Preserving Black History on the Metaverse Using Immersive Technologies
William Jackson, M.Ed. CEO My Quest To Teach & World Metaverse Member
The controversies about the value of Black History in the
educational systems nationally are not new. There have
always been the attempts to change, water-down, deflect,
marginalize, and even hide the truths of the contributions
of Blacks in the history books of American schools and
other educational institutions. The acts of slavery has
erroneously and slanderously been shown to be
beneficial to those brought over from Africa and the
Caribbean, shackled in chains, beaten, raped, tortured,
and otherwise dehumanized. There was nothing
beneficial to slaves from slavery.
Using the Swahili word “gjenge” which when translated
means “to build yourself.’ The coming ASALH conference https://tinyurl.com/4spkvpvh in Jacksonville, Florida will
address multiple issues regarding Black History, Black
Excellence, Black Values, Black Education, Black
Economics and other important areas of knowledge
and heritage. Blacks must always seek “to build yourself.”
One area of understanding is how the Metaverse and
immersive technologies can help extend and re-vitalize
Black History by sharing the blending of Black History
that is available on the Metaverse and its ability to be a
learning experience in the immersive environments digitally.
William and Aida Jackson, Certified VR Educators,
members of the World Metaverse Council and advocates
of STEAM+M, AI and VR are teaching the use of virtual
reality using headsets, Smartphones, laptops, and other
devices that can be used to transport Black’s back in
time to see and hear people like Dr. Martin Luther King’s
speeches. “Now Is The Time” a VR experience
https://tinyurl.com/yayx5upe the Time Studios’ project
“The March 360” and transformative learning experiences.
The metaverse is influencing the direction of school
curriculums, state standards for instruction and the
accuracy of historical evidence. History should never
be changed, modified, and skewed to meet political
agendas. The Metaverse allows for broad-based
engagement and immersive engagements that allow
the viewer to be involved, engaged and learning.
There is a strategic process to bring Black History to
a level of immersive engagement like never before.
Technologies can promote a more comprehensive
education of Black History among young people,
each generation is influenced creatively, the technology
is innovative and far reaching to build learning opportunities.
Virtual Reality is bringing learning to life, results from
VictoryXR show that virtual reality demonstrably has an
effect on students’ learning retention by 70 to 90%
improvements (East Carolina University in 2018).
Morehouse College launched its first Black History course
in the Metaverse in 2022, taking students on a slave ship
(Amistad), and the Civil War and World War I battlegrounds
where Black soldiers fought. Throughout history Blacks
have made historic, revolutionary, and evolutionary
additions to the establishment of the United States of
America. Blacks have contributed to every aspect of
national and global inventions and innovation, but
where is this in history books?
There are approximately more than 400 million metaverse
users per month, and metaverse sites number in the
thousands provide an immersive experience that is memorable
and applicable. The movement towards immersive environments
is growing and engaging in new directions for educational
pivoting, changing, evolution and growth. Educational
engagements with learning are being influenced this year
in schools like Becoming Collegiate Academy the first school
in Jacksonville that has a Metaverse site
https://tinyurl.com/yc62pe8m for educational usage.
They are learning Black History with video, metaverse and
vr access. Jacksonville is slow to adopt and adapt to the
usage of immersive educational environments for education.
Because of the lack of knowledge and experiences and trained
staff this will be a slow process. Schools like Twin Lakes Academy
Middle School https://tinyurl.com/2wbzy6sx
are using tech by managing a Newspaper, Podcast and Metaverse
clubs to share content with the community about what is happening
weekly at the school. The positive impact of VR technology on
students’ learning is not confined to just one subject area, or
one classroom.
The access to Immersive and VR experiences are important and
life changing. Benefits have been demonstrated in nearly all other
areas of learning including foreign languages, problem solving,
critical thinking, the arts, and social sciences and Black and Hispanic
History importantly. ASALH is in a position where using VR and the
Metaverse bring empowerment and engagement to a new level of
learning and understanding.
Meta-analysis found that “[Virtual Reality]” students express a
greater level of confidence in completing learning tasks and
understanding historical information longer because of the
immersive environment. Statistically significant differences
existed in exam pass rates between VR students and non-VR
students, with VR students earning higher scores. Lets move
Black History on the Metaverse so the truth can be seen, heard,
engaged and learned by new generations. Black History instruction
can improve with engagement and immersion benefitting,
Black and Hispanic students and those that thirst for truth
and relevance.
William and Aida Jackson will be presenting:
“Preserving Black History On The Metaverse Using
Immersive Technologies.”
The ASALH conference is September 19th to 24th in Jacksonville, Florida https://asalh.org/
To see the works of the metaverse by My Quest to Teach and https://MetaverseWP.com/
