7A - Testing the Hypothesis

Opportunity:

The opportunity I would like to pursue is distributing virtual reality headsets that are geared toward helping online education more engaging for kids K-12.

School age kids, K-12 are not as engaged in their online education because they are accustomed to having face to face interaction.

·      Who: Kids from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

·      What: They are not as engaged in their online education.

·      Why: They are accustomed to attending school 5 days a week.

Testing the Who: Others who would benefit from the need are educators, gamers, and work from home employees/companies.

Testing the What: Do you feel more or less engaged in classes since moving online? How would you like to see virtual reality incorporated to help you become more engaged? Would you have any concerns about using virtual reality to learn?

Testing the Why: The who for virtual reality can be very broad so I expect to hear different whys.

Interview 1:  Female, 4^th grade Educator

Ms. Broughton sees the way we learn as always changing. She explained that the way I learned is not the same way my daughter is learning. She spoke of the dramatic transition COVID made the kids go through so quickly and how that has affected the engagement of her kids. She seemed hesitant of virtual reality being used for learning. She actually sees it as adding another obstacle for children and their parents to learn and believes both can become frustrated.

Interview 2: Female, 4^th grader

I interviewed my own daughter, Nylah, next to get her perspective on her teacher’s thoughts as well as her own. She mentioned not having a hard time with learning how to use the computer, but missing her friends and just being around kids. She likes the idea of having fun with a “video game” during school and would like to enjoy reading and learning about the history of Texas using the virtual reality. She likes history the least and think the video game could help her understand it more.

Interview 3: Male, High School Junior

I interviewed my cousin who will be a senior next school year. He attends one of the schools in San Antonio that had a tough time getting laptops for their students. He did not receive a laptop until mid-April, so he did say the transition to online was stressful. He thought the idea of using virtual reality was really cool and said he could really use it for his Physics class where information can be tough. He unfortunately saw something that I had not thought about before this idea, and that was the affordability to widely distribute virtual reality in schools.

Interview 4: Female, 7^th grade Educator

Yvette is a 7^th grade teacher who said it was hard for both her and her students to make a transition to online. For the first couple of weeks she struggled providing good content for her students that promoted learning. Now she believes her content has improved and she has been using YouTube to make her own videos so students can still see her. When I mentioned virtual reality, she said she didn’t know much about it. She did not see it as being an everyday tool, but she said she imagines she could get some pretty good “field trips” out of it that could be a change of scenery for her kids.

Interview 5: Female, 27, Mobile Plan Provider

Sharmae started a new position as a mobile plan provider 1 week before COVID. For the first two weeks of the shut down in San Antonio she was instructed to continue to report in for training. She didn’t seem interested in the idea of using virtual reality in the work place. She did wish she was able to stay home and complete training online for her job, but believes that’s something that could be done in a less costly way with zoom and online training sessions instead of using virtual reality.

Reflection: After holding these interviews I realize that I did not complete enough research. I am not even sure what virtual reality could potentially offer to students, it just seemed like a fun way to learn. Having said that, I do have concerns on every school district being able to afford virtual reality as a learning tool. I don’t believe this was a good opportunity to take on as there doesn’t seem to be enough interest.