ASU Prep Pilgrim Rest announced a new partnership with Dreamscape Learn, making it the first elementary school in the country to offer students a new learning experience blending experiential pedagogy, cinematic engagement, and advanced virtual reality (VR) technology, according to eSchool News.
ASU Prep Pilgrim Rest, located on the campus of Pilgrim Rest Church, gives families in the Eastlake community of Phoenix a new option for students in grades PreK–6. With a focus on community integration and innovation, ASU Prep Pilgrim Rest delivers a STEM- and art-focused program designed specifically to serve students of color. With the support of Arizona State University, it is creating new pathways to college, making higher education a reality for students of all backgrounds.
Using the Dreamscape Learn platform, ASU Prep Pilgrim Rest teachers and grade 3-6 students can attend class in any imaginable virtual location relevant to their subject matter — generating student excitement and engagement in subjects including STEM, social studies, and language arts. This might mean exploring ancient Egypt from inside King Tut’s tomb or studying the ocean from the perspective of an oceanographer 30 meters below the surface.
A collaboration between Arizona State University (ASU) and DreamWorks Motion Pictures co-founder and award-winning writer Walter Parkes, Dreamscape Learn provides VR-enabled courseware and a teaching platform that enables educators to conduct class from vividly rendered locations impossible to visit in person.
Dreamscape Learn is designed to integrate into current lessons. Educators can lead students to explore ancient civilizations, distant planets, microscopic organisms, and underwater ecosystems, all from within their school walls. Research at ASU, where a similar installation is already successfully serving students at the collegiate level, has confirmed that students performed better in courses that integrate this new approach to teaching and learning.
“We want to enable students to become explorers and scientists. Our technology can turn schools into departure hubs from which students journey right to the middle of the subject they’re learning,” said Josh Reibel, CEO of Dreamscape Learn. “We know from the learning sciences that students learn best when we employ a variety of pedagogical modalities. Students learn from text, from lecture, from visual and audio media, from hands-on experience and from each other — the critical piece is creating curriculum in which students both learn by doing and learn in order to do.”
eSchool News
