You can use such a platform independently, developing what interests and entertains you, or working on what you’re having trouble with in school. If, for example, you’re really into geography and travelling, you can buy a Cardboard and, using the Google Expedition app, go through lessons in virtual reality – take a trip to Bhutan, or even the Milky Way!
You can use a platform like this in school in the same way. For example, Codeacademy is a great platform for learning how to program. The lessons are interactive and you’ll get feedback for each step.
Thanks to the use of suitable technologies, everyone can go at their own tempo during the lesson. The teacher then helps each student with individual problems and questions. In this way, the approach is individualized, which means that if I’m having trouble with something, I have enough time and there’s no one waiting for me to finish. But, if I’m good at it, I have the chance to develop further and prepare for a computer science competition. These approaches also go against what’s called the reduction of differences in education – everyone does the same thing and at the end everyone knows the same thing.
Here you’ll find several platforms to start with, but you’ll find more in the list of tools and even more on the internet.
The Khan Academy is a platform with courses primarily for basic and secondary school students. You’ll find courses of mathematics, geometry, astronomy, computer science and many others. The basis of the course is always a video, in which someone will explain the material to you while writing on a virtual whiteboard so you can remember it better.
Quiz questions on the material are also prepared so you can check what you’ve learned.
Class Central is a database of so-called MOOC courses. These are courses created by universities around the world so that even someone on the other side of the globe can use them to study remotely and for free. You can easily choose a course from Harvard, Stanford or Oxford. Class Central brings together certain platforms of courses, which include Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn and many others. There are currently hundreds of thousands of courses offered. Most of them are in English, often with subtitles.
Vlevo ukázka obsahu kurzu z oblasti umění na platformě Khan Academy. Vpravo ukázka přehledu kurzu o dinosaurech na Class Central. Zdroje: Khan Academy, Class Central. Autor screenshotů: KISK.
Codecademy is a platform where you can learn a ton of IT skills from computer science 101 to complex skills for programmers in companies. What’s interesting about it? If you want to learn something like the basics of html, you can sign up for this course in Codecademy. The whole course is interactive and the greatest added value is that you’ll immediately receive automatic feedback on your assignments from the computer. This will help you to quickly fix your mistakes and boldly continue on in your progress.
Google Expeditions. Expeditions are a platform owned by Google but developed by the community. This means you can set off on an as many expeditions in VR as have been created by users. Thus, you can use already-existing expeditions or also create new ones with the Tour Creator. It’s surprisingly easy.
Vlevo ukázka z aplikace Google expeditions. Vpravo ukázka kurzu na rozvoj webu pro začátečníky na platformě Codecademy. Zdroje: Google expeditions, Codecademy. Autor screenshotů: KISK.