Into the VOID - a Star Wars VR experience

 

The Johnson/Roberts crew returning from a mission to capture a secret weapon in the VOID Star Wars experience.

I know of few greater Star Wars experts (nerds?) than my grandson and son-in-law. Unlike this shallow grandfather who has only seen the movies a few times, Aaron and Miles have absorbed all the TV shows, animated features, and books - and happily converse for hours using their encyclopedic knowledge of these worlds from "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."

So when The VOID opened in the Mall of America last Saturday, Miles wanted to go. I knew nothing about it, but, being both a doting grandfather and being a sucker for new experiences, I got tickets for Aaron, Miles, my son Brady, and me for the 2pm adventure.

I have to say that despite the cost ($35 per ticket), the experience was pretty much mind-blowing. Billed as "a whole-body, fully immersive VR experience," the 30 minutes spent looking through a VR helmet,  wearing some kind of electronic vest, and carrying a ray gun, was about as far from the Google Cardboard experience as a iMax movie is from a picture book.

Viewed through the VR helmets, the small, dark rooms of the area we walked through became corridors of spaceships, walkways suspended above firey lava flows, decks of transporter vessels, and storage rooms filled with Storm Troopers firing laser beams. So convincing was the VR, I was actually a little dizzy and anxious when I needed to cross a narrow plank onto a hovering spaceship. Winds and the smell of sulfur, along with a soundtrack lifted right from the movies, added to the realism. There was lots of shooting, a couple codes to enter, and a narrow rescue from Darth Vader as he menaced with his light saber. 

I have rarely seen my kids as excited as when they left the simulation. (OK, I was sort of jazzed too.)

I kept thinking what a powerful educational tool this might be - especially for history classes. How might one's empathy for our ancestors or the ancestors of others be if The VOID sent us into the hold of a slave ship or the trenches of WWI? What would it feel like to ride with Marco Polo on the Silk Road or view the Spanish conquistadors through the eyes of an Aztec noble? Would such technology allow us to sit in on a Socratic dialog - with Socrates or hear Confucius expound in real time?

Empathy is often described as the ability to place oneself in another's shoes. Believe me, next time I see a Star Wars movie, I will be wearing the boots of a rebel on a mission.

BFTP: The most important reason kids need to learn to be creative

Creativity, I believe, is a vocational skill, a work skill, a means to secure good jobs.

But idealist that I am, I also want students who feel empowered, knowing at heart they have the ability to be sufficiently clever that they can solve any problem they encounter. That they don't have to simply take what life throws at them and live with it. That there is always a way, if one is sufficiently innovative and persistent to get around, over, under, or through any wall. 

Far too many children leave school without the confidence, mindset, skills, or even realization that they have the ability to solve their own problems. They rely on parents, teachers, or perceived leaders to present “the solution” to issues that trouble them.  In large part this is because schools have had the historic societal charge to create conformists, order-takers, and in-the-box thinkers. As David Brooks observes about that student who has a perfect academic record:

This person has followed the cookie-cutter formula for what it means to be successful and you [as an employer] actually have no clue what the person is really like except for a high talent for social conformity. Either they have no desire to chart out an original life course or lack the courage to do so. Shy away from such people.

Schools have done a good job of creating followers. In his book Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol, after examining schools in  East St. Louis, Chicago, New York City, Camden, Cincinnati, and Washington D.C. concludes that two separate public school systems operate in the United States”

... children in one set of schools are educated to be governors; children in the other set of schools are trained for being governed. The former are given the imaginative range to mobilize ideas for economic growth; the latter are provided with the discipline to do the narrow tasks the first group will prescribe. (Kozol, 1991).*

As a life-long educator, my mantra has always been that as a teacher my mission is to create thinkers, not believers. A large part of thinking should be thinking creatively as a means of solving one's own problems, solving the problems of society, and understanding that we all have the power to choose the paths we take in life.

Personally, I love the everyday MacGyvers I encounter. Those who see an obstacle as something akin to a jungle gym - a chance to not just climb, but to get joy and satisfaction in doing so.

Can you think of a better reason that students need to practice creativity?

* Check the recent Annie E Casey Foundation report on acheivement gap by ethnicity if you think Kozol's 1991 findings are ancient history. What chances are students who are performing poorly academically being given to be creative, empowered personal problem-solvers. My guess is about zero. Pass the test then maybe, maybe we'll think about dispositions like creativity.

Original post 4/2/14

But it's not on the test!

A few days ago, I asked "What ever happened to information literacy?" wondering if it was still being addressed in schools. A reader of the Blue Skunk blog on its Facebook account commented:

Unless it’s tested it’s never going to be a priority in our schools.

This is a common sentiment. "Teach to the test" seems to be a common (and practical) philosophy of many teachers.

But do good teachers only teach what will be tested? I don't think so.

The best teacher somehow manages to teach those skills, facts, and understandings that society (via legislation) have identified as important for its citizens to know in order to be productive. Although often antiquated or misguided, the teacher understands and honors his/her role in the part of the educational process. I get it.

But I believe most teachers find time and resources to share their passions with their students as well. They understand that not everything, even the most important things, can be tested - at least on a multiple guess test.

Information literacy, I hope, is one of those passions for many teachers. The ability to determine accuracy, bias, and relevance of information in an age in which anyone can and does make "information" available online is more necessary than ever. Good teachers will help student not understand just how to evaluate their sources, but why doing so is so critical.

Great teachers also give time and energy to "teaching":

• Creativity
• Interpersonal skills such as empathy
• Play
• Honesty and fair play
• Respect for diversity
• Joy and passion for personal areas of interest (Civil War, poetry, baseball, favorite authors, chemistry ...)
• Numeracy

Many of became aware of those areas of interest we still love due to a teacher who went beyond the test. Many of us have been able to perform humanely and effectively because we expected to do so in a class, despite some of those skill being immeasurable.

Many of us are better people thanks to a teacher who expected the best of us - not just the best performance on a standardized test.

Thanks, teachers, for teaching what's not on the test.