Week 5

This week we had Flin Flon high school teacher Daniel Dillon as a guest speaker via zoom chat. Daniel was talking about how he uses virtual reality headsets in his classroom. This was a really new concept for me, as I had never tried virtual reality before. So my eyes were really opened up when I learned about how they can be used in the classroom. The one thing I really found intriguing was how affordable the headsets can be. I don't know why but I had just assumed that since they were a new and innovative technology that they would be very expensive. However Daniel was purchased some for about 8 dollars. So for around 200 dollars he was able to purchase enough headsets for his entire class to use. I had no idea that something like this would be such a realistic thing to be able to use in your classroom.  I really like possibilities of using it for geography, I think being able to virtually see different places in the world without actually having to go there would be a great learning tool. Before I would feel confident enough to implement this technology in my classroom I would want be more familiar with it myself. So I think the first step will be to get my own headset and explore some of the apps that are out there. Daniel gave us an extensive list:

Virtual Reality Apps
Google Cardboard
360 Video
Titans of Space
In Mind
Google Expeditions
Go Pro VR
Full Drive VR
Google Arts and Culture
Chair in a Room (scary)

The other thing that Daniel talked about doing in his classroom that really interested me was 20 time projects. 20 time projects are something that Daniel does every Friday and is an idea he got from American educator Kevin Brookhouser. It is called a 20 time project because students spend 20% of their time on it. The project is follows the inquiry based learning/ open learning concept, which I have written about before. Essentially students are able to choose what they want to learn about and how they want to learn it. Daniel expressed that he would like to see the education system shift more to this style of learning, which I agree with. He brought up Met schools where the entire school system is based on this type of learning rather than just 20%. Met schools have become very popular in other parts of the world. Finland was the place that Daniel credited with starting to use these types of schools; I know that Finland has a very well respected education system. Daniel shared his disappointment that Canada hasn't shifted their education system more to this style of learning.  He said that the US, Australia, and New Zealand all have very similar education systems to Canada and they are seeing new Met schools pop up across the country. Yet Canada still has very few, interestingly enough there are two MET schools in Manitoba, both located in Winnipeg.  They might actually be the only ones in the country I forget what he said. He really encouraged that if we ever get a chance we should go check out these schools. Below I have shared a video about the Seven Oaks Met School in Winnipeg. It provides a good look at what exactly they do at the school and some of the success they have had with students. It will be interesting to see if more Met schools pop up across the province and country as a whole. Perhaps some of us will get a chance to teach at a Met school in our careers if we see this type of shift.