Floreo lessons were originally designed to work with a single Learner wearing a VR headset and a Coach, who can see what is visible in the VR headset, and can help the Learner navigate the situation; however, many teachers have been able to adapt the Floreo system in their classrooms by displaying the VR lesson on a larger screen and including other students in the class. While the other students observe the Learner's view in VR, they can learn from their peers and then take turns with the headset. Classrooms with access to an interactive whiteboard (such as a SMART Board or a Promethean Board) have additional tools that can be used while implementing Floreo.
Annotate on the Interactive Whiteboard: A key feature of interactive whiteboards is the ability to draw directly on the screen. This allows instructors to direct students' attention to more specific areas of the Floreo scene. Floreo’s lessons already incorporate natural pauses in the lessons that allow the Coach to ensure that the Learner has grasped the concept of the lesson (for example, the Chit-Chat series allows for pauses between conversational turns). For some Learners, adding visual cues using this annotation can further reinforce comprehension.
Note well: As soon as the Learner moves, the view on the screen will change, but any writing that was placed on the screen will not follow the object in the VR space. So, to use this strategy, you will need one of the following: a) a Learner who is able to keep gaze fixed in a particular direction until the additional highlight is no longer needed; or, b) a staff person to wear the headset and keep gaze constant in the relevant direction to help students direct their attention to the highlighted object; or c) a video recording of someone experiencing the lesson. Many interactive whiteboards can record on-screen activity along with ambient audio. In other words, you could record a Learner's experience with the VR lesson along with their verbal responses to characters. If you can make a recording of the lesson, you can play back the recording, pause the video, draw on the board, and erase it when you continue the recording.
Use Student Participation Screens: Some interactive whiteboard configurations include student participation screens. This means that, as the teacher presents a lesson on the whiteboard in front of the class, each student has a screen that is connected to the system. These student screens are intended to encourage active engagement from the students and allow students to take short quizzes about the ongoing discussion or respond to a classroom poll. This functionality could be used before a Floreo lesson by using the Pre-Floreo Check In to ensure Learners are feeling well before they start their VR sessions. Then it could be used following the Floreo lesson using the Post-Floreo Check In to ensure Learners are feeling well following their VR experiences. (Be sure to scroll down to see the variety of images offered within these resources.)
Create Vision Boards for Floreo Characters: Among the many other uses of interactive whiteboards is the facility with which you can pull from a bank of pictures to create vision boards. Vision boards emphasize the use of images and can be used to convey a feeling about a character or a topic. After a conversation with one of the kids in the Chit-Chat series (Chit-Chat with Myra, Chit-Chat with Alejandro, and Chit-Chat with Ayanna) or with some of the teens in the Teen Talk lessons (Teen Talk: Social Squares and Teen Talk: Social Squares 2), consider creating a vision board for the characters. Ask the students to use the interactive whiteboard to collect images and phrases that represent the character's mood in the conversation, the topics, the comments made by the characters, and the problems that were discussed in the conversation. Vision boards can help students take the abstract concepts discussed in the conversation and give them a visual anchor.
There are many other ways to port the VR view to a larger screen so that others can see what the Learner is seeing. With all the capabilities built into an interactive whiteboard, there are likely other ways your whiteboard can be integrated with Floreo for classroom success. If you have explored any integrations with the two technologies, please reach out to us. We would love to hear about it!