Using the COVID-19 Pandemic to Create a Vision for XR-based Teacher Education Field Experiences

If there was a bright side to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly related to education, it was the massive and rapid introduction of educational technologies to scaffold teaching and learning. Most notably, within teacher education, this included extended reality (XR) technologies to supplement or replace face-to-face field experiences. With the pandemic turning endemic, and with preK-12 schools returning to traditional modalities, there is a danger that the successes of virtual field experiences may be lost. This article presents a vision for 2025 to implement low cost and effective XR technologies to supplement teacher education field experiences, regardless of if and when another global or local crisis occurs (e.g., pandemic, war, weather). In doing so, empirical and theoretical research is presented that argues for teacher educators to seek out and employ more immersive representations of practice that take advantage of the perceptual capacity of XR.

Ferdig, R. E., Kosko, K. W., & Gandolfi, G. (2022). Using the COVID-19 pandemic to create a vision for XR-based teacher education field experiences. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 30(2), 239-252.