The Future of Teacher Education: 360 Video with Dr. Karl Kosko
A few years ago, my wife and I were visiting some friends when one of them decided to show us their new PlayStation VR headset. We tried out various experiences like skydiving in Dubai, riding a rollercoaster, and so forth. It was fun, but I left wondering whether there was much use for the technology beyond a few ‘fun’ excursions. A few days later I had the idea for recording classrooms so that future teachers could “visit” a classroom like I visited various places wearing the VR headset. To do this, I learned I would need to create 360 videos: videos that record omnidirectionally, where the viewer can adjust the perspective wherever they wish (think Google StreetView but in video). Unfortunately, the cameras available at the time were too expensive and I had to wait a few years before something affordable would become available.
Over the past few years, I have learned a great deal about how XR should be used in teacher education, and how the technology might be used in the future. One big lesson is how important our physical bodies are in learning to teach – a lesson that the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized more than we could have anticipated. Specifically, the field has known for decades that early in-person field experiences for prospective teachers are extremely valuable – even when they are only observing. Video is useful but being in a classroom to observe students is more valuable. Even before the pandemic, sending a class of future teachers to observe classrooms was not always possible. Video is typically used when teacher educators can’t send prospective teachers into a field experience, for whatever reason. The biggest lesson I’ve learned these past few years is that if we must use video in place of a face-to-face field experience, we should make that video as close to being in the classroom as possible.
Early in our use of 360 videos with future teachers, we discovered that the ability to turn where to look improved their ability to notice what students were doing. When future teachers used a VR headset instead of watching on a laptop screen, this ability to notice student thinking improved even more. We conjectured that using the headsets more closely mimicked turning one’s head/body when prospective teachers are standing and observing students in a classroom. To better approximate the feeling of “being there” in the classroom, we began creating and using multi-perspective 360 videos. These videos included multiple 360 cameras and allow the viewer to move from one 360 position in the classroom to another.
For those interested, there are several ways of engaging with our work at the Extended Reality Initiative (XRi). First, we are actively researching different aspects of the technology for teacher education. Due to COVID, much of this is research is conducted remotely. We are also interested in working with peers who would like to create 360 videos for other facets of professional education and have equipment to support such collaborative efforts. Lastly, we seek to create and disseminate resources for interested parties to use. These various resources are designed for use in teacher education courses and can be found on the following digital outlets:
