Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2024
Publisher
Amherst College Press
Abstract
Extended reality (XR) technology (that is, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and other 3D technologies) offers many opportunities and benefits for education in the humanities and arts. However, after attending many education- technology workshops and having read countless books and journal articles on the uses of XR in education over the past decade, it has been overwhelmingly apparent that most of the research and conference presentations tend to focus on the use of this technology in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. While in many ways this is understandable, given the obvious applications of the technology to the fields and study of science, engineering, technology, and mathematics, the focus is still too limited and even to some extent exclusionary, failing to see and/ or acknowledge the potential benefits and creative opportunities in education outside of these areas of research and teaching. Additionally, though a multitude of digital humanities projects exist at many, if not all, institutes of higher education, the push for STEM education and careers in colleges and universities can be viewed as contributing to the lack of concentration on innovation in humanities education, as well as to declining enrollments in many non- STEM courses. Finally, for many scholars and teachers in fields outside of STEM, who are already incorporating this and similar types of technology into their teaching and research agendas, their work may not always be recognized or appreciated as scholarly effort in the same sense or worth as traditional research methods by those judging tenure cases, grant proposals, funding opportunities, and the like.
In this volume we aim to counteract some of the narrower views mentioned earlier through highlighting how XR technology can be used in (sometimes) less obvious but equally sophisticated and fruitful ways to create innovative, immersive, and interactive learning experiences for students in the arts and humanities.1 By presenting case studies from several arts and humanities fields at the undergraduate and graduate levels, our goals are to help: 1) inspire outside- the- box thinking; 2) move conversations from isolated silos into national and international discussions (and eventual collaborative projects) among researchers, scholars, teachers, and developers about how to best utilize this technology to complement and enhance current humanities teaching and learning practices in higher education and beyond; and 3) argue that performing research and creating teaching materials with this technology qualify as important scholarly endeavors and ought to be judged and valued as such by university administrators, faculty and other colleagues, grant committees, and more. This collection incorporates academic sources, project write- ups, and case studies that are intended to be used by instructors and administrators in secondary and post- secondary education to introduce or procure a better understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of XR technology in the humanities classroom. While academic in nature, this volume is also intended to be read as a practical document, and we encourage the reader to learn from the authors’ successes and mistakes which they encountered in the process of exploring this emerging medium.
Chapter of
Past and Future Presence: Approaches for Implementing XR Technology in Humanities and Art Education
Editor
Lissa Crofton-Sleigh
Brian Beams
Recommended Citation
Beams, B., & Crofton-Sleigh, L. (2024). Introduction to Past and Future Presence: Approaches for Implementing XR Technology in Humanities and Art Education. In B. Beams & L. Crofton-Sleigh (Eds.), Past and Future Presence: Approaches for Implementing XR Technology in Humanities and Art Education (pp. 1–24). Amherst College Press.
Comments
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