"Showcase of Innovative Learning" Thoughts!

This evening I visited the "Showcase of Innovative Learning" in Santa Barbara, which turned out to be more of a platform for EdTech companies to advertise themselves to teachers than a showcase of student learning (I had mistakenly expected a science fair-esque thing). I didn't visit too many booths, but I did particularly enjoy two.

One was UCSB's Center for Mindfulness Education Initiative. I spoke with Michael Mrazek about his efforts to create a mindfulness curriculum that can be implemented in public schools. The current curriculum consists of a bunch of short audio podcasts with original musical works in a variety of genres specially created for the project. The idea is that every day for a few weeks students would listen to one of these podcasts. I listened to one that happened to be recorded by a local musician I've met a few times named Maz. At the beginning of the podcast he discusses how mindfulness played a role in the creation of his song, and invites the listener to pay attention to "drops" in the song, which he intentionally included to return the listener's attention to the music in case their attention drifted elsewhere. I enjoyed the experience and could see students liking it too. I would be curious to see and hear from students experiencing the curriculum as it's intended to be used in schools.

The other booth I spent a lot of time at was the Oculus Rift VR Google Earth. Okay, so I don't have much to say about this other than IT'S FRICKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like, seriously. True story: I went up to the booth and two little girls were waiting in line. I asked them whether they had already tried it and they said they had, so I asked if it would be okay with them if I tried it briefly before they went again. They said sure. Well, unfortunately for them, I went ga-ga bananas! I have been trained by Camp Tawonga to always follow the ethic "The kids always come first". But the VR was so amazing that I just couldn't... put... the kids... first. I mean, holy friggin' moley, I was flying through Yosemite Valley to San Francisco, and out into space and back again! I could go anywhere I wanted supersonically. I could be heard exclaiming my awe quite loudly by all of the poor folk (including the girls) stuck in regular reality. I can't wait to go back! Oh, and yeah, it's potential as an educational tool is pretty astounding. Though, considering how inconsistently computers are integrated into current classrooms, I don't expect VR to become some crazy transformation for education where students don't even come to school anymore. Rather, I think it potentially offers some pretty amazing augmentation capabilities. Imagine a whole class wearing headsets, going on a virtual three-dimensional tour of our solar system together. The teacher could pause the tour on planets to point specific things out and give the virtual tourists exploration time before moving on to the next one... Or the same idea, but an exploration of an ancient civilization, or a virtual surgery, or three-dimensional design with one's hands, or, or, or... the possibilities are endless! There's a very rich relationship between VR and education and I'm excited to see how it evolve!