Using XR in Your Classroom: Three Focused Inquiry Design Models
Below, we present three focused Inquiry Design Models(IDM’s); two utilize VR experiences and one uses an AR experience. Each of these XR sources are freely accessible and available. Ready-to-use, printable worksheets can be downloaded as PDFs from each IDM page. Our article in the April 2021 issue of Social Education goes into the use of these IDM’s in more depth. Our presentation from NCSS 2020 includes examples of teaching history at the middle school level, using XR, from the perspectives of the teachers themselves.
A Framework for Treating Historical Extended Reality as Sources
It is important for students to learn to be aware of what XR experiences can and cannot provide and how they can work as possible sources within an historical inquiry. Developing such a level of awareness can begin with scaffolding questions that help students not only interrogate the content of the source but also examine the nature, nuance, and provenance of these representations, while simultaneously providing a structured experiential inquiry. The two question frames that follow are intended to help students to examine XR’s burden of representation and to engage with XR as a historical source like any other.
The questions that follow are designed to help teachers and students interrogate XR experiences as sources and representations within and through an inquiry. The questions are organized into three primary groups to help students consider (1) the creation and production of the experiences, (2) the degree to which the experience felt real/credible, and (3) reflect upon their learning. Not all questions can or need to be answered as part of the analysis or investigation.
Production and Purpose |
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Plausibility and Place Illusion and Credibility |
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Reflections/Reactions on and “Reading” of the Experience |
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Summarizing
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Contextualizing
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Inferring
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Monitoring
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Corroboration
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Supporting Links
The following list comprises links to sources we have listed on this page as well as others we find helpful in implementing Inquiry Design Models with XR. General links are provided in the first tab, with links specific to each of the IDMs above provided in their respective tabs.
SCIM-C
Facing History
National Museum of African American History & Culture
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
XR Sources:
Additional Sources
Source 1: Animated Map of Jewish Resistance
CASE 1: Resistance in the Ghetto
Source 2: Vilna Ghetto Manifesto
Source 3: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
CASE 2: Uprisings in Camps
Source 4: 360-Video of Auschwitz
Source 5: Oral Histories of Uprisings in Sobibor
CASE 3: Partisan Fighting
Source 6: Overview of Partisan Fighting
Source 7: Oral History of Partisan Fighting
CASE 4: Spiritual and Cultural Resistance
Source 8: Clandestine Schools
Source 9: Warsaw Archive
Source 10: VR of Anne Frank’s House, produced by the Anne Frank House
XR Source:
I AM a Man (VR Experience): Available on the Oculus Store
Additional Sources
Source 1: Martin Luther King’s 1963 I Have a Dream speech.
Source 2: Malcolm X’s 1964 The Ballot or the Bullet speech.
Source 3: At the River I Stand documentary
Source 4: “We wanted to be treated as Men” Oral history with Elmore Nickelberry and Taylor Rogers (Story Corp)
Source 5: I Am a Man VR Experience
XR Sources:
Google Expedition AR tours: Greek Mythology (Hercules, Zeus, Medusa, Poseidon, Prometheus, Mt. Olympus) and,
Greek Mythology: Gods and Goddesses (Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Medusa, Hermes, Poseidon, Zeus, Greek Temple)
Additional Sources
Source 1: Background on Gods and Goddesses
Source 2: D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths (Available online through Google Books)
Source 3: Greek Mythology by Edith Hamilton While we recommend these sources, there are numerous other sources that include Ancient Greek myths. Teachers should feel free to use what sources they have available to provide myths for the students.
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