Bringing Schools Together: Why Join an Immersive Learning Community?

Rolling Out New Tech: Why Community is Key

When you start integrating virtual and augmented reality into your school, you know as well as the next principal that adoption will be your biggest barrier.

How can you get your teachers on board to integrate immersive learning into their lesson plans? Giving them access to peers from other schools facing the same opportunities and challenges can make this process that much easier.

At our last networking event, schools shared what’s been working for them when it comes to implementing VR and AR into the classroom.

Immersive Learning in Practice: What Do Schools Have to Say?

Bringing together educators from current Lab schools, the workshop, run by Lumination’s immersive learning experts, focused on sharing case studies, Learning Lab uses, ideation and planning.

So, how are schools using their Lumination Learning Labs? Lumination opened the floor to encourage teachers to share how their Labs are being used, sparking ideas for others in the room.

Here are a few examples:

1. Supporting Research

Educators from Port Lincoln High School shared they are using their Lumination Learning Lab to engage students and support research projects. Using VR to conduct experiments and engage students during Science Week has shown positive growth.

2. Student Exposure

At Riverbanks College, educators are in the process of getting kids excited about using the space. Kicking off a new program, their goal is to ensure every student gets exposure to VR and AR technology. The rollout will start this year and scale up in the following years, with every student from Years 7-10 getting an opportunity to use the Lab. Their staff will have a session with Lumination on station-based learning in an effort to continue to upskill.

3. Building Agency

Have you heard of a vertical school? Adelaide Botanic High School is a vertical school, which means it has more than four storeys. Educators saw this as an opportunity for students to drive awareness of the benefits of vertical schools, tasking them to use 360 cameras to create a VR tour of their school. Building student agency, the students worked from ideation to execution on the project, and are now sharing the results with peers and students from other schools.

4. Increasing Engagement

Over at Grange Primary School, engagement in the classroom is on the rise. Year 6 students used their Lumination Learning Lab to complete a geography unit on Asia and its relation to Australia. In just four weeks, there was a 155% increase in students who agreed it was ‘very true’ that “Geography is fun,” with 96% of students saying they preferred to learn in the Lumination Learning Lab over the classroom.

What are Lumination Learning Lab Champions?

Lumination Learning Labs are smart classrooms that use virtual reality and augmented reality technology for experiential learning across all subjects linked to the curriculum.

When schools implement our technology, they also select educators within their school to take part in the onboarding process.

Lumination Learning Lab Champions:

• Are experienced educators who are keen to be early adopters of emerging technologies in the classroom
• Are Leader-nominated or self-nominated educators
• Take part in a 12-month education support program

With this program comes access to lesson plans, resources, tutorials and networking sessions. In these sessions a group of Lab Champions gather together to discuss case studies, best practices and roadblocks they are keen to overcome.

Do My Teachers Have the Time?

What merit do these networking sessions have? Why would teachers at your school want to take part?

Educators have a lot on their plates right now — this is true. Burnout is real. That being said, many educators are eager to work for forward-thinking schools who are ahead of the curve.

Keep in mind, this program is not for all the teachers in your school, but for those few who want to invest in their professional development and introduce immersive learning into their classrooms.

Get Your School Involved

Fusing immersive learning with current educational practices is not something that should be taken lightly. Your staff need support, resources and community to make it happen.

Learn more about our Labs and contact us to tour a Lab for yourself, and see how this solution is not just a product, but a partnership.