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TechRow Announces Partnership with Lonelyleap  Bringing Immersive Content to Schools to Support Distance Learning 

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Virtual College Tours

In today's digital age, the college selection process has been revolutionized by virtual reality (VR) university tours. These immersive experiences provide prospective students with a unique and efficient way to explore campuses from the comfort of their homes. Here’s a look at how VR tours are transforming the decision-making process for students, backed by compelling statistics.


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The New Frontier of Technology 

New waves of technology are changing the way we engage with society.


As a new frontier of technology, Civic Tech has grown dramatically in just a few years. “Civic Tech” is technology that enables greater level of public participation in government and can more generally refer to informational technology linking the public sector and civilians. Governments with outdated information systems are turning to civic tech as a way to increase transparency with the public. In a 2014 report, the International Data Corporation estimated that U.S spending on civic tech would reach $6.4 billion in 2015 and that spending towards civic tech would grow at a rate 14 times faster than the rate of spending increase for more general IT development from state and local governments between 2013 and 2018. Omidyar Network, a social impact venture capital firm, estimated that national funding towards civic tech between 2013 and 2015 totaled 870 million, showing an increase of 119 percent over the two-year span. That same network pledged to provide Civic Hall, a community hub for civic tech development in New York City, with a donation of 4 million dollars, half going to the hall itself and the other towards Civic Hall Labs, a nonprofit research wing of the Hall dedicated to innovative civic tech solutions in education, healthcare, and social justice. This new wing of Civic Hall has expanded Civic tech outside of just government and into a social welfare context.

Civic Tech projects have so far centered mainly on app development and social exchange innovation in the form of coordinated “Hackathons,” gatherings of tech specialists and policy makers to develop digital platforms and information services. Partnering with the New York City Economic Development Corporation, Civic Hall Labs has employed new collaborative tactics to pioneer socially beneficial services for disadvantaged communities including: JustFix.nyc, a tech group that provides New York tenants facing difficulties with housing access to information about navigating the city’s often intimidating housing court system, Benefit Kitchen, a financial literacy app that connects working families with a path out of poverty, and Addicaid, a personalized and comprehensive tech based recovery app that specializes in wellness promotion and addiction abatement. These solutions are just a few examples of civic tech addressing social needs. Through problem based procurement and an increasing demand for a bottom up approach to addressing constituent needs nationally gives new avenues for Civic tech to flourish in education, healthcare, and the justice system. 

Sources:
“Procurement that stresses solutions, not specs”
https://gcn.com/Articles/2015/10/28/Citymart-solutions-based-procurement.aspx?Page=1
 

New York City’s Civic Hall to grow Civic Tech Ecosystem with $4 million in New Funding
https://www.omidyar.com/news/new-york-citys-civic-hall-grow-civic-tech-ecosystem-4-million-new-funding

Study: U.S. Civic Tech Spending to Reach $6.4 Billion in 2015
http://www.techwire.net/market-news/study-u-s-civic-tech-spending-reach-6-4-billion-2015.html

Addicaid
http://www.addicaid.com/

Justfix.nyc
http://www.justfix.nyc/our-mission

Benefit Kitchen
 http://www.benefitkitchen.com/
 
What is Civic Tech?
http://www.govtech.com/civic/What-is-Civic-Tech.html


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Student Creation of VR Content

TechRow's programs teach students how to make, not just watch, VR.


As a new frontier for student engagement, virtual reality is beginning to find its way into classrooms as teachers adopt it for immersive lesson experiences. However, virtual reality could also prove a valuable tool for getting students to create their own presentations and lessons for themselves and their peers. The efforts to make VR go beyond passive viewing for students opens up a whole array of pedagogical possibilities that can be created by students, for students.

Previously, the process for creating 360-degree video was a rather technical one, most likely out of the grasp of students. That has changed as VR has become more commercial. With relatively inexpensive cameras like the Richo Theta or the Samsung Gear 360 that come with easy-to-use editing software on the market, taking spherical images or 360-degree movies is now easier than ever. 

As an example of student led VR productions, in the spring of 2017, students from 25 high schools across the country took on Digital Promises’s challenge to use 360° video to make an impactful educational experience. Their videos tackled meaningful subject matter, including depicting gentrification in the bay area of Belmont California, highlighting the problem of human trafficking in Kettering, Ohio, and a community and nature tour from students in Atherton California. The potential VR has for situating students within settings and enabling them to learn from them is enormous. From historical settings to contemporary and local locations, the ability to tell a story visually with VR is steadily becoming a reality for students in the classroom.  With software like ClassVR available as an open platform to develop Virtual and Augmented Reality curriculum, student created VR content is now easier to upload and share to others. 

Student led VR content will be essential in overcoming what remains a difficult barrier for VR more generally, cost. With the threat of budget cuts looming, implementation of VR may be difficult for schools particularly in areas of limited funding. By having students fill the void of VR content themselves and showing the feasibility of the technology, schools may prioritize its implementation into their educational curriculum.

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How Will Immersive Media Shape the Future of Education

Today, in an era of online classrooms and disengaged students, educators are able to captivate students with VR media.

In the past few years, virtual reality has shifted from an abstract, futuristic concept to a game-changing tool. Video game developers use VR to transport players inside an interactive world. Psychologists implement VR treatments to patients struggling with mental health conditions. And now, in an era of online classrooms and disengaged students, educators are able to integrate VR media into their lessons. With companies like TechRow making this educational technology affordable, inclusive, and high-quality, over ten thousand inner-city students in NYC and LA are becoming immersed in their schoolwork again. In the time of coronavirus and classes over Zoom, this is more important than ever.

VICE touches on this need for accessible VR in their short feature “[Beyond the Frame: The New Classroom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGGVYT0cMHg).” The video showcases students being transported to ancient Greek coliseums and the space station, all with just a smartphone and a headset. “Anyone can learn anything, if given the right access to an education-- and that could be the quality of that education but also the form of that education,” Jordan Budisantoso, a computer science teacher, shared in the clip. 

Moreover, this technology has the ability to empower students by helping them imagine themselves going beyond the classroom to make real discoveries. Educational VR programming goes beyond the textbook to immerse students in a lesson, and empower them to envision themselves as astronomists, doctors, or archaeologists. “It’s going to expand the possibility of what they could be,” said Seth Andrew, former White House education advisor. “It is not unreasonable to imagine a low-income student in Harlem or in Kenya saying, ‘I want to become an astronaut.’”

[TechRow](https://www.techrow.org/#/) is dedicated to making this inspirational content as accessible as possible. The Harlem, NY based company offers top-tier VR media in a flexible solution for teachers, optimized to be viewed on their own computers and smartphones. Immersive films like Crow: The Legend and The People’s House, as well as content from outlets like the New York Times and CNN, make learning fun, informative, and engaging again.

For more information on TechRow’s immersive media programming, click [HERE](https://www.techrow.org/#/catalogue). 



How Will Immersive Media Shape the Future of Education?

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The Afrofuturistic Legacy of Chadwick Boseman

Boseman embodied a much-needed mainstream role model for Black children

In an already chaotic and unprecedented era, Chadwick Boseman’s passing devastated the world. Throughout his career, Boseman made waves in a number of historical films portraying Black icons like Jackie Robinson, James Brown, and Thurgood Marshall. But his most legendary role was, of course, Black Panther-- Boseman’s performance was larger-than-life, bringing Marvel’s first Black superhero to a global audience with elegance, emotion, and power.

Boseman embodied a much-needed mainstream role model for Black children especially, filling the void in a media landscape of white superheroes. Black Panther boasted a majority Black cast, and this representation was widely celebrated by Black comic book fans, movie critics, and young viewers alike. In 2017, a year before the movie was even released, online fans started a [fundraiser](https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-children-see-black-panther) for a private showing for the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, and flooded Twitter with hashtags like #BlackPantherSoLit and #WelcomeToWakanda. And over the past few days, Black parents have been [posting](https://twitter.com/halleberry/status/1299844032693022721) about their children’s devastation over the loss of their hero.

Black Panther was also revolutionary in the way it revitalized the discussion of Afrofuturism in the mainstream. Described by [Time Magazine](https://time.com/5246675/black-panther-afrofuturism/) as “a literary and musical movement that explores Black identity, culture, and struggles through the lens of science fiction,” Afrofuturism allows audiences to delve into the lives of Black people in different realities, freed from our society’s racism and bigotry, who use technology to become leaders. Boseman’s role as T’Challa embodies this ethos, as he rules over the futuristic African nation of Wakanda.

The success of Black Panther illustrates the need for Afrofuturistic media, especially for young Black viewers. Afrofuturism allows Black children to envision a world beyond racial bias, in which they are empowered to pursue any path and achieve any goal. This representation matters. When these children see people who look like them achieving big things, they’re able to see themselves there too. In a [reality](http://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/Scientists%20and%20Engineers%20Working%20in%20Science%20and%20Engineering%20Occupations.pdf) where only 3% of scientists and engineers are Black men and 2% are Black women, this empowerment is more important than ever.

Afrofuturistic media isn’t limited to Black Panther, and filmmakers are constantly finding new ways to paint transcendent, proud Blackness in their work. But Black Panther was unique in its mainstream availability-- it had a Marvel marketing budget, and played in theaters across the globe. Post-Black Panther, it is crucial that we continue to make Afrofuturistic films accessible to young Black audiences. Educational platforms like TechRow are working to level the playing field by bringing diverse, immersive films to inner city schools, allowing every child access to a bright, empowered future. 

One such film is *NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism*, available on TechRow through our partnership with [Tribeca Film Institute](https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/tribeca-film-institute-tech-row-1234594564/). The series takes viewers into a futuristic Neurocosmotology lab, where Black women are inventing brain optimization products. The series illustrates the neurological and psychological impact of viewing images of empowered Black women, and products made by women of color. This film is available on TechRow’s [immersive educational platform](https://www.techrow.org), where parents and educators have affordable access to a diverse, inspirational catalog of media. TechRow is dedicated to sharing powerful stories about civil rights, and we know that teaching Afrofuturism and equality in the classroom equips kids with empowering representation and a passion for change.

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The Benefits of Multimedia Education

Let’s explore some benefits of multimedia learning in the modern classroom.

The field of education is changing rapidly. The old days of schools with isolated AV departments and outdated TVs are long gone-- the use of modern multimedia within the education sector has accelerated in recent years and is set for continued expansion in the future.

In general, multimedia is the combination of visual and audio representations. These representations could include elements of text, graphic arts, sound, animation, and video. However, multimedia is restricted in systems where information is digitized and processed by a computer. Interactive multimedia and hypermedia consist of multimedia applications in which the user has a more active role. 

Teachers primarily require access to learning resources, which support concept development to meet the individual learning needs of their students. By using multimedia technology, educators can offer new methods of learning that can take place in schools or at home. Granting teachers access to multimedia learning resources, which support constructive concept development, allows them to focus on facilitating learning while working with individual students. And extending the use of multimedia learning resources to the home represents an opportunity to improve distance learning.

There is no doubt that the interest in technology education is rising, and has progressed fast in the past few years. Let’s explore some benefits of multimedia learning in the modern classroom.

1. Extensive understanding

According to [Richard Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning](https://www.mheducation.ca/blog/richard-mayers-cognitive-theory-of-multimedia-learning), information received via auditory and visual channels is processed in different parts of the brain. When students are able to learn through both of these channels simultaneously, they absorb more sensory information and are able to commit more of the lesson to memory.

2. Increased problem solving

Because a large percentage of our brain is reserved for processing visual information, we are highly stimulated when absorbing images, video, and animations alongside text. This leads to an increase in student attentiveness and information retention. In a study titled [“Problem-solving in a Multimedia Learning Environment,”](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257717607_Problem-solving_in_a_Multimedia_Learning_Environment_The_MILEHOME_Project) researchers found that students exhibited high motivation, teamwork, and enhanced understanding of the project, and encouraged the use of technology-backed classrooms.

3. Surge in positive emotions

Multimedia learning tends to be much more fun for learners than gathering information through wordy textbooks, and this can actually increase their knowledge and passion for the subject being taught. An [NYU study](https://steinhardtapps.es.its.nyu.edu/create/courses/2015/reading/Um_Song_Plass_ED-MEDIA_07.pdf) found that ‘positive emotions should be considered as important factors in instructional design”, and that “positive emotions can be generated by the instructional design that may be able to affect learners’ experience and performance”.

4. Greater access to diverse knowledge

With increased internet connection in the classroom, students and teachers are able to gather information from a diverse range of sources, and illustrate points in exciting, immersive ways. According to nonprofit organization [the Internet Society](https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2017/internet-access-and-education/), educators can obtain a wealth of information and perspectives to pass along to their students by incorporating online multimedia resources into their lessons, and innovative ways to convey their lessons.

5. Immersion and exploration

Imagine the ability to take your students to the top of Mount Everest, the NASA Space Station, or a refugee camp in Jordan. Immersive multimedia resources make this a reality, allowing educators to teach by experience without ever leaving the classroom. With a headset and a smartphone, students have all that they need to explore without limits, utilizing 360° media to interact with their environment.

Though teachers around the country are using multimedia technology in different ways, the approach is most successful when it helps students reach existing curriculum goals. As educators create effective uses for multimedia technology, imagination will be their only limit. Parents, educators, administrators, and school board members need to become familiar with multimedia, so they can begin to take advantage of its endless possibilities.


Photo by Xin Wang on Unsplash

How can educators find a technology fit for their students?

Across the United States, teachers are incorporating technology and online tools into their classrooms more than ever, even at lower grade levels. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the average number of computers used for instructional purposes per school increased from 72 in 1995 to 189 in 2008. 

The center also took a study of public school teachers in 2009 reporting how frequently they used various types of software and Internet sites for classroom preparation, instruction, or administrative tasks and found that even in schools with three quarters or more of the student body being eligible for free or reduced lunch, teachers reported using Word processing software and software to make presentations “sometimes or often” 94 percent and 60 percent of the time respectively. With such a clear trend in technological implementation in classrooms, policymakers and educators are weighing the pros and cons of technology based modes of learning. 

Technology can automate some of the more tedious tasks involved with school like grading and handing students their graded assignments back. At the higher education level, more than 500 colleges have adopted Top Hat, a digital service for streamlining grading, discussions, and participation in lectures. Blackboard, another digital platform, has found its way into countless high schools and colleges around the country and provides templates that allow teachers and students to easily coordinate on assignments and course materials. Technology has also increased the visual capacity that teachers can employ in their lessons. In incorporating more devices and tools in the classroom, teachers are also helping students gain practical skills in creating presentation, maintaining proper etiquette, and writing emails, essential abilities in the workplace.

On the flip side, concerns about the pedagogical consequences of technology in the classroom have emerged in wake of national investments in making classrooms and lessons more technology dependent. Worries include about keeping students, especially younger children, focused on lessons and minimizing distractions, online security and safety for educational platforms online, undermining fundamental study habits and negatively affecting student’s ability to verbally communicate. 

These pros and cons have to be considered carefully as oftentimes schools in different districts have vastly different needs and educational goals. For the areas most in need – high-poverty inner city communities, catching up technologically will require significant federal funding. 

One of the hurdles turning to digitized classrooms and schools presents, especially in schools already behind others, is cost. The last two years of the Obama administration saw an initiative to change the Federal Communication Commission’s $2.3 billion E-rate program, which subsidizes telecommunications spending by schools and libraries.  Schools rely on E-rate funding for broadband, but also for the internal systems that connect classrooms to the network. E-rate puts forward most of its money towards broadband and the concern now is that there will be little leftover for those internal networks that make it possible for schools to hook up classrooms. What use is high speed Internet if the interconnectivity in schools is not present? 

The past decade has seen a shift in priority in America towards digitizing classrooms as part of making America globally competitive. The challenge that faces school communities, particularly those most in need, is in mitigating some of the challenges inherent in effectively incorporating technology into a beneficial pedagogy while remaining financially above water.    

__Sources__
Top Hat
https://tophat.com/company/

National Center for Education Statistics Report on prevalence of internet access and computers.
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_218.10.asp?current=yes

Teacher’s use of educational technology in U.S public schools
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010040.pdf

E-Rate Program
http://www.usac.org/sl/