Page 66 - ITU Journal, ICT Discoveries, Volume 3, No. 1, June 2020 Special issue: The future of video and immersive media

ITU Journal: ICT Discoveries, Vol. 3(1), June 2020

technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM) solution could be online education, such as Massive
that takes place outside of the formal classroom Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which can reach
environment. In fact, learning about science often larger groups of students. MOOCs can lead to a
occurs outside traditional formal education, and as changed mindset, from the idea that not everyone
such, can begin before children enter school and can learn, e.g., mathematics, to the idea that
continue long after having left school [5, 6, 7]. An everyone can [11]. However, this solution is not yet
average child in the western world spends less than comparable to a personal tutor, such as that
five percent of their life in classrooms, and an ever- proposed by Bloom [10]. Instead, we pose the
growing body of evidence demonstrates that most answer lies in a combination between virtual reality,
science is learned outside of school [5]. Past serious gaming, intelligent tutoring systems and
research examined the beneficial effects of informal learning analytics. Recently, we have taken the first
science education in museums and during free- steps to bring such interactive technologies and
choice learning [8, 9]. Consequently, there is every learning behavior together in an innovative
reason to encourage informal science education educational program, exploring creative avenues
tailored to the needs and interests of individual for interactive, immersive, personalized education
children. However, informal science education to better educate and prepare students for the
tends to be costly and is generally not accessible to future.
all. For example, science museums tend to be
located in (specific neighborhoods of) larger cities 2. SPACEBUZZ
and individualized learning activities carry
considerable additional costs. The non-profit organization SpaceBuzz developed
an innovative educational program aimed at Grade
However, already in 1984, Bloom noted that 5 primary school education. An important goal of
personalized tutoring is highly beneficial in the SpaceBuzz is to introduce 9-11 year olds to the
learning process. He reported the findings of a subjects of science and technology in the context of
comparison in student achievement between (a) sustainability in a way that is playful and easy to
conventional learning in 30-student classrooms learn, inspiring them to make positive contributions
with periodical assessments being taken, (b) to society as they get older. The program has been
mastery learning that was comparable to developed in line with the career path of a real
conventional classrooms, except that assessments astronaut. It comprises three elements: (1) A pre-
were followed up by corrective procedures, and (c) flight astronaut training, involving a variety of
tutoring sessions in which a tutor sat down with up activities and lessons in the classroom which
to three students followed by assessments [10]. prepares children for their journey through space.
Bloom found that students in the small tutoring (2) After children pass the pre-flight astronaut
sessions (preferably, one-to-one) performed two training, a 15-meter long rocket arrives at the
standard deviations better than students in the school to virtually launch children into space
conventional learning condition. Bloom concludes: (Fig. 1). When children sit down in the rocket and
“The tutoring process demonstrates that most of the put virtual reality headsets on, their chairs move
students do have the potential to reach this high hydraulically, and the rocket is launched into space
level of learning. I believe an important task of under the guidance of a virtual reality embodiment
research and instruction is to seek ways of of an actual astronaut, currently European Space
accomplishing this under more practical and Agency (ESA) astronaut André Kuipers. When
realistic conditions than the one-to-one tutoring, children virtually arrive in orbit around the earth
which is too costly for most societies to bear on a they experience what every astronaut has reported:
large scale […] Can researchers and teachers devise Deep feelings of awe and self-transcendence
teaching-learning conditions that will enable the viewing the earth from outside its atmosphere,
majority of students under group instruction to describing it as an “explosion of awareness” and an
attain levels of achievement that can at present be “overwhelming sense of oneness and
reached only under good tutoring conditions?” (p.4). connectedness… accompanied by an ecstasy … an
epiphany”, a cognitive shift in awareness also
Since Bloom’s question posed 35 years ago,
development educational psychology and known as the overview effect [12]. (3) Finally, in a
educational technologies have proposed different post-flight training at the children’s school, children
solutions for a method of group instruction as give press conferences to friends and family and tell
effective as one-to-one tutoring. A promising them about their experience in space.

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