A high school student’s vision of a virtual classroom is about to go far beyond the walls where it started. Lennox French, a student at Lexington Senior High School in North Carolina, has been chosen to develop and implement a virtual-reality learning unit that could soon be available to students across the state. The project is a first for SparkNC, making French the first student in the program’s history to create a unit for its statewide platform, states the school website report.
From a student project to an idea for the whole state
French’s journey started in the Spark Lab at Lexington Senior High School, where students are encouraged to explore emerging technologies and to build ideas that have real-world applications. French created a first version of a virtual-reality Spark Lab last year. His project investigated how immersive digital environments could offer new avenues for students to learn, collaborate and explore. Now the concept is in a position to reach a much larger audience, rather than being confined to a school-based experiment. French will put together a unit called Creating Digital Spaces in VR, which will take his original idea and create a structured learning event for Spark Scholars across North Carolina.
Project approved by state review
The proposed course had to be reviewed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction before the unit could continue. The department has determined Creating Digital Spaces in VR conforms to the state’s computer science standards. Therefore, the unit satisfies SparkNC’s alignment requirements for aggregation to course credit. That approval is a big step in turning French’s student project into an educational tool with statewide importance. For Garland Beamer, a Spark Lab leader at Lexington Senior High School, the decision is also a landmark step for the school and its student innovation program.
The student becomes the designer
What’s interesting about French’s project is he’s not just learning to use virtual reality. He is helping to design the educational experience. In the coming months, French and Beamer will work with NCDPI, SparkNC, industry stakeholders and technology companies to flesh the concept into an engaging and practical unit. That collaboration will include refining the content, technology and learning experience so students outside of Lexington can use the platform effectively. SparkNC Executive Vise President and Co-Founder Joe Ableidinger also acknowledged the work behind the project and expressed support for the development process.
The classroom reimagined
The use of virtual reality as an educational tool has been researched for a long time, allowing students to engage with simulated environments rather than simply viewing information on a screen. French’s project takes that idea a step further by putting a student at the center of the design process. The aim is not just to use VR technology, but to teach students how digital spaces can be built and used for learning. This may allow Spark Scholars to develop technical and creative problem-solving skills as they learn about an emerging area of technology.
From Lexington to North Carolin…
The project also highlights the opportunities for students to play with technologies that are still revolutionizing education and industry. An idea born in a Spark Lab in a high school is now being scaled for students across an entire state. It shows how innovation driven by students can help expand educational opportunities for Lexington Senior High School. For French, the next few months will be spent developing an idea into an operational learning unit. His project started with the idea of a classroom in virtual reality. Now that classroom could be a shared educational experience for students well beyond his own school.Images Courtesy: istock and Lexington Senior High School
