A variety of virtual world and virtual reality applications for artistic expression have become available in the past few years. Below are some tools that can be used in your art classes. Not all of these applications are easily accessible for classrooms. For these applications, suggestions and solutions will be provided for how classrooms and schools can implement them.
All applications (in bolded, underlined red text) link to its website. |
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CoSpaces Edu is an educational platform that harnesses the power of virtual spaces, 3D design tools, and coding to build 3D creations that can be animated and explored by others in Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality (VR and AR). This platform is designed with learners of many ages in mind as CoSpaces houses a wealth of lesson plans for students in kindergarten and up. Requiring only a browser-based laptop (e.g., chromebook) to construct 3D objects and environments, CoSpaces is highly accessible in classrooms. Accessing student's creations in VR and AR requires other equipment (e.g., VR headset viewer). There is also a free license you can use for classrooms. This past year, my teaching partner used this platform for science as our students created biomes and then viewed each other's work with a VR headset! Seeing them use this virtual space and their engagement made me consider how it can be used as an art exhibit. Students can create 3D models of sculptures, digital artworks, or even upload photos of their physical pieces of artwork to display in their virtual Art Gallery. CoSpaces offers a lesson designed around using CoSpaces for Museum or Art Exhibitions, which you can find on their educator's resource page here:
https://cospaces.io/edu/resources.html#lesson-plans |
ClassVR is an educational technology product designed for use in classrooms. As a standalone headset (does not require motion sensors or other equipment) it has a student friendly interface and embedded educational content that can be teacher controlled. Given this, it's an affordable and mobile way of schools accessing VR and AR in classrooms. The school I currently work at purchased a set of these last year and they are housed in our library. Our librarian received training from ClassVR and offers tutorials for teachers on how to use the headset. Any teacher is able to sign out the set for classroom use or are invited to co-collaborate with the librarian around planning a lesson in the library space. ClassVR provides a wealth of virtual spaces to visit and has a whole section dedicated to art and culture. If you want your class to visit cultural festivals, examine digital arts work more closely, or tour art galleries of the world, then check out their classroom use section of their website with some of their art, culture, and life lesson plans: http://www.classvr.com/school-curriculum-content-subjects/art-culture-life-lessons/
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Minecraft: Education Edition is the popular children's virtual world video game that has been adapted for classroom instruction. It is an open world game that can be run on a browser-based computer that promotes creativity and collaboration as multiple students can interact by co-constructing creations using various types of blocks. While this platform can be used to teach a variety of subjects to young learners like computer sciences, mathematics, and geography, it can also be harnessed for art classes. Students can use this block-building virtual world to make art installations, street art, tessellations, mosaics, and just about whatever your students' imagination can construct with blocks! Then, with multiplayer options, other students can take a virtual tour of their classmates' creations. In order to use it in a classroom, you'll need a Minecraft: Education Edition license and then it costs about $5 USD per student. For more of their art lessons, here's their lesson plan data base:
https://education.minecraft.net/class-resources/lessons/ |
Second Life is a popular online virtual world that was launched back in 2003. This platform is primarily built off of 3D user-generated content. There is not one set objective when playing Second Life and users have a wide range of tools to create just about anything. The entry costs are low as Second Life can be run on a computer and accounts are free (though there are premium memberships if desired). This virtual world is designed for users that are 16 and older and is used as a platform for education by many institutions like colleges and universities. Users below the age of 16 are able to have accounts if they have a sponsored institution (e.g., their school). Given the variety of tools for creation, many Second Life users, known as residents, use this virtual world as a space for the creation and exhibition of their artwork. This makes this virtual world a great opportunity for learners to tour galleries from other artists and to engage with the creators of the artwork. Here's a link to hundreds of galleries that can be visited: https://secondlife.com/destinations/arts
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Tilt Brush is a google product designed for the virtual reality systems of Oculus and Vive. It allows users to create 3D paintings on a large scale, turning whatever room you are in into a gigantic canvas. Users are able to move around the virtual space using the remotes as a virtual palette to change brush strokes and colours. Finished artworks can be exported as animated gifs or room-sized VR pieces for others to interact with. While the cost of Tilt Brush itself is not prohibitive, VR systems like Oculus and Vive are pricey. Also, space requirements in a classroom can be limiting. A solution for the space issue? Creativity with space management! You can set up stations around the edges of the classroom for students to work on physical pieces of art while one or two students experiment with Tilt Brush. Students could even be working on a smaller scale model in real life and then explore their creation process in the virtual space!
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KingSpray Graffiti is a virtual reality video game that can be played on the Oculus VR system. It is a graffiti simulator that allows the user to create street art in a variety of city backdrops. In consulting with world class graffiti artists, Kingspray provides realistic colours, drips, spray and wet/dry effects for users to experiment with street art (without risk of breaking the law!). The game is multiplayer, allowing four users to collaborate at the same time on a design. Similar to Tilt Brush, physical space requirements are an issue. However, students could collaborate across different classrooms and ages or with students from around the world. Depending on the physical spaces within a school, library spaces might work best for exposing students to these type of experiences with sensor tracking virtual reality systems. |
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