It’s a beautiful morning in Mexico City. The streets are full of people celebrating Dia de los Muertos – Day of the Dead. A student archeologist steps into a bustling square.
“有太多东西要看，”她用西班牙语对她的同伴说，她的同伴是一位历史学家和同学. “我该从哪里开始呢??"
“Look for older families; they might have tales spanning generations,” he says.
考古学家和她的团队开始了自己选择的冒险之旅，以了解更多关于这个珍贵的墨西哥节日的习俗和历史. And it’s all without ever leaving the classroom.
A new project under development at Old Dominion University’s Virginia 建模, Analysis and 模拟 Center (VMASC) 约克郡学区将让七年级到十二年级的学生借助虚拟现实头盔和专门设计的软件，在平板电脑或ipad上进行点对点互动，虚拟旅行到墨西哥和法国等国家. 在虚拟世界里, 学生将遇到真实的场景，这将有助于他们练习他们的语言技能，同时与同学合作.
"What we're building is language learning/second-language acquisition, incorporating integrative technologies grounded in learning sciences,杰西卡·约翰逊说, director for STEM and Educational 合作伙伴关系 at VMASC. It will be tailored to York County’s needs, she added. “It’s unique to their students, their community and their educators.”
The effort is the first of its kind, according to school division representatives, and funded through a $2 million 国防部活动教育(DoDEA)伙伴关系世界语言发展和准备计划赠款 that York County received in 2022. VMASC正在利用这笔资金的一部分为学校部门的VR技术开发沉浸式内容. Beta testing for Spanish and French level 1 is scheduled to begin in April 2024.
约翰逊说:“这个项目使我们能够组建一支跨学科专家的梦之队。. Members include John Shull and Ann Kumm. Shull是VMASC的协作空间技术助理总监和首席项目科学家. His specialty is mixed reality development, which he's been doing for almost a decade.
Kumm, a lecturer at ODU’s English Language Center, has been working with multilingual undergraduate and graduate students, 为K-12家庭参与专家提供课程开发和社区外展服务超过10年. Her research has focused specifically on teacher development.
"So, 我们正在努力确保我们正在建立支持教师培训的社区，甚至支持那些想要志愿与教师一起工作或与多语言人群一起工作的人,库姆说。.
Students from ODU’s Game Studies & Design program have also had a hand in the virtual content development, Johnson said. “在这个项目中，我们正在组建团队，利用ODU学位课程和VMASC与主校区之间建立的合作伙伴关系.”
VMASC团队正在为约克郡的西班牙语和法语世界语言课程构建八个模块——每种语言四个模块——这些模块将带领学生从基础的一级学习到更具挑战性的四级学习.
"They came to us with this blank slate of, ‘We want to use virtual reality,’约翰逊说 of the school division. “Naturally it's eye candy: Kids use it, teachers have used the 360 environments. They wanted us to help find ways to embed VR, whether it was gamifying the curriculum (or) embedding it into the curriculum.
“这就是与约克郡这种关系和合作的价值——他们有一些了不起的、充满激情的世界语言教育者，他们真正了解他们的内容领域.”
Virtual reality is a part of the learning process, but it’s only one aspect of it. "We’re not going to put 32 people in a headset,” Shull said. The plan includes small collaborative groups where each student takes a specific role. The student with the headset, who will be fully immersed in the virtual environment, will host the session and the other students – playing the parts of a curator, historian or journalist, 例如 – will join on tablets as part of a peer-to-peer network.
库姆说，角色扮演的好处是，它能让学生走出自我，在学习语言时承担风险, reducing the anxiety and stress that can inhibit acquisition. 作为一个团队，他们必须一起工作，使用他们正在学习的语言来完成任务.
无论是墨西哥城充满活力的街道，还是特奥蒂瓦坎神秘的金字塔, 学生们可能会遇到繁华的市场或宁静的广场，并有机会了解传统的庆祝活动. "To meet the module needs, we could in theory put you anywhere," Shull said. “我们可以提出任何我们需要的方案，这将达到标准."
The virtual world will be highly stylized, Shull said – the colors a little brighter than reality, 例如. For a more authentic feel, 该团队希望将生活在该地区的合作伙伴或访问海外留学的旅行者捕获的背景音频纳入其中.
"Of course, if we could have the smells, that'd be great, too,库姆说。.
The goal is to provide an immersive learning experience that is inviting, engaging and motivating, 他们说, and York County educators have been an integral part of the process.
"Naturally we need to know what's going to work, 不工作, fail – we need to iterate in the project to make this successful,约翰逊说. “但他们也需要成为我们正在开发的系统中内容开发的一部分.”
“这是一个非常好的机会，可以找到一种方法来确保我们以一种真正有助于和有益于课堂的方式使用这项技术,库姆说。.
According to Lori 捐赠lli, York County School Division’s language specialist, a team of six teachers have been working closely on the project, meeting with ODU-VAMSC and providing input and feedback. "They're very excited,” she said. “This is another way to bring their curriculum to life.”
学校分部, which serves more than 13,000名学生, has the highest military-connected population on the East Coast, 多纳泰利说. 它是全国45个与军方有联系的地方教育机构之一，从国会于2022年提供的1500万美元中受益，用于促进针对中小学生的外语学习项目.
“让中小学生接触世界语言，对于培养和维持具备应对国家安全和经济竞争力所需技能的人才至关重要,DoDEA在宣布世界语言发展和准备计划赠款接受者的网站登录发布会上说.
多纳泰利说，约克县的部分目标是增加学校分部世界语言课程的入学率, 还有与军方有关的学生毕业时获得了国家教育委员会的双语印章, 除英语外，还能熟练掌握一种或多种语言的证书.
“We live in a world where it’s important for our students to have more than one language, and we know that the best way to learn a language is to be fully immersed in it,凯伦·卡格尔说, director of curriculum and instruction. “We are not able to send them all over to another country, but we can bring that experience to them in our classrooms.”
“当有机会与ODU-VMASC合作并获得虚拟现实体验时, why not use that technology?她补充道。.