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.