Using Virtual Reality for Multimodal Science and Literacy Learning

• In Event: 47.093 - Supporting Learners in STEM, Making, and Computational Thinking

Abstract

Evolving digital technologies provide opportunities to engage students in literacy practices that go beyond print-based reading and provide exposure to the types of multimodal texts that readers encounter daily in the real world. Although technology is increasingly accepted as a dominant form of communication, there exists a second-level digital divide, which makes it essential that researchers continue to study the intricacies of digital technology as a part of literacy instruction so that effective practices can be shared broadly. The purpose of this study was to examine how VR, a form of multimodal text, can be used to engage students with multiple representations of science concepts and how VR may prepare students to produce multimodal representations of ideas.

Author

• Amy Carter Hutchison, George Mason University