Black History and Virtual Reality Education Focusing on the Future
William Jackson, M.Ed. (My Quest To Teach) and Aida Correa Jackson (LoveBuilt Life, LLC)
ASALH Speakers MetaverseWP.com
The continued controversies of the value and need of Black History
may continue into the next election cycles, but Black and Brown
children in schools cannot wait that long. Black History is American
History and should be treated with the same respect, dignity,
accuracy and intelligence as American History. Education must always
be protected against the ignorant, mislead and lies that are generated
to make a culture or people look bad and beneath another culture or
even race.
The recent ASALH Conference showed the value and importance of
Black History across the historical timelines of this nation. The
realities of the slave trade, the atrocities of murders, rapes, beatings,
and dehumanizing ways African slaves (and others) were treated. That
whites’ goals of slavery were driven by capitalism and political power.
Many times, another culture or race will attempt to demean, destroy
and deny another cultures or race significance because of the fear of
facing a future similar to what the culture that is being slandered went through. The denial of another cultures’ success is an indication that
there is a thinking that one culture is smarter, creative, innovative,
expressive, and potentially better than another culture. We are all
connected is some way that shares slavery was not beneficial to the
slaves and the only people that benefited were white (and in some
cases other races that owned slaves). Technology is putting to bed
and crushing the lies of those who say that slaves benefitted from
slavery. This is to also suggest that the thousands of Black slaves
benefited from being raped, and the thousands of slaves benefitted
from being hanged and castrated.
Technology in the form of digital immersion can allow everyone to
see the history from a new perspective that can put people in the
middle of facts using the Metaverse and Virtual Reality.
Professors William (former instructor with Edward Waters College
and Florida State College) and Aida Jackson (Lenor Rhyne University)
share the use of digital Web 4 and Metaverse immersion to show
the factual truths of slavery. Having a discussion at the ASALH
Conference that schools should be using VR, AI, MR, Web 3 / 4
and Metaverse to show and engage in facts.
* Digital is the new norm for education, if schools are not implementing
VR and Metaverse technologies they are putting their students at a disadvantage not just lacking digital skills but understanding the nomenclature or languages of tech.
* Digital and VR takes learning to the next level of creativity,
comprehension, and innovation. Schools are not advocating for creativity
and innovation in the classroom as they should, metaverse education
provides an opportunity to encourage increased creativity and innovation
to allow student to be immersed in their learning and take ownership of
using and creating content.
* Digital and VR can access multiple ways of engagement and learning.
Even students with learning disabilities are helped because they are
immersed in learning.
*Access to learning materials, reading incentives that guide
comprehension, learning connections, critical thinking and applying
in real world situations what is learned not just for a test.
* Digital and Virtual students are not captured by traditional teaching methodologies like lecturing.
The learning is engaging, immersive and virtual not just from old
and outdated textbooks.
* Students are already exposed to virtual environments through
gaming with Minecraft and Roblox. Using the metaverse and immersive environments helps make learning, discovery, exploration and creativity choices and decision that impact practical skills and knowledge.
* The expansion from gaming to learning is not a complicated
process, it can be an easy transition to move forward to build skills
in students the do not know they have.
* The safety aspect is that environments can be “locked” where
students cannot go beyond the instructional directions. The ability
to help students take “ownership” of their learning is powerful
and allows for expansion of ideas.
* Teachers and administration have a gradual learning curve with
learning and becoming familiar with the projects and continued
instructional content development and implementation. VR and
Metaverse education can be aligned with standards, but is more
accurate because it is designed to match real life events and people.
* Content is multi-layered synchronous and asynchronous. Whether
the instructional leader (teacher)is directly present or not does
not change or influence the opportunities for cognitive growth,
maturity and understanding.
* Students can go on global field trips that are 360 degree
environments, this makes physical traveling as a supplement to
instruction. When students can interact in their environments
this creates a digital foundation allowing the instruction to be
powered not just by the human element but by the digital
influences of the metaverse and immersive environments.
* Instruction through VR can be in multiple languages that
support the diversity of the classrooms.
When students hear or see their native language it provides
avenues of pride, empowerment, engagement, and acceptance
of cultural connections directly related to the student.
* There are thousands of global field trips that students and
teachers can attend that are available and cost effective and
physically safe, but engaging and interactive. Learning is not
based on a test, but learning influences directly real world choices.
* The 360-degree immersive environment is a visual representation
of wherever the learning can be conducted. It is an amazing
experience where most students will never physically attend but
can be there as an avatar.
* Students that are wheelchair bound or restricted. Students that
are hospital-bound or home-bound can explore, discover, engage
and be an empoweree to others with similar physical disruptions.
* The experiences of Physical Science dissection, amputation,
surgery, and exploration cuts out the smell, mess, fuss and yucky
components of dissecting frogs, fish, pigs and even humans.
* VXR Web is an interactive platform with laptops that can be
used instead of just headsets. These technologies are adaptable,
scalable, and based on facts and historical facts.
The metaverse is being used by MetaverseWP to allow mobility
challenged to participate in global conferences and engagements.
Now is the time to use technology to tell, show, engage, immerse
in the truths of all history.
Resources:
VictoryXR https://www.victoryxr.com/
EngageVR https://engagevr.io/
Spatial https://www.spatial.io/
Brown Bears Spatial Gallery
https://www.spatial.io/s/BCA-2023-Brown-Bears-64c9c0096a0e3f017a7c2674?share=2041620804339863274
MetaverseWP https://metaversewp.com/
Speakers Information:
William Jackson, M.Ed. My Quest To Teach & MetaverseWP
33 years in public, higher education, past instructor with
NASA and Florida Dept of Education,
Member of World Metaverse Council,
The Ones and Los Unos Black & Hispanic Male Educators,
Member of the WordPress/WordCamp Community
Twitter @myquesttoteach IG @myquesttoteach
TicTok @myquesttoteach
Blog https://myquesttoteach.com
Prof. Aida Correa Jackson, Lenoir Rhyne University (DEI)
LoveBuilt Life, LLC Artist, Author, Florist, NFT Artist,
Certified VR Educator, Member of World Metaverse Council,
Member of the WordPress/WordCamp Community,
Member of the ED3 DAO
Twitter @lovebuiltlife IG @lovebuiltlife TicTok @lovebuiltlife
Blog https://lovebuiltlife.com
Publications Posted:
Africa.com – https://www.africa.com/?s=William+Jackson
Africa on the Blog – https://africaontheblog.org/
Modern Ghana – https://www.modernghana.com/author/WilliamJackson
Jacksonville Free Press – https://jacksonvillefreepress.com/?s=william+jackson
The Florida Star – https://www.thefloridastar.com/