Tag: schools

6 Ways Virtual Reality Can Transform High School Education

Posted on by richardjamesrogers

Updated: 17th July 2022

Accompanying podcast episode:

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global virtual reality in education market is booming, and is projected to grow by an average of 45.2%, every year, between now and 2029. Teachers everywhere would be wise to skill-up and take courses in Virtual Reality EdTech in order to get prepared for the exciting changes we will soon see in our classrooms. Today, I’ve invited Kiara Miller from The Speakingnerd to share her insights into how VR will change the way we do things as educators for many years to come.

Kiara Miller

Gone are the days when all you had to do was walk into a classroom, explain a concept, dictate notes, and call it a day. These days you can offer your students more than that, thanks to technology. Technology in the education sphere is a hot topic and trust me, it will remain so as long as the world continues to embrace it.

Nowadays, teachers can offer students meaningful and impactful learning experiences using Virtual Reality technology (VR). According to this recent report by Global News Wire, the virtual reality market in the education sphere is expected to reach $8.66 billion in 2022, at an annual growth rate of 36%. In fact, 97% of students in technologically developed/developing countries would like to study a VR course.

360 VR is a type of VR that is commonly used in education. It offers immersive experiences by using specialist cameras and equipment to capture real-world locations. The content is then viewed on VR headsets or projected onto walls. Students don’t have to leave their classrooms or spend a lot of money to travel to locations that were once imagined. Virtual trips can happen anywhere and anytime as long as the students have the right equipment.

In a world where it is increasingly becoming difficult to attract students’ attention, engage them or keep them motivated to pursue studies, virtual reality technology seems to have the potential to provide at least a partial solution. It is associated with a range of benefits that we are going to explore together today.

The 7 Vivid Ways Virtual Reality can Transform School Education 

#1 VR offers amazingly immersive in-class learning experiences

What are your thoughts about students vividly seeing what is being taught rather than imagining things? STEM subjects such as biology, computer science, and architecture require hands-on experience for students to obtain a deeper understanding of the concepts and to build their expertise. Virtual reality allows educators to embed really impactful learning experiences into their curricula.

We live in a world that is increasingly dependent on technology and obtaining digital skills is seen as the way forward for future professionals. Using virtual reality in schools helps to provide in-depth knowledge to students on what is being taught. They can zoom in and out of locations that are a thousand miles away, observe how human blood flows throughout the body and even conduct specialized surgery.

VR brings things closer to students and makes things a reality that could have been impossible to relate to otherwise. It also allows students to interact with objects, chemicals or scenarios that could be too dangerous to interface with in the real world.

#2: Intricate concepts are simplified

There is nothing that hurts quite like like teaching a concept to students and then receiving negative feedback at the end of it. Teaching is a profession that requires patience, especially when describing and explaining difficult concepts or topics to students who may not have the ability to grasp the content immediately.

VR technology can help students to decipher intricate concepts with the help of images, videos, or virtual tours. VR is also an excellent add-on to a range of active-learning strategies since users are immersed in, and interact with, 3D worlds.

Intricate concepts are not easy to unpack and yet they also vary in their degree of complexity. Cases where learners can’t visualize what a teacher is talking about tend to produce confusion. Students tend to become passive learners in such scenarios, which negatively affects their performance. VR technology offers a solution in that it can be introduced to classrooms to help students get a clear view of the concepts being taught.

#3: Increases engagement 

Unlike traditional teaching methods, Virtual Reality can fully immerse students in the lesson being taught. Seeing something for the first time or that which seemed impossible increases enthusiasm and also maintains a high level of attentiveness. With the help of virtual reality tools, students can connect to worlds and objects which are normally out of their reach.

VR also stimulates higher levels of imagination which helps students understand concepts better than when just reading about them. The interactions enabled by VR help to keep students’ engagement high throughout the lesson.

#4: Increases practicality

Reading about something is different from having hands-on experience. Students that put more emphasis on learning concepts than practicing them find themselves increasingly left out. In simple terms, knowledge without practicality has a limited impact on students. For certain fields like biology, engineering and computer science, practical skills are vital to survival in an increasingly competitive world.

VR can increase students’ ability to understand concepts, implement what is learned and think of new ways of doing something better. Reading about something and learning how it works helps students believe that they are set on the right path. Also, it helps them set SMART Goals which are believable and achievable. With that, virtual reality offers a new meaning to education, by letting students know that they can put to use what’s learned.

Teaching makes a difference when learners are able to put what’s learned into use. In today’s world where skills are the top need of the hour, in-school training is essential and VR can help out. Using VR in class lays a platform for deep learning which helps students understand content better than when only surface learning takes place.

#5: It’s all-inclusive

Virtual reality has a wide range of applications in the education sphere. It can be used in architecture, philosophy, design or even in science classes. Videos can also be produced in a range of languages. On the other hand, it is suitable for all types of classes whether those occur in-person or remotely. Additionally, every student gets the chance to participate in and enjoy the experience: something which cannot be said for the majority of traditional teaching methods.

#6: Increases Retention

The purpose of teaching is to offer knowledge that can help students academically perform better and excel in their careers. However, the traditional teaching approaches, which tend to be text-based, do not offer optimal learning outcomes. With this approach, students tend to easily get bored, lose interest in science subjects and even perform poorly in exams due to low retention levels. 

VR is changing students’ school experiences by enabling effective learning to take place. Scientifically, the brain processes images better than text. This means that students can easily learn, retain and memorize what is taught in class with the help of VR technology. VR can also rewire the brain and enhance the neural relationships that are required for memory and learning to take place.

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Cobra Kai in Schools: Should Martial Arts be Compulsory for Kids?

Posted on by richardjamesrogers

An article by Richard James Rogers (Author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management)

When I look back on the most significant, powerful and transformative moments in my life, few can come close to when I first walked into a Shotokan Karate dojo.

I was a weak, somewhat weird, high-energy 11-year-old. My dad had started going to Karate lessons and wanted to take me along too. I honestly had no idea how much it would change my life.

I had watched Daniel Larusso’s epic stories in the original Karate Kid series as a small child. Sometimes I would try and copy the moves, making loud ‘Hiiii-Yaaaaaaa’ noises, which usually triggered a fight with my younger brother, and a subsequent ‘grounding’ from mum. I was hooked from an early age, and attending my first Karate class with my dad at age 11 (in 1994) was also like re-living the Karate Kid fantasies I had as a 5-year-old.

Now, with the massive popularity of the Cobra Kai Netflix series (I’m a big fan too, I’ll admit), Karate is seeing a long-awaited resurgence in interest, albeit misinformed (perhaps). As an experienced Karateka I watch Cobra Kai with much amusement: the students make progress way too quickly (performing advanced moves like spin kicks and spin sweeps after seemingly only a few months training); the big school fight is exciting, but unrealistic (it’s unlikely that on-duty teachers would allow that to happen) and parents would be kicking up a massive fuss if kids were coming home battered and bloodied from the Cobra Kai dojo (there’s one scene in Season 3, for example, in which Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz takes another kid to the ground and repeatedly punches him in the head, MMA style, until he’s very bloodied. John Kreese smiles, doesn’t intervene, and when the pounding has finished he says words to the effect of “Will someone pick him up?” In real-life, parents and probably the police would have intervened and the dojo may have been temporarily closed.).

“An AMAZING book”

My karate lessons were (and are) exciting, fast-paced and painful. I and the other white belts had to do lots of stretching, hold fixed stances for long periods of time, perform basic movements (kihon) with power and aggression and perform well in sparring (kumite). There were no mats on the floor and we didn’t wear pads or gumshields – this was old school, traditional Karate, done on hardwood school-gym floors. We respected each other, and aggression was always controlled. If things ever got out of hand (which rarely happened), it was seen as a moment of shame and embarrassment. And as for Karate competency – it takes years and years to get ‘good’ at Karate, even with daily training. Real karate isn’t like Cobra Kai (sorry).

When I first started Karate my body was uncoordinated and unconditioned. After around one month, however, I was performing techniques with some accuracy, had made friends at the club (and later, within the larger Shotokan community as a whole) and was seeing some (albeit minimal) progress. And that’s what I believe initiated the other changes I saw in my life: seeing the progress I made.

27 years later and I’m still training daily. Shotokan Karate has given me so much to be grateful for, including:

  • Self-discipline: Progressing through the belts required hard-work, real perseverance (especially when my sensei would criticize my movements, and I had to keep going and not just simply give up) and sacrifice: I could have stayed at home and watched cartoons instead.
  • Friends: Meeting and socializing with other kids who had a common interest with me really boosted my confidence. I was bullied at school by a small group of boys, and I really valued my support network at Karate class.
  • Mentorship: My Karate sanseis didn’t just teach me techniques to use in a fight – they would often give advice about how to work hard at school, the importance of creating a good life for myself and how to have goals and work towards them.
  • Health and fitness: I hated P.E. (Physical Education) classes at school, and I was terrible at football (a British school staple). Karate gave me an intense workout that I enjoyed, despite the pain that came with the training.
  • The ability to defend myself: Admittedly, this took many years to develop (martial arts’ practitioners will often claim that MMA, boxing or Brazilian Ju-Jitsu will get you to a level of ‘street competency’ quicker), but I did get there. There have been a number of occasions in my life (a small number, thankfully), where I have had to use my Karate skills to get out of a bad situation. One key skill that Karate taught me was situational awareness: knowing how to spot trouble before it happens, and how to avoid it.
  • Spirituality: Karate training involves meditation and reflection (when done properly). As a teenager, these exercises were instrumental in helping me to maintain a positive attitude when life got tough.

My own experience speaks for itself on this matter, but I’m not the only one who sees the benefit of martial arts training for schoolchildren. Keri Wilmot, an occupational therapist who works with children of varying ages and abilities in all areas of pediatrics, identifies nine benefits of martial arts training for children:

  • Self-improvement: Martial arts focus on individual growth.
  • Goal-setting: Kids work through different coloured belts at their own pace (in many martial arts). This can boost self-esteem (I can personally vouch for that).
  • Repetition and routines: Sets, katas and basic movements are broken down into manageable parts that students can digest at a realistic pace.
  • Self-control and concentration are encouraged: One of my Karate senseis would often say that “This will help you with mathematics”. I believe he was right.
  • Coordination is improved: I think Keri puts this perfectly when she writes that “Doing martial arts movements can help kids get a better feel for their body in space.”
  • Boundaries and rules are in-place: These are constantly reinforced by (good) instructors.
  • Martial arts provide a safe outlet for excess energy: This is great for adults and children. Excess aggression, anger and even exam-stress can be dissipated in a martial arts workout in a controlled way.
  • Respect is at the core: In most martial arts’ dojos, students have to show respect for their sensei and for each other. The Cobra Kai dojo is clearly an exception to this rule.
  • Martial arts are cool: I’m taking this word-for-word from Keri, because I can’t rephrase this in a better way. Kids feel special and cool when they’re wearing their martial arts’ gear. To add to Keri’s excellent description I will also say that this adds to a sense of community, and this can be a great esteem-booster for children. As I mentioned earlier: a good dojo can also provide a good support network and social circle for kids who might not have such close ties with friends at school.

Are there any countries or schools where martial arts training is compulsory for students?

Yes! Tai Chi is a compulsory course at Zhenbao primary school in Jioozuo in Central China, for example. The aims are to strengthen students’ physiques and to promote Traditional Chinese culture.

This school, however, is the only example I am aware of. If you know of any others, then please do feel free to comment in the comments’ box at the bottom of this page.

Have people advocated for compulsory martial arts classes in schools before?

Many celebrities, politicians and former athletes have called for compulsory martial arts classes in schools in the past:

  • In 2016, centrist French politician Jean Lassalle called for the introduction of compulsory martial arts classes in schools to combat France’s “culture of fear” that had developed in the wake of recent events at that time.
  • Tiffiny Hall, former Biggest Loser trainer and Taekwondo black belt spoke out about the benefits of martial arts training for school students in 2018. “All I’m asking for is an hour in the PE curriculum in schools to teach kids basic self-protection and self-defense”, she is quoted as saying by Radio 3AW Melbourne.
  • In 2019, martial arts instructor Neha Shrimal set up a petition (which garnered around 137,000 signatures) to include martial arts as a compulsory component of school curricula in Maharashtra State, India. She is quoted by India Today as stating “In India, over 53 per cent of children face sexual abuse. Whenever any such incidence happens, we just look at police and legal system for help. We never imagine that a girl can also have power to deal with such situations, I believe that every child should be trained to protect themselves from an early age. I am asking Maharashtra Government to make self-defence training compulsory for all the students from 5th standard onwards”.

Bibliography and references (in order of appearance)

  1. ‘This Number Shows Why ‘Cobra Kai’ Could Be Netflix’s Most Popular Show Since ‘Outer Banks’ And ‘Tiger King’’. Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbean/2020/09/23/this-number-proves-why-cobra-kai-could-be-netflixs-most-popular-show-since-outer-banks-and-tiger-king/
  2. ‘Netflix’s Cobra Kai making karate more popular in Edmonton: dojo owner’. CTV News Edmonton. Available at: https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/netflix-s-cobra-kai-making-karate-more-popular-in-edmonton-dojo-owner-1.5257790
  3. ‘9 Benefits of Martial Arts for Kids Who Learn and Think Differently’. Understood For All Inc. Available at: https://www.understood.org/en/friends-feelings/child-social-situations/sports/9-benefits-of-martial-arts-for-kids-who-learn-and-think-differently
  4. ‘Taichi becomes a compulsory course in Henan primary school’. CGTN. Available at: https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d414d3155444f32457a6333566d54/index.html
  5. ‘French MP calls for schools to have compulsory martial arts’. The Local Europe AB. Available at: https://www.thelocal.fr/20160822/french-mp-calls-for-compulsory-martial-arts-in-schools
  6. ‘Self defence should be compulsory in schools: Martial Arts expert Tiffiny Hall’. 3AW News Melbourne. Available at: https://www.3aw.com.au/self-defence-should-be-compulsory-in-schools-martial-arts-expert-tiffiny-hall/
  7. ‘Maharashtra government to include compulsory self-defence classes in school curriculum’. India Today. Available at: https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/news/story/maharashtra-government-to-include-compulsory-self-defence-classes-in-school-curriculum-1457713-2019-02-16

Have a great week of teaching everyone! Don’t forget to comment below or contact me if you have any questions or comments – your feedback is my lifeblood! 

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Good Teachers Are Also Good Students

Posted on by richardjamesrogers

An article by Richard James Rogers (Author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management)

Accompanying video:

I have always loved mathematics, but I’ve not always been ‘good’ at maths. I got a grade A for GCSE Mathematics when I was 16 years old (a grade I worked really, really hard for) but I struggled with mathematics at ‘AS’ and ‘A’ – Level (the UK’s pre-university qualifications). 

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“An AMAZING Book!”

It just so happened that mathematics wasn’t a subject I needed as a prerequisite for my university course anyway. So, in a sense, I committed the cardinal sin of thinking that it ‘didn’t matter’. I was planning to study molecular biology at university, and my admissions tutors were mainly interested in my biology and chemistry grades.

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I achieved my goal of going to uni and doing my PGCE in order to become a fully qualified Science teacher in 2006. I was happy for several years, but my failure to complete my mathematics education at school kept gnawing at me like an annoying itch. I needed to do something about it. 

I decided to complete the Certificate in Mathematics course with the Open University in 2009, after three years of being a full-time science teacher. This course covered everything in my ‘A’-Level syllabus with some extra, university-level topics thrown in. It was challenging and offered me just what I needed: closure. As a distance-learning course, it also offered me the chance to study and work as a teacher at the same time. 

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As I started studying the course and handing in assignments (which had to be snail mailed to the UK  – I was living in Thailand at the time), I began to realise how much I had become disconnected from the student experience as a teacher. It had been around three years since I had ever studied anything seriously, and this mathematics course was teaching me how difficult it was to:

  • Meet deadlines
  • Seek help when in doubt
  • Have the self-discipline needed to study at a regular time-slot each day

These skills were, of course, things I had to do whilst completing my degree course and schooling earlier in life, but it had been a few years since I had been immersed in serious study like this. I was slowly losing empathy for my students: that was until this course gave me a wake-up call. 

Another big thing I took from this experience was just how stressful it can be to prepare for a difficult exam (and to complete it). I had to fly to the UK to take the end of course mathematics exam (a three hour beast), and along with the intense revision that came in the few days running up to the exam I had the misfortune of not sleeping so well the night before the big day. And then, once sat down and actually completing the paper, three hours felt like it went by in an instant.

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I guess I’m trying to make a number of points in this trip down Memory Lane – namely that by immersing ourselves in the ‘student experience’ we can, as teachers:

  • Regain, or enhance, our true understanding of just how many hurdles await our students on their race to the exam finish-line.
  • Learn new skills and concepts that can be applied to our roles as classroom managers, leaders and ‘purveyors’ of specialist knowledge.
  • Build self-discipline, and pass on the lessons learned to our students in our roles as mentors, homeroom teachers, form tutors and coaches.

One final point to stress is that, whilst we can study almost any subject we want via online platforms like EdX and Coursera these days, it’s also important that we take the time to thoroughly reflect on a regular basis. Keeping a journal of things we’ve done well, and things we messed up, can be a great way to have a written record to read over when we want to celebrate successes and remind ourselves of lessons we have learned on our journeys as educators. This video I made a few years ago goes into this in more detail:

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Coronavirus: Supporting Students Online When Schools are Forced to Close

Posted on by richardjamesrogers

An article by Richard James Rogers (Bestselling author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management and The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback).

Accompanying video: 

The recent outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus has caused concern for many school leaders, parents and educational authorities. Just this week, for example, we’ve seen parents pulling their kids out of school at Howard Springs, Australia (where a makeshift coronavirus quarantine center was setup nearby), and schools in the French Alps close due to a localized outbreak.

Other concerning developments regarding the novel coronavirus and its recent impact on schools include:

  • British schools have issued warnings to parents to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus after fears that it could be picked up on half-term holidays to the far east. 
  • St Mary’s Independent School in Southampton, Hampshire (United Kingdom) is currently closed (as of February 10th 2020) after the family of some of their pupils were put in isolation over fears they may have contracted the coronavirus.
  • More than 14,000 people have signed a petition calling for one California school district to temporarily close all schools due to the outbreak. 

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Much is still unknown about nCoV2019, but one thing is becoming clear: person-to-person spread is occurring. The latest situation summary updates are available on the CDC’s web page: (2019 Novel Coronavirus, Wuhan, China).

The forecast for this new virus is unclear, and in my personal opinion school leaders would be well-advised to prepare for possible closure. 

I believe I have come up with a simple method by which teachers and schools can support students with their learning when they are working from home. And I believe that simplicity is key – simple systems make life easier for everybody.

Advice for parents is given at the end of this article.

The Online Learning Journal [A suggestion for schools]

Step 1: Every student in the school creates a website that will act as an ‘ePortfolio’ or learning journal. Each website should contain a separate page for each subject the student learns. Google Sites is amazing for this (it’s very user friendly), but Wix, WordPress and Blogger are also good (and free) alternatives. Just make sure the students are using their school e-mail addresses to sign-up to these platforms.

Step 2: The URL for every ePortfolio for every kid in the school is kept on a centralized spreadsheet (e.g. a Google Sheet or an MS Excel sheet) that every teacher has access to.

Step 3: Work is set by the teacher through the school’s online Virtual Learning Environment or MOOC (such as Google Classroom, Firefly or Moodle) or even via e-mail. Students are required to complete their work on their website (e.g. by writing notes on each page, uploading photos of work that’s handwritten, embedding Google Slides, etc.)

Step 4: Teachers simply need to click on the URL for each website of the kids they teach and check their work. Feedback can be written on the website itself (Google Sites makes this very easy, but the student needs to click ‘share’ and share it with the class teacher), or feedback can be directly e-mailed to each student. 

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In my opinion, this method is much better than just using your school’s online learning platform and e-mail to set work because:

  1. All of the work is kept in one place. Every teacher has access, but students cannot see or edit each other’s sites.
  2. Work is less fragmented, as it’s all in one place. With Google Classroom and GMail alone, for example, it can be hard to organize the work one has to mark.
  3. ePortfolios provide amazing evidence of learning, output, creativity and feedback for school inspectors.
  4. Every teacher has access, potentially providing a healthy sense of competition between subjects.
  5. Students can embed Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Forms to their Google Sites. Other platforms also have amazing features that can enhance learning (e.g. news tickers, forum building and link sharing). 

I think it’s important for schools to ‘make hay whilst the sun in shining’ – get your kids set up with all of this now, so that it becomes easy to assign and mark work if your school is forced to close (for any reason, not necessarily because of the novel coronavirus). 

Advice for parents

It can be difficult to support children when school is closed, especially if both parents are working. However, where possible, try to follow these tips:

  1. Make sure your child wakes up at an appropriate time each day and starts the day properly. This is particularly important for older teenagers who have upcoming exams, as productivity can be greatly affected by a slow and late start to the day.
  2. Access your child’s work that has been set by school. Make sure you have your child’s password and username for their online learning platform (if they have one), so that you can determine what work is being set.
  3. E-mail teachers and school leaders and keep in touch with key people in your child’s education. E-mail questions, queries or concerns you have – school’s are usually very happy to assist parents in supporting their children.
  4. Read ahead in your child’s textbooks, so that you can explain concepts and knowledge when you have the time.
  5. Check your child’s work, and make sure quality is high. It may take some time for teachers to provide detailed feedback if school is closed, so provide feedback in the interim (see my blog post about The Four Rules of Praise here). 
  6. Limit social interactions where possible, and make sure that gatherings have a purpose. For older teenagers, again, hanging out with friends can result in low productivity and loss of revision-time. On the other hand, a productive revision session with friends can be very useful. As a parent you will need to gauge the responsibility level and maturity of your own child.
  7. Follow the recommendations of local authorities.

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