Abstract
This study conducted a practice class of peace education using spherical panorama Virtual Reality (VR) learning material with free exploratory learning activity and presentation. The aim of this study was to examine the learning effects of note taking activity in the class. Furthermore, the results of the study show the effective use of this learning material.
The study involved students from two grade-six classes of a public elementary school in Tokyo. The classes were compared in terms of “learning activities” after performing a comprehension test about the Nagasaki atomic bomb. As a result, “the free exploring group” and “the note taking group” equally improved in the post-test stage compared to the pre-test stage. The follow-up test conducted one month after the initial test showed that the scores of the post-test had been maintained. Therefore, in terms of knowledge acquisition, it was seen that free exploring and note taking activities have similar effects.
Regardless of the learning activities, the results of the subjective evaluation of the questionnaire show that learners were highly appreciative of all the items regarding the “interest and motivation,” “understanding,” and “realistic feeling ”the materials inspired. Thus, learners were positive about this learning material and found it easy to understand compared with the usual class material like textbooks and the Internet. In addition, taking notes using this learning material has also shown to increase the interest and motivation for the learning content. For learners, the “note taking” activity is one of the most familiar learning strategies. Therefore, it was suggested that this could be a factor behind the positive impression of the learning content. Furthermore, by fully providing the time for free exploring, it also tends to increase interest in other areas of learning. Moreover, the presence of the note taking did not interfere with the “realistic feeling” of the learners in this practice. As a result, it is necessary to examine the possibility of interfering with the “realistic feeling” by limiting the time of the free exploring activities.
Future research is required to validate the possibility of image information and immersive feeling affected by memory. Further, it is necessary to examine the relation between the memory and body movements from the viewpoint of cognitive processes and gesture research.
