecturers describe how they overcome fear from one’s own comfort zone toward recognising the power of teachers as change agents. － Technology is a critical enabler to access knowledge, resources and people, it has empowered those unable to engage with traditional educational settings to gain formal and informal knowledge whilst making learning more fun and engaging. － Education as a career has expanded, teachers, tutors, lecturers, instructional designers, social and community enterprises, data analysts, database architects, facilitators all contribute to a complex education ecosystems that aspire to equality, inclusion and diversity. setu.ie 9
- 10. setu.ie 10 Pilots – context • Advocates for change • Overcome complacency in classroom • Introduce experimentation as a lever to learning in a failsafe ecosystem • Fear is identified as a concept that prevents the use of some technology due to its unpredictability and teacher legacy for being the person at the top of the class with all the knowledge. • Times have changed, creativity is key • Teachers need to model experimentation and failure to demonstrate that recovery and problem-based learning prevails in a knowledge economy • Educator's meet the quality standards of our trade; learning outcomes is just one part of the learning journey • Gaining trust, delivery of engaging content and the realisation that students need an education ecosystem that promotes a nurture environment, self-actualisation and phronesis. Pilots – implementation • 5 lecturers revised their delivery of content for their programmes to include the use of VR in the classroom. • A number of internal workshops enabled the growth of confidence in using new VR apps and through peer learning opportunities lecturers were able to share knowledge and experiences in teaching and learning within a small community of practice. • Adopted a collaborative approach to finding out more whilst designing the new delivery and engagement methods. • The sharing of context and experience in the classroom was promoted and regarded as essential to the ethos of this learning environment. • Used template to redesign • Sharing hardware, software and physical lab space
- 11. Pilots for classroom a) Pilot A -entrepreneurship ideation (scoping, cost/benefit analysis, ROI, risk management) o E.g. Virtual Orator link https://virtualorator.com b) Pilot B -pitch development (leadership and decision making) o .E.g. VirtualSpeech see link or VR Rehearse link c) Pilot C -prototyping (design thinking, dev, test, fail/succeed) o .E.g. ShapesXR see link d) Pilot D –skill acquisition (management of the Burns Patient) o .E.g. oxford medical simulator link /ViReTrain
- 12. Pilots for classroom Pilot A •entrepreneurship ideation (scoping, cost/benefit analysis, ROI, risk management) •Business Communication •Virtual Orator link https://virtualorator.com Frisby et al. (2020) used VR as a tool to encourage rehearsals of a business presentation. They included using the VR scenario for Speech Practice and completing a satisfaction questionnaire as 2.5% of the final grade. Pilot B •pitch development (leadership and decision making) •VirtualSpeech see link or VR Rehearse link •Software Systems Development – Module Technology Entrepreneurship Pilot C •prototyping (design thinking, dev, test, fail/succeed) •ShapesXR see link • Navigate the ShapesXR interface and understand its features • Create basic 3D objects and scenes in ShapesXR • Design and implement a simple interaction using ShapesXR's visual scripting system Pilot D • skill acquisition (management of the Burns Patient) •oxford medical simulator link or ViReTrain •This skills/simulation/VR session is part of a module that builds upon Medical and Surgical Nursing 2 •Aims to develop and enhance the student's skills in nursing assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of care •Applies critical thinking and problem solving in order to prioritize and organize care required for the delivery of safe, effective, person- centred care of medical-surgical patients.
- 13. setu.ie 13 Pilots – implementation • Adopted an agile curriculum development approach, incl. feedback, co-creation of curriculum and discussion of alignment across disciplines (Wang, 2014 • Considered UDL which form a critical ingredient promoted within our university (Cast, 2022) • Adopts elements of digital marketing to create a hook, Gravells (2014) and call to action language. • Leverage the concept of the zone of proximal development, peer learning techniques and scaffolding to enact our pilot to collaborate and use our creativity to experiment (Vygotsky, 1980 and Boud and Lee, 2005). • Emphasis is on engagement, collaboration, transformative and innovative learning as promoted by Freire (in Darder, 2014) and UNESCO (Darder, 2014, Groff, 2013, Kitchenham, 2008, Perales and McCowan, 2021). This is further enhanced where learning is socially constructed within the socal constructivism paradigm and group work (Kim, 200, Biggs and Tang, 2015). • We initially undertook a scoping exercise within our own university and nationally to explore current practices, this included on-site visits and feasibility studies to figure out the best approach.
- 14. Actions Vision － mapped the capability of the VR applications to the module descriptors and learning outcomes － trialled in a workshop environment, － next stage will be tested with students during semester and shared within faculty teaching and learning dissemination events. － Educator’s toolkit in HE is restrictive and adversely impacting students that need more immersive learning and engagement mechanisms － our research advocates for open educational resources (OER) to include the sharing of hardware and software across the industry and educational landscape toward collaborative teaching and learning. － Ireland’s National policy advocates for significant changes toward an optimised learning ecosystems ‘Policy Platform: Progressing A Unified Tertiary System for Learning, Skills and Knowledge’ but the processes and tangible pathways and avenues to realise this are not yet evident. － This research goes further to collaboratively introduce cross- university sharing of knowledge and disruptive teaching and learning delivery through VR and AI. setu.ie 14
- 15. setu.ie 15 Lecturers advocating for the use of VR and AI in the classroom are challenged to demonstrate understanding the socio-cultural legitimacy of AI in Irish society. We present the cases of SEERLab that has been established to scaffold educationalists toward enhancing their attitudes towards VR and AI. • Challenges can be overcome using an innovative pedagogical approach to link the needs of teachers and lecturers and students to untangle the complexity of emerging technology • The piloting of this technology is moving to implementation stage we present the potential benefits and limitations of VR and AI in HE classrooms, which can lead to engaged students, innovative pedagogies, misperceptions, heightened sense of risk, inertia and resistance to its adoption. • Universities, governments and organizations can work together to raise awareness about VR and AI through education and outreach initiatives aimed at different student cohorts • Necessitates greater knowledge in relation to accessibility, usability and educational ‘buy in’ and exposure to VR and AI technologies that combine scientific expertise with pedagogical know-how
- 16. setu.ie 16 Fawns (2022) An Entangled Pedagogy: Looking Beyond the Pedagogy—Technology Dichotomy
- 18. • Communicate • Triage • Action • Debrief
- 20. setu.ie 20 Drivers for change Education for Sustainability • aims to empower learners with knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes to take informed decisions and make responsible actions • for environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society empowering people of all genders, for present and future generations, while respecting cultural diversity (UNESCO, 2021). Futures Literacy • skill that allows us to better understand the role of the future in what we see and do • Being futures literate empowers the imagination, enhances our ability to prepare, recover and invent as changes occur. • Using future literacy techniques students looked at emerging technology in addition to current technology to further move and voluntarily jump into zones of instability, questioning the ethics of artificial intelligence use in the classroom and in government (Miller, 2007 and Nemorin et al, 2023). US – we are communities of educators － Advocates for engaged /active learning-enable diversity, inclusive, personalized learning
- 21. setu.ie 21 Where is the path leading us? Where is the impact and its longevity and relevance?
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- 24. Thank You! This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY. Thank You! Questions???