VIRTUAL REALITY IN EDUCATION: STIMULATING GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP THROUGH VIRTUAL REALITY

Name: Giliam Gerardu Student number: 500702521 Onderzoek jaar 4 bachelor aardrijkskunde tweedegraads voltijd, HvA, DOO Tutor: Armin Viergever School of internship : Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer Date: 14/05/2018

Figure 1: Virtual reality use in Education (James, 2014)

1 CONTENTS INHOUD 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

2. Literature Review .......................................................................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Global Citizenship Education .......................................................................................................................................... 4

2.1.1 Global citizenship................................................................................................................................................................ 4

2.1.2 Global citizenship Education .......................................................................................................................................... 5

2.1.3 Geography education in the Netherlands ................................................................................................................. 5

2.2 Virtual Reality ........................................................................................................................................................................ 7

2.2.1 Context ................................................................................................................................................................ .................... 7

2.2.2 VR use in education............................................................................................................................................................ 7

2.2.3 Learning with Virtual reality .......................................................................................................................................... 8

2.2.4 Health risks ......................................................................................................................................................................... 10

3. Research questions ..................................................................................................................................................................... 11

4. Methodology .................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

4.1 Research methods ..................................................................................................................................................................... 11

4.2 Participants .................................................................................................................................................................................. 12

4.3 Data collection ............................................................................................................................................................................ 12

4.4 Lesson program ................................................................................................................................................................ ......... 14

4.4.1 Global design ...................................................................................................................................................................... 15

4.4.2 Lesson draft ................................................................................................................................................................ ......... 16

4.5 Bias .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 17

5. Results ................................................................................................................................................................................................ ... 18

5.1 Sub question 1: What is the perception of students in regards to geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship before the in-class use of Virtual Reality? ...................................................................................................... 18

5.2 Sub question 2: What is the perception of students in regards to geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship after the in-class use of Virtual Reality? .......................................................................................................... 19

5.2.1 Gobal competence ............................................................................................................................................................ 19

5.2.2 Global consciousness ....................................................................................................................................................... 21

5.3 Sub question 3: What is the perceptions of students towards the use of Google Earth VR with Oculus Rift?......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 22

5.3.1 Usefulness ............................................................................................................................................................................ 22

2 5.3.2 Difficulties ............................................................................................................................................................................ 23

6. Discussion ................................................................................................................................................................ ............................ 24

7. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 25

8. Recommendations ................................................................................................................................................................ ............ 27

8.1 Lesson practice ................................................................................................................................................................ ........... 27

8.2 Future research .......................................................................................................................................................................... 27

9. Reflection ................................................................................................................................................................ ............................. 28

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 29

10. Appendixes ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 31

10.1 Appendix A: Survey 1 ............................................................................................................................................................ 31

10.2 Appendix B: Survey 2 ............................................................................................................................................................ 32

10.3 Appendix C: Interview .......................................................................................................................................................... 34

10.4 Appendix D: Exercises in Dutch ........................................................................................................................................ 35

10.5 Appendix E: Filled in survey 1 ........................................................................................................................................... 40

10.6 Appendix F: Filled in survey 2 ........................................................................................................................................... 41

10.7 Appendix G: Filled in VR-exercises .................................................................................................................................. 43

10.8 Appendix H: Interview 5 ...................................................................................................................................................... 47

3 1. INTRODUCTION

Since the beginning of the 21st century we are living in an ever expanding globalizing world where international interdependency is rapidly increasing (Krueger, 2006). This is not only outed in the growth of social media but also in the subjects that are included in the curricula all over the world. Global Citizenship Education (GCE) plays a part in these developments. In the Netherlands GCE is included in the department of Geography. Over the past few years Virtual Reality (VR) has made a big leap forward within technological improvements. In some cases VR is already being used for educational purposes. There have been numerous applications in development by different technological giants, like Google. The purpose of this study is to discover if VR-specific pedagogics can stimulate Global Citizenship of lower-secondary school students. The study shall be held at the school where I am currently teaching. The Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer is a secondary school in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The school offers education for levels ‘basisberoeps’ up to ‘vwo’. Dutch secondary schools are generally constructed in a lower secondary part and a higher secondary part. This study will be held with pupils of the lower secondary section. My current role at the school is teaching pupils of the third grade of secondary education in the levels of ‘basisberoeps’, ‘kader’, ‘havo’ and ‘vwo’. The Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer is a school that already focuses on citizenship education, mostly in the form of non-curricular projects. During normal weeks it depends on the teacher the extent to which he or she wants to focus on citizenship education in his or her classroom. Furthermore the school has had no experience with the use of Virtual Reality whatsoever. Therefore the use of VR will most likely be completely new to the participants, if they have not used it in any form out of school.

4 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Global Citizenship Education

2.1.1 GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Before we dive into different perceptions and types of GCE we will first address what ‘global citizenship’ is. It can be said that there are multiple definitions and perceptions of global citizenship. There are two reasons for this. Firstly it is because global citizenship includes two complex phenomena; globalization and citizenship, that in itself have contested histories of meanings. The second reason is that global citizenship does not have a fixed set of criteria for its correct use (Tully, 2014). The following four theories give us an idea of the many perceptions of global citizenship: Gaudelli (2009) tries to divide the concept of global citizenship into three categories; open global citizenship, moral global citizenship and socio-political global citizenship. The first ‘’recognizes the interdependence between nation states in the global age and recognizes opportunities for cultural diversification. The second is based on equality and human rights and emphasizes ‘global responsibility’. The third is meant ‘to shift the balance of political power to promote equality and cultural diversity’. Sally-Anne Jones referenced to the US fund for UNICEF in an article about global citizenship. The US fund for UNICEF defines a global citizenship as ‘’someone who understands interconnectedness, respects and values diversity, has the ability to challenge injustice, and takes action in personally meaningful ways’’ (Jones, 2016). Sklad, Friedman, Park & Oomen (2015) define global citizens as people that ‘’view the world and its inhabitants as interdependent, and work to develop the capacity to act in order to advance both their own enlightened self-interest and the interest of people elsewhere in the world’’. They would also understand the interconnection of all living things, but also the inequalities and the disparities that characterize today’s world. And they should finally have the ‘’knowledge, attitudes and skills to address these disparities’’ (Appiah-Padi, 2001 as in Sklad, Friedman, Park & Oomen (2015) ). Lastly, Oxley and Morris (2013) divide global citizenship into cosmopolitan and advocacy approaches. Both approaches are divided into four categories. Cosmopolitan global citizenship is divided into four categories: political global citizenship, which concentrates on the changing relations between states and individuals; moral global citizenship, which ‘focuses on ideas such as human rights and empathy’; economic global citizenship, which ‘focuses on power relations, forms of capital, work force and international development; and finally cultural global citizenship, which ‘emphasizes symbols and cultural structures that divide or unite members of different societies´ and looks at cultural exchange via processes of globalization. The advocacy approach to global citizenship is divided in social global citizenship, which focuses on global civil society and advocacy for the ‘people’s voice’ around the world; critical global citizenship focuses on inequality and oppression, criticizing the role current power relations and economic agendas play in these issues through a ´post-colonial agenda’; environmental global citizenship advocates for environmental sustainability and preservation through the striving to change the ´negative impacts of humanity on the environment’; and spiritual global citizenship focuses on connections between people based on spiritual aspects, such as religion.

5 Taking these different perceptions of global citizenship leaves us with a couple of similar concepts. Interconnection, interdependency, diversity and attitudes or responsibilities towards global issues are fractions of global citizenship that appear in the named perceptions. The perception that Oxley and Morris provide can be closely linked to different dimensions of geography that are being used often within the Dutch geography education. Therefore this perception will be the standard used for this study. 2.1.2 GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

Like global citizenship, global citizenship education is a phenomenon that is being practiced in many different ways and there are multiple perceptions on what GCE actually is. UNESCO defines GCE as ‘’a framing paradigm which encapsulates how education can develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes learners need for securing a world which is more just, peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, secure and sustainable’’. Dill, as in Goren & Yemini (2017) suggests that two main approaches to GCE can be distinguished: the global competences approach, ‘which aims to provide students with the necessary skills to compete in global society’; and the global consciousness approach, ‘which aims to provide students with a global orientation, empathy and cultural sensitivity, stemming from humanistic values and assumptions’. Andreotti, as in Goren & Yemini (2017) divided GCE into two fragments; soft and critical GCE. Soft GCE includes provides students with understandings about the world and ‘cultural tolerance’, while critical GCE provides them with ‘the skills to reflect upon and engage with global issues’. In this perspective soft GCE is education with the purpose to understand global citizenship and critical GCE’s purpose is to apply that knowledge to global issues. This study chooses to combine the characterization of GCE of Dill (2013) to the perception of global citizenship of Oxley and Morris (2013) since these perceptions can be closely linked to the Dutch geography pedagogics and shall therefore make a strong base of conceptualization for this study. The global competence approach of Dill (2013) can be connected to the divisions of the cosmopolitan approach of global citizenship from Oxley and Morris (2013), as the contents of the cosmopolitan approach are knowledge-based and therefore providing the knowledgeable skills within GCE. The global consciousness approach of Dill can be linked to the advocacy approach from Oxley and Morris because both approaches focus heavily on empathy and humanistic values. 2.1.3 GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION IN THE NETHERLANDS There are a number of main goals that should be achieved in the years of lower secondary education in the Dutch education-system. A few of these goals are linked to the subject of geography and part of these can be linked to themes relevant to GCE, which are translated in table 1. Goal 30 falls under the branch of ‘human and nature’ and can be connected to Oxley and Morris’s division of environmental global citizenship (Oxley & Morris, 2013). Goal 38 and 46 fall under the category of globalization which is part of the ‘human and society’ branch of goals. The former can actually be linked to many of the divisions of Oxley and Morris’s perceptions of global citizenship as the goal is focused on developments and phenomena that have impact on the pupils’ environment. These developments and phenomena could be of a cultural, economic, political, social or environmental nature. The latter however can be closely linked to the division of ‘critical global citizenship’ which is part of the advocacy approach of global citizenship (Oxley & Morris, 2013). Goal 47 falls under the category ‘borders and identity’, which is part of the branch ‘human and society’. This

6 goal can be connected to the divisions of ‘moral’ and ‘critical global citizenship’, which are part of the advocacy approach of Oxley & Morris (2013). Connecting these goals to the definitions that Oxley & Morris have given to global citizenship we see that the goals can both be linked to the cosmopolitan as the advocacy approach of global citizenship and thus be connected to the global competence and consciousness approach of Dill (2013).

Sustainability

Goal 30 The student learns that people, animals and plants are interconnected to each other and their environment. The student also learns that technological and scientific applications can affect the sustainable quality of these factors in both positive and negative ways.

Globalization

Goal 38 The student learns to use a concurrent perception of his own environment, the Netherlands, Europe and the world to place developments and phenomena in his own environment.

Goal 46 The student learns about the division of welfare and poverty around the world. He learns to see the meaning in this division and its effects on population and the environment and learns to connect these phenomena to his own environment in the Netherlands.

Borders and Identity Goal 47 The student learns to place present tensions, conflicts and war in the world to their

background and its´ effects on individuals and societies on national, European and international level. The student also learns the purpose of human rights, interdependency on a global scale and the meaning of international cooperation.

Table 1: Lower secondary school goals of the Netherlands linked to GCE. Source: (SLO, 2017)

After connecting these goals, a set of geographical themes can be selected that could serve as GCE-themes. Goal 30 could involve the topic of climate change, which can be viewed from an global competence point of view when addressing the theories of the topic but can also be used as a topic of discussion leading towards a more global consciousness approach. Both goals 38 and 46 are outed within geographical education as themes of globalization. The theme of globalization is mostly global competence based. Goal 46 can however also be linked to the geographical theme of the division of welfare and poverty, or ‘poor and rich’ as it is called within most of Dutch educational geography, which is not only global competence based but can be connected to the advocacy and global consciousness approach as well because of its focus on empathy and post-colonial divisionism. Lastly goal 47 can be outed within geography education as part of cultural and political geography linked to present conflicts and tensions on both cultural and political level.

7 2.2 Virtual Reality

2.2.1 CONTEXT

Virtual Reality literally means ‘near-reality’. The Virtual Reality Society defines Virtual Reality as ‘’the creation of a virtual environment presented to our senses in such a way that we experience it as if we were really there’’ (VRS, 2017). VR is mostly achieved by the use of technologies within headsets to create this virtual environment. There are however also VR-technologies that use phones as their VR-host like Google Cardboard. All these technologies are under heavy development and have made great leaps over the last decade. This resulted in the rise of commercial use of VR over the past few years. More and more people are using VR-systems for entertainment- or educational use. As of 2017 there are already millions of users of different VR-systems (Webster, 2017). The most popular systems include Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Sony Playstation VR, Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. Most of these systems are quite expansive ranging from consumer prices of €349 to €699, except for the latter two. This is because the Oculus, HTC and Playstation-systems include their own hardware, whereas the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard require a smartphone as their VR-host. For this study the Oculus Rift will be use as the virtual reality-device. The application that will be used on this device is Google Earth VR. 2.2.2 VR USE IN EDUCATION

The use of Virtual Reality in education is still in its early stages and is being applied in various but few parts of the world. The result of this development state VR-use is still in is that there have not been broad studies about the effects of VR-use in the classroom. There are however many opinions on Virtual Reality that claim that VR ‘’has a definitive place of value’’ in todays’ educational world (Reede & Bailiff, 2016). The purpose of using VR in education is letting students immerse themselves in the virtual world and experience the learning context. Google has already left its footprint to develop VR-applications for educational use. Its’ major educational application Google Expeditions already has a lot of users all over the world and was created purely for educational purposes . This app can be used with a Google Cardboard, which is an easy and cheap headset in which smartphones serve as the VR-host. The app includes lesson plans and all sorts of ‘expeditions’ in which ‘’the teacher can act as a guide to lead students through an expedition’’ (Foote, 2017). These expeditions include ‘Field Trips’ to ancient Maya temples, Roman Ruins, the Mount Everest and Aurora Borialis. The context of these field trips are mostly useable for the means of geography- and history education. The benefits of Google Cardboard are mostly the fact that it is cheap, as many schools do not have the budget to invest in a HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. These systems however do have a more realistic and immersive virtual reality experience. Both systems have their own educational applications as well. For instance, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive support Google Earth VR where students can practically fly or move over the world to see all sorts of landscapes. Google Earth VR has had great reviews and may become a big source of educational material in the future of VR in education (Steam, 2017).

8 Lastly, Carolyn Foote (2017) mentions VR technology is ‘’still in its infancy’’ but sees doorways to ethical questions as well. She even wonders if VR may ‘’build global empathy for students’’. There are more teachers that believe VR could stimulate empathy of their pupils. For instance, stepping in the shoes of people in a critical environment that for example is afflicted by poverty could greatly affect students’ empathy to the people that live in these environments. Thus it can be said that these opportunities that VR applications have to offer can be closely affiliated with goals of Global Citizenship Education.

2.2.3 LEARNING WITH VIRTUAL REALITY

In the last few years there have been many studies about the effects of VR in education. However, most of these studies were of an exploratory nature, meaning they have not resulted in ground-breaking conclusions. A Dutch literature study about Virtual Reality-use in primary education states that it is still too early to make firm conclusions on the effects of VR within education (de Lange & Lodewijk, 2017). On the other hand, many researchers and educators are positive about the effects. The challenge primarily lies in creating pedagogics and study methods of a high quality to make VR-use more effective.

2.2.3.1 Learning Illeris (2007) points out in his book ‘how we learn’ four methods of learning. These four methods fall under the learning theory of constructivism. Constructivism implies that the activity of the student is of the most importance for learning. The student constructs his own knowledge, understanding and insight. The theory of constructivism advocates the development from an instruction paradigm to a learning paradigm. This results in a different role for teachers. One that is more focused on monitoring and aiding students instead of instructing. The four methods of learning, as stated by Illeris (2007), are as followed: The first method is ‘cumulative learning’ in which that what is being learned, is being learned ‘isolated’. This means that it does not have a connection to concept or construction that is previously formed. This type of learning is therefore most used at an early age which results in an automatic outcome of that which was learnt. The second method is ‘assimilative learning’. The method adds a concept or element to an existing construction or pattern. This method is being called upon mostly when learning a school subject. The result of this method is that the learning content can be easily used in the same context as it was learnt, meaning that in other contexts people have difficulty with applying the learning content. The third learning method is ‘accommodative learning’ which implies that parts of a mental construction will be detached and results into a transformation of learning content that can be used in new contexts. The result of this method is that the learning contents can be used in familiar and unfamiliar contexts and therefore will be internalised into the person’s mental system. The fourth learning method is ‘transformative learning’. This is the most intensive method because it mostly results in a crucial development or even change in one’s personality. The method results in a restructuring of a whole cluster of constructions and contents of the person. It therefore requires a big amount of ´mental energy´ to achieve transformative learning (Illeris, 2007). Looking at these four methods, the latter methods ´accommodative learning´ and ´transformative learning´ will be the ones wished to achieve with VR-pedagogics. It is to be believed that the former could be achieved in a session, while the latter could possibly be achieved after a series of sessions.

9 In 1956 Benjamin Bloom (1956) created a taxonomy of the cognitive domain. In this taxonomy he broke the cognitive domain into six levels of objectives; remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating. These six levels go from lower order thinking skills, like remembering to higher order thinking skills like creating. VR-applications could serve as a means to increase higher order thinking of students. While some applications are merely focused on understanding and applying concepts, like Google Expeditions, there are possibilities in which higher order thinking skills like analysing, evaluating and creating could be used. For example; there are applications in which students can make their own VR-videos or photos, which means they would be creating material for a geographic topic.

2.2.3.2 The use of VR in Geographic education The Dutch handbook of geography pedagogics (van den Berg, 2009) states that there are five ways of concretizing geographic topics; visualizing, personalizing, connecting learning content to present developments, quantifying and simulating. Looking at these five methods it can be said that four of these methods could be associated with the use of virtual reality. By visualizing geographic topics like poverty students receive a representation of reality. VR is automatically a system that depends solely on that what it is visualizing. To see geographic phenomena can stimulate the learning curve of geographic information for students. Since geography concerns topics that cannot always be seen within the students’ environment, VR could help visualizing phenomena that take place elsewhere in the world. Secondly, for students to be put in a virtual environment that is a representation of what is real could make them feel connected to the place they are ‘virtually’ visiting. By experiencing topics such as difference within culture, poverty or even physical topics like climate change the matter of involvement that students affiliate with these topics could be rapidly increased. Since the method of personalizing is closely linked to the identities of the students this method could possibly lead to transformative learning (Illeris, 2007). Thirdly, there are a few news- and geographic-applications that use VR-videos or other forms of VR to bring the news to their consumers. The New York Times for example uses their app ‘NYT VR’ to offer VR-videos about several topics every day. In such a way news could be presented to students in a manner in which VR could take a central position. For example; the VR-video ‘The Displaced’, about refugees, could be used as an introduction to a lesson about migration, conflict and refugees. Finally, VR in itself is a form of simulation, which makes it only obvious that VR could be used for students to simulate geographic phenomena. Students could interact with geographic information through applications or games that support VR-assistance resulting in interactive learning environments for students with the use of virtual reality.

10 2.2.4 HEALTH RISKS Since the development and commercial use of VR is its early stages there are still uncertainties about whether the use of VR can have negative impacts on the users’ health. This leaves many scientists worried because there are already millions of users. Short term effects of VR include ‘’seizures; loss of awareness; eye strain; eye or muscle twitching; involuntary movements; altered, blurred, or double vision or other visual abnormalities; dizziness; disorientation; impaired balance; impaired hand-eye coordination; panic or anxiety attack; excessive sweating; increased salivation; nausea; light-headedness; discomfort or pain in the head or eyes; drowsiness; fatigue; or any symptoms similar to motion sickness’’ (Oculus, 2017). Most of these effects are only temporary and some users claim that your brain needs to be trained to get rid of these temporary effects (Stein, 2016). There are however debates whether some of these effects may have a lasting effect on VR-consumers. According to a group of scientists more research is needed to uncover long-term effects on people´s health (Davis, 2016). The fact that there is still much uncertainty about the effects of VR on people´s health makes it extra risky when it is used with a large group of children for educational purposes. Specialists however do state that ‘’the most important thing that we should do is just to be cautious and sensible, but we shouldn’t let that stop us from taking advantage of the massive potential this technology offers as well’’ (Davis, 2016). Due to the fact that Virtual Reality simulations may have an impact on the health of the users it has be taken in consideration that the use of VR in the classroom will have to be supervised carefully by the teacher to prevent health risks for his/her pupils.

11 3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Main question: How can Virtual Reality improve stimulation of Global Citizenship within geography education in secondary schools? Sub question 1: What is the perception of students in regards to geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship before the in-class use of Virtual Reality? Sub question 2: What is the perception of students in regards geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship after the in-class use of Virtual Reality? Sub question 3: What is the perception of students towards the educational use of the application Google Earth VR with the Oculus Rift device?

4. METHODOLOGY

4.1 Research methods The research method that is being used for this study is an educational design research. The purpose of the research is to find out how virtual reality applications could improve stimulation of Global Citizenship within geography education in secondary schools. Educational design research consists out of two crucial parts; the design and the evaluation. The former includes the lesson programs, application methods. The latter focuses on the results of the surveys and interviews and evaluates the effects of the design. The research process always incorporates systematic educational design processes, as illustrated in figure 2 (van den Akker, Bannan, Kelly, Plomp, & Nieveen, 2013).

Figure 2: Iterations of systematic design cycles. Source: (van den Akker, Bannan, Kelly, Plomp, & Nieveen, 2013)

The characteristics of the educational design research are foremost cyclical: ‘analysis, design, evaluation and revision activities are iterated until an appropriate balance between ideals (‘the intended’) and realization has been achieved’ (van den Akker, Bannan, Kelly, Plomp, & Nieveen, 2013).

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4.2 Participants The students participating in this study will be of ages 14 to 16 years. We chose for participants of this age because younger students would be more vulnerable for health risks with the use of the Oculus Rift (Oculus, 2017). The total of participating students will be 5. The choice for this small number of participants is based on the length and nature of the lesson program. Because the lessons will be given individually to the students it would be difficult to increase the number of participants. After all this is a method research and not focused on academic data. The participants will be chosen randomly from different classes and will have the level of havo/vwo. All of the students participating in this study are students of the Open Schoolgemeenschap Bijlmer, which is a secondary school for pupils of levels ‘basisberoeps’ to ‘vwo’ in the Southeast of Amsterdam. An important characteristic of the school is its’ diversity in ethnic groups. Students participating in this study will therefore presumably differ in ethnicity and descent. The five students will be from five different classes to reduce the chance of interaction after the intervention and interviews.

4.3 Data collection Data for this study will be collected in two different ways; surveys and interviews, to make the data as representative as possible. Since the research population is low, every participant will fill in a survey before and after the intervention. The first survey that is used before the intervention can be found in appendix A. The second survey that is used after the intervention can be found in appendix B. Both surveys will use the Likert-scale to measure how strong the participants agree or disagree with the survey statements (1932). This means that a score of 1 on the scale means the participant strongly disagrees with the statement and a score of 5 means the participant strongly agrees with the statement, with 3 being the score for neither agreeing or disagreeing. Furthermore interviews will be held with all five participants. The interview questions can be found in appendix C. Looking at the nature of the data collection and the small research population it can be stated that this study is a qualitative study.

The first survey will be divided into two categories; global competence and global consciousness. . The division of questions into these two categories can be seen in appendix A and are as followed:

Categories Questions Global competence 2,3,5,7, 10 Global consciousness 1,4,6, 8, 9

Table 2: Categories of survey questions - survey 1 The two categories are focused on the subject related to GCE. While the category of global competence is linked to the cosmopolitan approach by Oxley and Morris (2013) and the global competence approach by Dill (2013), the category global consciousness is linked towards the advocacy approach by Oxley and Morris (2013) and the global consciousness approach by Dill (2013). The data from this survey will be used to answer the first sub question of the study: ‘what is the perception of students in regards to geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship before the in-class use of Virtual Reality?’.

13 The second survey will be divided into four categories; usefulness, difficulty, global competence and global consciousness. The division of questions into these four categories can be seen in appendix B and are as followed:

Categories Questions Usefulness 3,5,6, 7,8,11 Difficulty 2,4,12,20 Global competence 9,10,13,19,21,22 Global consciousness 1, 14, 15, 16, 17,18

Table 3: Categories of survey questions - survey 2 The first two categories ‘usefulness’ and ‘difficulty’ are focused on the use and experience of the VR-application. It also focuses on difficulties such as the ease of use and possible health problems after the use of the VR-application. The last two categories are focused on the subject related to GCE as mentioned before. Both surveys need to be filled in individually by the student without consulting their peers. The second survey will be filled in by the participants individually and directly after they have used the VR-application.

The interview-questions will have the same four categories as the second survey. How the questions are categorized can be seen in table 4.

Categories Questions Usefulness 1,3,5 Difficulty 2,4 Global competence 7,10 Global consciousness 6,8,9

Table 4: Categories of interview questions

The results of the second survey and the interviews will be used as data to answer the second and third sub questions: ‘what is the perception of students in regards to geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship after the in-class use of Virtual Reality?’ will be answered by the latter two categories in the survey and the same categories used in the interviews. Sub question three; ‘what is the perception of students towards the use of Google Earth VR with Oculus Rift?’ will be answered by the first two categories of the survey- and interview-results ‘usefulness’ and ‘difficulty’. The five interviews will be held separately in a neutral environment after the student has used the VR-application. Students will not be able to interact with each other because they will return to their own class after the interview. The answers of the surveys and interviews will be more credible if the participants will not be influenced by their peers.

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4.4 Lesson program The overview of the design research process for the creation of the lesson methods can be seen in table 2; the method that is used is inspired by the method shown before of systematic design cycles from van den Akker, Bannan, Kelly, Plomp & Nieveen (2013) (figure 2) and the methodology used by Bosschaart, van der Schee & Kuiper (2016) to design a geographic education program. The first stage was defined by an analysis of theoretical researches and numerous other sources regarding the topic of this study. The theoretical framework that was created plus the opportunities of Google Earth VR led to a global design of the lesson program. The development from a draft product to a definitive product was done in stages 2 to 4. After the global design was created it was evaluated by other students. With their feedback the first draft of the product was created. This was followed by an evaluation by two geography teachers. Using their feedback the second draft was written, which was evaluated by my tutor. This last evaluation led to the creation of the definitive product which will be used on the students participating in this study. Finally the results of the surveys and interviews that were held with the participants plus a last evaluation of the product by my tutor and fellow research-students will lead to the recommendations for further studies.

Stages of the design process Participants 1. Problem and

analysis Previous studies +

Theoretical principles 2. Design and

development of prototype

Global design

Evaluation by other research-students

(3) 3. Design and

development of prototype

First draft of product

Evaluation by geography teachers

(2) 4. Design and

development of prototype

Second draft of product

Evaluation by tutor (1)

5. Summative evaluation

Definitive product

Intervention

Results and evaluation by

research-students and tutor (4)

Recommendations Table 5: Overview of the design research process

15 4.4.1 GLOBAL DESIGN The students will participate in a small individual lesson program at the University of Applied Science in Amsterdam. The assignments are created using the categories of global citizenship by Oxley and Morris (2013), the characterizations of GCE by Dill (2013) and the goals of Dutch geography education for lower secondary school education by SLO (2017). The application that will be used for the lessons will be Google Earth VR, supported by Oculus Rift. With this tool students can virtually fly over the world and look at different landscapes, urban structures and multiple other aspects of Earth’s outer designs. This provides the possibility to go anywhere in the world to experience these different aspects. There is also the option to zoom in and activate ‘Google Street View’ which enhances the user to spectate the real surroundings of the place they are visiting. The small lesson that is created with the application Google Earth VR is inspired by goal 46 of SLO that was mentioned before; ‘the student learns about the division of welfare and poverty around the world’ (SLO, 2017). He learns to see the meaning in this division and its effects on population and the environment and learns to connect these phenomena to his own environment in the Netherlands’.

With this in mind we created a lesson that includes both the ‘cosmopolitan and global competence’ approaches by Oxley and Morris (2013) and Dill (2013) and the ‘advocacy and global consciousness approaches by Oxley and Morris (2013) and Dill (2013). The participants will get the assignment to visit a number of slums around the world with the use of Google Earth VR. These slums are equally divided over the continents South America, Africa and Asia. The places are already marked within the application which makes it easy for the participants to visit their destinations. When the students have ‘virtually’ arrived in the area of destination they will first look at the neighbourhood itself. This is followed by an assignment where students will zoom in to the ‘Street View’ of the area to see the ‘real’ area that is photographed for Google Street View in a 360° photo. This means that students can look around standing in the surroundings of the taken photograph and at times even move through the environment. Students will use the application individually. There can be no interaction between students about what they have experienced whatsoever. Therefore, the participants will use the application in a room separated from the other peers.

My role during the lesson is of a coaching nature. I will be asking the students the observation-questions while they are using the VR-applications. I will also be assisting them through the process of the exercises and offer help if technical difficulties would occur.

The goals of the lessons will be as followed:

- The student has developed a sense of global consciousness towards the subject of slums and the division of welfare.

- The student has gained a better understanding of the division of welfare and poverty around the world and can compare this phenomenon to his own environment in the Netherlands.

- The student can explain visualizations of slums and connect these visualizations to interpretations involving the subject of the matter.

- The student can analyse the similarities and differences between slums in Cape Town, Manilla and Rio de Janeiro.

16 4.4.2 LESSON DRAFT

Total time: 45 minutes

Phase Time Activity 1 5 minutes Survey 2 5 minutes Introduction to the

Oculus Rift 3 15 minutes Assignment Google

Earth VR 4 10 minutes Survey 5 15 minutes Interview

Exercise for participants (Phase 2 and 3)

With Google Earth VR you will do a short fieldwork that takes you to three slums in three different cities across the globe. These three cities are Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro and Manila. You will visit and observe a slum in every city and you will even walk through the slum with the help of Google Street View.

User manual for Google Earth VR

Once you have put on the Oculus headset, you will see that your hands look like controllers in the virtual space. The controllers give a description of the purpose of the different buttons and keys.

- Click on the button ‘menu’ - Go to the category ‘saved’ - Choose one of the saved places that you would like to visit first: Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town or

Manila. - To use Google Street View you will have to pull your left hand to your head and keep it there. You

can now move through the environment using the ‘select’-button on your right controller.

Exercise

1. Observe

Per City:

a. Describe the slum(s) and its’ environments

b. Describe the following aspects while using Google Street View:

- Clothing - Houses - Welfare - Transportation - Pollution

17 2. Analyse

Describe the three most notable differences and similarities between the three slums that you have visited.

3. Interpret

1. Would you say that people in the slums that you have visited live unhappier compared to living in your own neighbourhood?

2. What aspects makes people in slums unhappier compared to living in your own neighbourhood?

4.5 Bias

It must be stated that this study is a design research trying to be an stepping stone for further research on the possibilities of virtual reality in GCE. Therefore it only has a small group of participants. Furthermore there will not be an intervention other than the VR-intervention to make a comparison between different interventions. This means that it needs to be taken in account when looking at the results and conclusions taken in this study are only based on the perception of a few participants and therefore is not liable as hard facts.

18 5. RESULTS

5.1 Sub question 1: What is the perception of students in regards to geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship before the in-class use of Virtual Reality?

Table 3 shows the results of the survey that the participants filled in before the intervention of the VR-application. The scores are rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning the participant strongly disagrees with the statement and 5 meaning the participant strongly agrees with the statement. It is very important to note that only 7 of the 10 survey statements of the first survey proved to be valid for the data collection of this study. Four of these statements fall under the global competence category and the remaining three belong to the global consciousness category.

As can be seen in table 6 the participants scored relatively high, although there is quite a difference to be seen between the two categories. This means that the students scored little over 0,75 higher on the global consciousness-scale compared to the global competence-scale. This could mean that the students’ perception on their own abilities concerning these two subjects are both positive, but their global consciousness is bigger than their global competence. For example; the participants scored a 4.8 on the statement ‘’I find it important that everyone in this world has the same chances’’, but only scored a 2.8 on the statement ‘’I know a lot about development countries’’. Looking just at these survey results it can be said that the students score higher in the global consciousness category compared to the global competence category.

Survey statements Global Competence Global Consciousness 1 4.0 4.8 2 4.0 4.0 3 2.8 4.8 4 4.2 Average score 3.75 4.53

Table 6: Results of survey 1.

As was stated before in this study the results of the survey cannot be generalized because of the very small group of participants and survey questions.

However, there were also some aspects of doing this research that I did have trouble with. For instance; after I made the surveys and used them for this study I came to the conclusion that some of the statements that I had used were not valid. This resulted in less survey statements and therefore a less meaningful conclusion to the statements that involved the global competence and consciousness categories.

19

5.2 Sub question 2: What is the perception of students in regards to geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship after the in-class use of Virtual Reality?

To measure the students’ perception to geographic subjects related to Global Citizenship we again measured both the global competence and global consciousness of the participants the participants filled in a survey and were interviewed individually. The survey contained the same statements as the survey that was used before the intervention with the VR-application. If we compare the average scores of the first and the second survey there is a small increase in both categories. As can be seen in table 7 the average score in the category ‘global competence’ increased from 3.75 to 4.1, although the increase in the category ‘global consciousness’ only increased from 4.53 to 4.6. This means the intervention of the VR-application did impact the students’ perception in the global competence category, but their perception in the global consciousness category practically stayed the same. It has to be noted that these seven survey statements are the same statements that were used in survey 1.

The interviews that were held with all five participants show us that both the students’ perception on their global competence and global consciousness was high after the use of the VR-application.

Table 7 – Results of survey 2

5.2.1 GOBAL COMPETENCE

The second survey results show us that some of the students changed their opinion on some of the statements that they were given. Two of the participants neither agreed or disagreed in the first survey on the statement that they had a clear picture of how a slum looks like. On the second survey one answered that he agrees with the fact that he had a clear picture of how a slum looks like and the other participant even strongly agrees with the statement. Apparently, the visit to three slums with Google Earth VR made it very clear for the participant how a slum really looks like. The same student disagreed with the statement that he found poverty in the Netherlands worse than in places far from the Netherlands. In the first survey he did not agree or disagree with this statement. It can be said that the student has developed a growing feeling of connectedness to the places that he had just visited with Google Earth VR.

Survey statements Global competence Global Consciousness

1 4.6 4.8 2 3.2 4.2 3 4.4 4.8 4 4.2 Average score 4.1 4.6

20 During the interviews all participants said they changed their view on the subject ‘poor and rich’ as part of geography education. Some of the students started to compare the environments that they virtually visited to their own; ‘’For example: I can now buy five pieces of ice cream in a store if I want to and they have to save money to buy food for their whole family.’’ This participant looked at the situation from an economic point of view and tried to make a comparison based on income. Another participant compared the slum to his own environment based on the facilities in the neighbourhood:

‘’I saw this for the first time and I found it hard to see that those people have to live that way, while we live here in our pretty houses with good food, good healthcare. And if they for example get sick they would not even know if they would be treated well.’’

This could mean the exercise with Google Earth VR triggered his global competence to compare these two environments. This comparison was also a lesson goal that was made for the exercises that the students used with Google Earth VR.

The last participant noted that it was the fact that he was practically in those environments that made him change his view on the subject. He said ‘’It is as if you were really there. As if I have been on a journey and you see something, I have actually done that now so I will remember it. You look at it differently.’’ His expectations were that the houses of the inhabitants of the slums and the safety of these houses would be ‘okay’ but they were ‘’worse than expected’’.

All in all, the journey the students made to the three slums in Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town and Manilla with Google Earth VR gave them more insight into how a slum looks like and what causes the slums’ appearance. Furthermore it made the participants think about their own environment from a geographic perspective and compare it to the environments they visited with Google Earth VR.

‘’it does get to you a little. It makes you think about money and how we have it a lot better, just very easy in the Netherlands compared to them’’ (Interviewee 3)

21 5.2.2 GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS

As stated before the results from the second survey show us that the students’ perception in the global consciousness category did not increase significantly. One student changed her opinion on the statement if she would be committed to help improve the welfare around the world from ‘agreeing’ with the statement to ‘strongly agreeing’ with the statement. Another student changed his opinion from neither agreeing or disagreeing to agreeing with the statement. In the interview this same student even said he was willing to go to one of the slums in the future to help improve the ‘’water sanitation’’ or ‘‘clean up the neighbourhood’’. A third student however changed his opinion on the same statement from ‘strongly agreeing’ to just ‘agreeing’ with the statement. All in all the survey results show that the intervention with the VR-application did not have any remarkable impact on the students’ perception on their global consciousness.

The interviews however did reveal that the intervention had impact on the students. Most of the students named that the visualization of how people live in the three slums made the most impact on them. As was stated before some of the participants immediately started to compare the slums to their own environment. A student said: ’’Yes, I thought of ‘’look how we live here and look how they live there’’. Yes, I found it hard to look at, but also interesting.’’

To some of the participants the virtual walk through the slums even caused a feeling of empathy towards the subject. Some of the quotes they gave when being interviewed show their involvement with the subject and the environments they were virtually visiting. This feeling of empathy is one of the aspects of Dill’s approach of global consciousness (Dill, 2013). The feeling of ´really being there´ in the slums could be the reason for this increased feeling of connectedness or empathy with the slum environments. Their reactions were as followed:

- ‘’I just found it so hard to see so many people together in one place at once where they have to live in such small houses that looked so badly.’’ (interviewee 4)

- ‘’Manilla was really… as if everything was about to collapse in that moment. That was really hard to see’’. (interviewee 5)

Although the participants were mostly focused on negative aspects of the slums they gave some positive aspects of the neighbourhoods when having to choose in which of the three neighbourhoods they would want to live, if they had to choose. Most of the participants chose the slum in Rio de Janeiro partly because of its’ colourful appearance. One student stated that ‘’because you live so closely to another, you meet and see a lot of people. And it would also make me happy to live together with people instead of money and clothes, expensive clothes or whatsoever.’’ A student that chose Manilla over Rio de Janeiro also named the presence of many people that interact with each other as his main reason for choosing that neighbourhood. Other reasons the participants named were safety and appearance of hygiene.

22

5.3 Sub question 3: What is the perceptions of students towards the use of Google Earth VR with Oculus Rift?

Table 5 shows the results of the survey that was held after the use of the VR-application. Looking at these results we can conclude that the students’ perception on the usefulness of Google Earth VR is very positive and that they did not find any difficulties when using it.

Table 8 – Results of survey 2

5.3.1 USEFULNESS

The results of the survey show that all participants are overall positive about the usefulness of Google Earth VR with the Oculus Rift. The average score of 4.4 out of 5 means that the participants found the use of Google Earth VR in education extremely useful. Four out of five participants strongly agree that it is meaningful to work with Google Earth VR, with only one participant finding it only meaningful.

The results from the survey say that three out of five participants agree that they have learned more with the use of VR compared to making a regular exercise. One of the remaining participants neither agrees or disagrees and the last participant strongly agrees with this statement. When interviewing the students they explained that the feeling of connectedness to the place was the main reason that the VR-application lead to a greater learning experience compared to making a regular exercise. Students said that with Google Earth VR you could ‘’really see what it is like’’ in the environments they visited, compared to only seeing a ‘’photograph in a textbook’’. One of the students even pointed out that the way the slums were shown in Google Earth VR struck him with emotions which he would not get when reading a text or looking at a photograph.

All participants think that the use of VR in education could be a helpful addition to learning in school. Reasons were that with the use of VR you could ‘’really be in a different place and look at different situations in the world, compared to pictures in a textbook’’. Another participant thinks that especially with subjects as geography and history the theories and concepts are ‘’better understandable’’ with the use of VR. One participant does however note that it might be too early to implement VR in education because schools may be ‘’too attached to the use of books still’’.

Survey statements Usefulness Difficulties 1 4.8 2.2 2 4.4 1.6 3 4.0 1.2 4 4.8 1.6 5 4.4 6 4.0 Average score 4.4 1.65

23 Most students found the difficulty of the exercise and use of Google Earth VR balanced. One of the participants states that he found it easier to do the exercises compared to using a book as his source of information. Another participant said that the use of the Oculus Rift was rather easy once he got used to it and found the exercises themselves easy as well. Four participants stated that the duration of the exercise was precisely well done, although the remaining participant thought it was a bit too short. His reason was that with there was still a lot to see around the locations he had visited with Google Earth VR. Finally, all five participants found the exercise with Google Earth VR fun and interesting. One of the students claims that it is ‘’a lot more fun than working out of a boring textbook’’.

5.3.2 DIFFICULTIES

The average score of 1.65 in the difficulties-category means that students almost did not find any difficulties whatsoever when using Google Earth VR or afterwards. Most of the participants claim that it was not hard to work with Google Earth VR and none of them had trouble with the exercises during the use of the VR-application. These scores are made more valid with the interview-responses. All participants had confidence in the fact that they would be able to do and finish the exercises that they were given. Not knowing what kind of tool they were going to use for this study and never have used the Oculus Rift the participants still had confidence in their own use of the VR-application. This means that Google Earth VR is fairly accessible to use by students of this level and age.

Finally, none of the participants had noticed any health issues during or after the use of the Oculus Rift, like dizziness or nausea. It has to be stated that the number of participants are few, which means that there is a chance that other students would have trouble with the use of the Oculus Rift. Still, this study shows that health risks did not influence the use of the Oculus Rift and the Google Earth VR-application which gives hope for further use of the application in the future.

24 6. DISCUSSION

In this discussion we will look at alternative explanations for the results that were found. These results gave answers to the three sub questions that were used in this study. The discussion also acknowledges the methodological limitations of this study.

The participants that were used in this research already had a rather strong perception on the geographic subject linked to global citizenship, which was measured in global competence and global consciousness as was shown in the results of the first survey. This could have different meanings. Firstly, it could mean that all of these five students had a remarkable positive perception of their own global competence and global consciousness. Secondly, it could mean that in general students of their level and age have this same positive perception, although we cannot conclude this considering the small amount of participants. Finally it could also mean that the survey-statements were not challenging enough and perhaps of a rhetorical nature.

The second survey shows that the students’ perception in the global competence category had increased, while their perception in the global consciousness category stayed almost the same. The increase in the students’ perception on their global competence could mean that the use of Google Earth VR helped this improvement. For example; students had a much better perception of how a slum looks like after the use of Google Earth VR than beforehand. The method of enhanced visualization would be the reason for this outcome (van den Berg, 2009). The survey results concerning the students’ perception in the global consciousness category say that the students’ perception stayed the same. The reason for this could be because the survey-statements were not challenging enough and perhaps of a rhetorical nature just as they were in the first survey.

The interviews gave us a more in depth view of the students’ perception on the subject. The students pointed out different things they had learned during the Google Earth VR-exercise, like the state of the houses, the infrastructure, transport or hygiene in the slums they visited. These subjects can be linked to global competence (Dill, 2013). The main topic that was pointed out by the participants was the fact that they felt very immersed in the world they were visiting and saw the environments as if they were real. The interviews also showed us how some of the participants were empathized by the use of Google Earth VR, although this differed per student. Empathy is one of the aspects of Dill’s approach of global consciousness (Dill, 2013).

Both the second survey and the interviews made it significantly clear that the usefulness of Google Earth VR with the Oculus Rift for educational purposes are great and without difficulties. All students were very positive about their experience with Google Earth VR and claimed that they had no complaints of dizziness or any other health problems during and after the use of the Oculus Rift. This results in a positive perception on the use of VR-use for education in the future, although a bigger test group would be needed in a following research to make these claims more valid.

25 Lastly, it is very important to note that the students participating were of a relatively high level of education and were aged from 14 to 16 years. If the test group would consist out of pupils from all levels of education and different ages the outcomes could have been very different. Therefore, it would be very useful to make a follow up study that would have a broader and larger test group to make the outcomes more credible.

7. CONCLUSION After five sessions with five different students that used Google Earth VR to virtually travel to three slums around the world we can conclude that the results were overall positive. The survey scores show us that the use of Virtual Reality had a positive impact on the students’ learning outcome. When looking at the learning outcome of the Global Citizenship Education categories of global competence and global consciousness we learned that the use of Google Earth VR mostly influenced these categories in different ways. Their score within the global competence category went up from 3.75 out of five to 4.1 out of five. The global competence category was built on in a way that Illeris (2007) would categorize as ‘accommodative learning’ since some misconceptions of the students were replaced by new knowledge acquired by the VR-exercises. The impact of the VR-use on the global consciousness category was less remarkable, with a score of 4.53 on the first survey and a 4.6 on the second survey. However, the students did note a grown feeling of empathy towards the slums during the interviews.

The usefulness of Google Earth VR was received with very positive responses from the five participants. They all experienced the journey to the three slums without any significant difficulties and found it overall fun and informative. The results show that the use of Virtual Reality is a welcome addition to current geography-methods in secondary schools. The biggest impact was made in the global competence category by visualized the geographic phenomenon of a slum. This visualization is an important method of concretizing geographic phenomena (van den Berg, 2009). The interview results show that the participants believe that it is more valuable to learn about this phenomenon with Google Earth VR compared to a regular method with a textbook trying to achieve the same goals. All the participants believe that the use of VR for educational purposes would be a great addition to learning in schools nowadays because it gives you more insight into how environments and places differ around the world. This would make the use of VR a great addition for modern education, especially for subjects like geography or history.

This research chose to use individual lessons as the lesson format. Normally, this is very unusual because regular geography lessons would be given to 25 students. If this regular format would have been used, the outcome of this research would probably be quite different. It would therefore be interesting to see what the results would be if these VR-pedagogics would be used in a normal situation or lesson form. Furthermore, the pedagogics and exercises that were used proved to be of a right length but might have been too easy for the participants. If the exercises would be more difficult and perhaps of a higher scale within the taxonomy of Bloom (1956) the results within both the global competence and consciousness categories might increase. This could also be the case if students would work together on a more difficult exercise about the same topic instead of working individually as they did for this study. Possible methods are briefly described in the recommendation.

26 Although the results show that the use of VR would be a great addition to learning geography in secondary schools this does not yet mean it is academically substantiated. The nature of this study is that of a qualitative educational design research which means the results only give us light conclusions. This study found that Virtual Reality can have a small impact on the stimulation of Global Citizenship within geography education in secondary schools. However, the use of Google Earth VR can be a great addition to modern education methods not only focused on improving stimulation of Global Citizenship but all kinds of fields. With this being said, this research tried to be a pioneer in the world of Virtual Reality-research and hopes to be a stepping stone for further studies in the same field.

27 8. RECOMMENDATIONS

8.1 Lesson practice This study used an unusual method of teaching because the lessons were given individually to the five participants. Normally, it would be impossible for teachers to teach their pupils individually within the Dutch educational system. There are however opportunities for the VR-pedagogics to be used in a regular classroom. Here are three possible examples;

- One student could use Google Earth VR in front of the class while the rest of the students watch the representation of users’ interaction with VR on a big screen. The user will virtually walk us through what he or she observes while the remaining students make corresponding exercises, or the teacher gives a theoretical instruction.

- While making exercises individually or in groups every student gets two minutes to use the Oculus Rift to see the geographic subject ‘in the field’ with Google Earth VR. This way all students can use the Oculus Rift if rotated correctly.

- If it would be possible to have multiple Oculus Rifts in the classroom students could work in groups. One of the pupils could use Google Earth VR while the other groupmates could make the corresponding exercises.

Although this study only researched the effects of Google Earth VR with Oculus Rift there are multiple other, less expensive, devices that could be used for educational purposes with virtual reality. Google Cardboard is for example a user-friendly device that uses smartphones as its’ main device. The effects of VR with this device however are of a lot lower quality than the Oculus Rift and the effects on pupils need to be researched as well.

It also needs to be noted that it the professional use of Google Earth VR with Oculus rift requires great devotion from the teacher to get to know the device and application to design a strong corresponding lesson.

Finally, it must be considered that the use of the Oculus Rift for educational purposes is very expensive. This investment could be a problem for many schools, although the positive results of this study could stimulate investing in this new technology for educational use.

8.2 Future research As was stated before; to make this study of any academic significance further and broader research in the same field needs to be done. To make a following research significant it would be best to take the following recommendations into account:

To make a following research significant it would be best if the survey and interview questions would be revised and perhaps the geographic subject could be changed. Within geography education there are many more possibilities that could be visualised by Google Earth VR. It could be relevant to use other topics within geography education to measure the effect of Virtual Reality-pedagogics. For example: geomorphological subjects could be used as the topic used in a future study. Not only these aspects of this study could be enhanced; the most important recommendation for a following research is that the test group must be a lot larger and perhaps exist out of pupils of a different level of education. This would result in more representative results that could lead to a more generalized and truthful conclusion.

28 9. REFLECTION In this last chapter I will briefly look back at the research, the methods used and its’ effect on my development as a professional geography teacher.

First of all, I would like to say that this study has made me very enthusiastic about the future of education. To see the participants enormously immersed in the virtual world of Google Earth VR to look at different environments has inspired me to experiment with new pedagogics. The modernized world we live in today is very much based on experience. Not only in the tourist sector but also in the consummation sectors ‘experience’ has become a key term. The big difference I have seen in the reactions of the students with the use of Google Earth VR instead of a textbook with exercises is that they had ‘experienced’ something. Something they will not soon forget. The fact that they actually felt they were in the slums while in the virtual world made the geographic phenomenon of slums clearer for them. To let students learn most effectively in a way that could motivate them to learn is one of my key beliefs for good education. Teachers need to listen to their students to find a way to make them learn as effective as possible. Therefore, this study has inspired me to keep experimenting with new pedagogics that could make geographic topics more comprehendible for my students.

However, there were also some aspects of doing this research that I did have trouble with. For instance; after I made the surveys and used them for this study I came to the conclusion that some of the statements that I had used were not valid. This resulted in less survey statements and therefore a less meaningful conclusion to the statements that involved the global competence and consciousness categories. In the future these survey statements need to be checked by more peers and I need to be more focused on the validity of these statements.

Another aspect of this study that I found difficult was to make valid conclusions out of the results. Since this research had very few participants it was hard to conclude the results that I had obtained. With more participants it would be easier to make valid statements about the outcome of this study.

All in all, I look back at an extremely fun and informative time while doing this research. A time that inspired me to do more related research in the same field in the future. I can only be thankful that I have gotten the opportunity to be a pioneer in working with the Oculus Rift for educational purposes in the Netherlands. Let us hope that more people feel the same way about this so that future VR-pedagogics could evolve.

29

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