AP Research: Effective Institution of Extended Reality (XR) Technologies in the Pre-existing K-12 Curriculum
Advisor: Erin Vander Wall
Internship Location: BASIS Independent McLean
AP Research
Extended Reality (XR) is a rapidly growing frontier. What was once a gimmick used primarily for leisure and entertainment is now becoming a staple in nearly every industry. A rapidly growing application of XR is in education.
In higher education, several institutions (Stanford University, the University of British Columbia, and Arizona State University) have already begun implementing XR, and they have all seen profound positive impacts on student performance. In lower education, XR is also slowly being used more prominently. School districts in Indiana and Maine are currently piloting programs in their schools, and are extremely pleased with the early returns. With XR becoming a staple in the next generation, and with the US government investing in XR for the military and its other departments/agencies, many experts believe it’s inevitable that the government invests heavily into XR for education. However, these experts also say that before widespread adoption of XR, more research is needed on how XR will be integrated into the K-12 curriculum.
My research aims to understand how XR can effectively be integrated into the existing K-12 curricula. I will examine different implementations of XR in lower and upper education to identify common conditions under which they were successful, and provide a broader suggestion for how this technology should be implemented into the existing K-12 sphere. In the near future, the government will likely invest billions of dollars into XR, like it did with computers in the early 2000s, given how prominent XR will be, so it’s very important that they know how to use this technology to achieve the desired outcomes, since they're going to invest billions of dollars into it.
Project Blog
Week 5: Introduction And Update On Project
Hello! My name is Rithik Puli, commonly known as Rit P in the streets. Like many folks, when I first found out about the Metaverse, I thought it was nothing more than a gimmick used primarily for gaming and entertainment. It wasn’t until I spent 6 months doing actual research on the latest innovations in the Metaverse and the various applications of the Metaverse that I realized that the Metaverse truly was the future, and that it was applicable in nearly every sector. Through my research, I found that companies in all sorts of sectors like travel, retail, healthcare, and fitness are investing tens of billions of dollars into the Metaverse. The Metaverse is being used extensively by companies to optimize design processes, make training more efficient, make communication and collaboration seamless and easier than ever, and for many other things. The more research I conducted, the more I became convinced that not only is the Metaverse the future, but it’s going to become a staple in nearly every part of our lives. After conducting research about the Metaverse in nearly 10 sectors for 6 months, I wondered where else the Metaverse could be heavily instituted. That’s when I began AP Research.
So I had the great idea of looking into the application of the Metaverse into Education. Education was one of the areas I conducted very little research on, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to learn more about the Metaverse and its potential applications in an area I knew little about in education. My research aimed to look particularly at how Extended Reality (XR) can effectively be integrated into the pre-existing K-12 curriculum. I chose this line of inquiry in particular, because when I did a literature review of pre-existing studies in this area, what I found was that several of the leading studies identified integration of XR technology into the pre-existing curriculum as an area that needs more research. Therefore, I decided to do just that.
I decided to conduct a case study looking at various implementations of XR technologies in education. I will look at implementations that had positive effects on student performance and implementations that had negative/no effects on student performance. Then I will try to extrapolate common conditions in different implementations that led to a positive and negative outcome. Once I have the conditions that led to a successful and unsuccessful implementation of XR technology, I plan on providing a plan for schools to use in the future to successfully integrate XR into their pre-existing curriculum.
This past week, I solidified the first couple sections of my paper and presentation (Intro/Background, Literature Review, and Methodology). I am currently working on collecting my data from all the different cases I have to analyze. I’m having to analyze 7-8 different implementations of XR (cases) in total. The vast majority of them are implementations where implementing XR led to a tremendous positive impact on student performance. One of the challenges that I hope to overcome, is to find a couple more cases where implementations of XR had a negative or no effect on student performance. I have a couple cases, but not nearly close to the amount of positive cases I can cite. I plan on spending this week, to find a couple more cases where implementations of XR had a negative/no effect on student performance, and to finish up all my data collection (most of which is qualitative). Next week, I hope to really dive deep into my data and find patterns and commonalities between positive implementations of XR and negative implementations of XR.
Between my research project, following the NBA playoffs, and business/investing shenanigans, I have a busy week ahead of me. I’ll check back in with y’all in exactly one week.
Rithik Puli
Week 7: The Pivot And Results
Hello everyone,
It has been quite an eventful week both in and outside AP Research. This week, I spent much of my time solidifying my methodology and starting to gather my results. Initially, the goal of my project was to look at a couple cases where the implementation of XR was successful in the K-12 space, and a couple cases where the implementation of XR was unsuccessful in the K-12 space to extrapolate common conditions that led to success and failure. Unfortunately, I soon figured out that there weren’t many if any studies published where XR was implemented in the K-12 sphere and it led to a negative impact on student performance. After looking profusely for a couple days, I realized that I needed to pivot and change the direction of my project.
What I pivoted to was to look at eight positive implementations of XR in K-12 settings, and attempt to extrapolate commonalities between each case to understand what conditions are usually leading to success when it comes to the implementation of XR in K-12 settings. I have found eight different cases where XR was implemented in K-12 settings, and I am well on my way collecting and finalizing all of my data. Let me give you a brief overview of what my data collection process looks like. In each case, I will record precisely how XR was applied in the educational setting, and then I will record the respective impact on student performance metrics. In some cases, quantitative data like impact on grades, retention of content, and motivation to study are provided. In some cases, qualitative data like student/teacher testimonials are provided. Regardless of what sort of data is given, that is recorded. Then I will try to look at if there are some commonalities between cases that had profound positive impacts on student performance, particularly when it comes to how XR was applied in a given case. I am nearly finished with my data collection. I would have been done by now, but my pivot forced me to find additional cases where XR was implemented successfully, and essentially restart the data collection process. I expect to finish my data collection in the near future, and finish my data analysis/evaluation by the end of this weekend.
While I am not fully through with my data collection, I have started to see a trend between most of the cases. While I won’t go into detail, I will provide this little tidbit about my results. When XR isn’t entirely replacing the pre-existing K-12 curriculum, it is most effective. Look for more information regarding that in next week’s final blog! Coming up next week, I’ll be presenting my findings officially on Wednesday. My paper is also due on Monday, so this whole process is quickly coming to an end. It has been quite a roller coaster, but it has been a lot of fun, and has given me great insights about an area I know very little about.
It would be a crime if I didn’t mention the NBA playoffs. I don’t know who is or isn’t following the playoffs, but know this: the Kings are going all the way. Go Kings!
I’ll catch up with y’all next week when my presentation is over, and when my data has been fully collected and analyzed. Hopefully, I have some more details I can give y’all next week. See y’all then!
-Rit P