Work Samples

Poster Presentation at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference (AETC) 2018 

During the semester, I participated in the AETC poster session by presenting a poster on virtual reality (V.R.) and its impact on teaching STEM. I received positive feedback about my presentation from other educators attending the conference, and I was able to network with other graduate students and instructional designers. During my preparation for the event, I greatly expanded my knowledge about different V.R. devices and applications, and the emerging pedagogy in the field of immersive and virtual reality education. 

Proposal for the AETC 

To be able to participate in the AETC poster session, I had to submit a proposal. It was the first proposal I created while in the U.A. Instructional Technology program. Writing the proposal and submitting it to the conference provided me with experience in requesting to present at an educational conference. My AETC experience helped me gain confidence as a Ph.D. student, as I began my doctoral journey. 

Girls, Don’t Dream It – See It!  

Taking a Virtual Reality Tour of STEM

This display presentation addresses how the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is an ongoing struggle for women.  According to the U.S. Economics and Statistics Administration (n.d.), only 25% of workers in STEM are women.  More critically, only 16% of all female students in the world graduate from STEM subjects (WeForum, 2016).  In this presentation, the focus on getting girls plugged into science requires them to experience the future now through virtual reality (VR) learning.  Inspiring engagement and interaction with new information from VR apps in an exciting and fun environment becomes real learning.  Convince a girl that the impossible is possible and she will pursue and demand equal representation as a scientist, technologist, engineer, or mathematician.  

We will explore the highlights of using VR in immersive learning, and provide innovative solutions to keeping girls in STEM by centralizing on the following question:  How can we use VR to motivate young girls to be confident and technology-savvy?  Therefore, it will be argued that the integration of VR apps in a girl’s life can effectively encourage them to learn about science because this visual immersion becomes the landscape of a girl’s imagination into pursuing careers in STEM.  

Supporting Research:

Engineering a girl’s imagination with virtual reality is a forthright method of technology implementation as it enables a girl’s curious mind to experiment with the real world in a safe and controlled simulated environment (Toth, 2017).

• Corporate Initiative. The Verizon Innovative Learning program gives middle and high school students free training with immersive learning technology and tools to help them succeed in the digital economy (Verizon, 2017a). In addition, Verizon (2017b) is also offering their local retail stores as an interactive lab for kids to experiment with virtual reality through free VR headset devices. As part of this education initiative, Verizon has implemented a #WeNeedMore national call-to-action campaign to steer millions of students across the United States to successful careers in STEM (Verizon, n.d.).  Highlighting the more than 4 million job opportunities in the science and technology sector, Verizon is actively seeking out underserved communities, like female youth, to prepare them as viable skilled workforce candidates. 

• Hollywood/U.S. Government Initiative.  The Oscar-nominated 2016 movie, Hidden Figures, tells the untold story of the struggles and success of several African-American women pioneers who helped NASA win the space race (21st Century Fox, 2017).  Due to global interest in the film, the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program designed an educational exchange program, called #HiddenNoMore, to promote the empowerment of women and girls in STEM.  They invited 48 women scientists, educators, and engineers from different countries to participate in a 3-week long discussion in the U.S. of best practices to increase STEM opportunities for women and girls worldwide (Clayton, 2017).  As part of the Hollywood experience, the women also toured the Fox Innovation Lab and got a behind-the-scenes look at current projects using VR (21st Century Fox, 2017).

• VR App. The zSpace (n.d.) is a high-tech learning environment lab of educational software that uses 3D virtual reality to teach students.  It offers hundreds of learning activities from all-in-one PCs.  According to Dr. Rebecca Hite (Toth, 2017), an education professor, the advantage of using zSpace is that it allows girls to make mistakes over in over as they explored scientific ideas.  This risk-free experience gives girls the opportunity to choose a STEM career that they might not have ever considered.

References

21st Century Fox. (2017, November 02). Fox's 'Hidden Figures' inspires historic State Department program to support women in STEM around the world. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://impact.21cf.com/what/2017/11/STEM-women-hidden-no-more

Clayton, E. (2017, November 28). Helping to Ensure Women in STEM are Hidden No More. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://blogs.state.gov/stories/2017/11/28/en/helping-ensure-women-stem-are-hidden-no-more

Economics & Statistics Administration. (n.d.). Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation. Retrieved   October 06, 2017, from http://www.esa.doc.gov/reports/women-stem-gender-gap-innovation

Toth, H. (2017, February 01). Virtual Reality, Actual Learning: Professor Probes Emergent Technology Use in K-12 Science Classrooms. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from http://today.ttu.edu/posts/2017/01/virtual-reality

Verizon. (2017a, October 27). Verizon Innovative Learning. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://www.verizon.com/about/responsibility/verizon-innovative-learning

Verizon. (2017b, November 01). Verizon Innovative Learning Labs. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://www.verizon.com/about/responsibility/verizon-innovation-learning-labs

Verizon. (n.d.). #WeNeedMore. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://www.weneedmore.com/

WeForum. (2016). Gender parity and human capital. Retrieved October 06, 2017, from http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2016/gender-parity-and-human-capital/

ZSpace. (n.d.). ZSpace Learning Lab. Retrieved November 30, 2017, from https://cdn.zspace.com/collateral/brochures/zSpaceLearningLab_013017.pdf

Course Reflection