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from the boys-have-a-Wheatley,-girls-have-a-Cortana dept.
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
Using VR, students can learn about the cells in the human body while “travelling” into the bloodstream, or “explore” the degree of plastic pollution in the oceans. They can also conduct complicated experiments using expensive lab-equipment and dangerous chemicals, just by putting on a pair of VR-goggles that immediately offers very realistic and lively experiences.
[...] But the rapid growth of VR-technology in teaching is a new and relatively un-tested field, and at the University of Copenhagen Associate Professor in Psychology Guido Makransky investigates how, why, and in what settings VR-learning provides an advantage over traditional methods and media, so society´s investments in VR-technology can be used in the most beneficial way.
[...] In a study with 66 7th and 8th -grade students (half boys, half girls) at a Danish science talent school, Makransky and colleagues found that the girls learned most in the VR-simulations, when the VR-teacher there was a young, female researcher named Marie, whereas the boys learned more, while being instructed by a flying robot in the form of a drone.
Not mentioned in the article: What other "teacher" figures were tested. Did they try male teachers? Anthropomorphic rabbits? Disembodied voices?
A Gender Matching Effect in Learning with Pedagogical Agents in an Immersive Virtual Reality Science Simulation DOI: 10.1111/jcal.12335
Source: https://news.ku.dk/all_news/2019/virtual-reality-research/
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday January 12 2019, @04:21AM (2 children)
You'd be amazed how much morning exercise can help with even a pretty harsh case of ADHD. Less than an hour of physical activity in the morning has completely replaced all meds and their wonderful, exciting side effects for me. And it's actually a bit more effective than they were.
No placebo going on here, by the way. I found out by accident. I started going to the gym last year and thought to myself "Self, it's probably a bad idea to take Adderall right before heavy exercise," so I started taking it after I got back. Only a lot of the time I'd completely forget to take them because of the change in routine and then evaluate if I was having a day that warranted taking one much later than I should be. After a few months of doing that, it became apparent that if I didn't skip going to the gym, I could skip the pills with none of the symptoms that had me willing to take them in the first place.
Your mileage may vary of course but it's worth talking to your physician about.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 13 2019, @06:18PM (1 child)
ADHD is probably over-diagnosed in the USA. It's actually normal for kids to lose focus after 30-45 minutes of receiving "teaching" (or even many/most adults - we just get better at hiding it?) especially in topics they have no interest in and don't seem relevant to their life.
And the solution/workaround has been known for a long time:
https://newrepublic.com/article/82329/education-reform-finland-us [newrepublic.com]
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused/373544/ [theatlantic.com]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 14 2019, @01:26AM
I lose focus after 30-45 seconds to people droning on about something. It's just too slow. I can read so much faster than they talk, so they're doing nothing but wasting my time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.