1.

Title of the Lesson/Training: A Tour of the White House

2. Brief Description of the Lesson/Training: The students in an American
Government/Civics class will be able to explore an interactive tour of the White House.
They will learn about history and the American government as a whole. Students will be
able to dig deeper into the execute branch specifically.
3. Target Audience: 9th grade
4. Learning Objectives:
Georgia Standard of Excellence:
SSCG10 Demonstrate knowledge of the executive branch of government.
a. Cite the formal qualifications listed in the Constitution for President of the
United States.
b. Describe informal qualifications common to past presidents.
c. Distinguish between the roles of the President, including Commander in Chief
of the Armed Forces, chief executive, chief agenda setter, chief of state, chief
diplomat, and party leader.

❏ Students will be able to dig deeper into the personal history behind the White House.
They will be able to describe what goes on in each room.
❏ Students will demonstrate their knowledge of the executive branch in a presentation
format.
❏ Students will be able to explain the role of the president, U.S. Congress, vice president,
cabinet, department and agencies, along with whoever is responsible for making things
happen in connection with the White House.
5. Duration: 2 hours
6. VR/AR Technology & Other Materials:
Head mounted displays will allow students to have headphones and hand controllers that
will allow them to engage in the full experience of having visuals directly in front of their
eyes. The students will be able to have a closer look at the reception room, kitchen,
library, dining room, and theater. The audio on the head mounts allow students to zoom
in and listen to what is going on within the White House.
Students could use VR to sit in on a meeting of the executive branch and see exactly how
laws are enforced once set in motion by the legislative branch and enacted by the U.S.
Congress. This meeting would allow students a better understanding of how the branches
of government work together. AR/VR provides powerful contextual premise and learning
experiences as if they happened on-site (Lee, 2012).
Oculus Go will allow the students to be able to view, listen, and communicate with
holograms within an environment such as the President’s room, bathrooms, kitchen,
Cabinet Room, and more. According to Jagneaux (2018), “Oculus Go is an excellent VR
headset with great value [...] the ease of use, surprising visual clarity, and depth of
features make Go an easy recommendation for anyone interested in getting started with
VR” (Jagneaux, 2018). A computer is not needed.
After researching AR/VR it seems to only have minor downfalls that will resolve
themselves very soon. Cost seems to be an issue for using VR in the classroom setting
since the government has not provided financial support (Lee, 2012). Many companies
are now developing VR headsets of their own which will make it more affordable for
schools in the near future. Another disadvantage to VR is the lack of realization and need
for it in the academic setting. Finally, human health may be impeded by a AR/VR world
(Bajarin, 2017). People will not be inclined to experience new things in person, and on
foot, if they have it in a video game setting in their living room.
Include 2+ images of the VR/AR technology selected.
Photo 3: unsplash.com
 7. Learner-Centered Technology Integration (Describe how you will use VR/AR to
facilitate LCI.)
Characteristics of LCI Application of VR/AR

Personalized learning/support Teachers must strategize to plan for

meaningful instruction in a learning
centered classroom. Students must have
some degree of personalized learning.
Thus, students should be able to go at their
own pace of learning. In addition, the
approach should help the student make
their own choices in the virtual reality
software. Furthermore, personalized
learning allows for students to invest more.
The content created meets different levels
of students, in terms of skills and pacing.
More advanced students work at a faster
pace but can opt to do extra enrichments in
each room of the White House. The
students get to choose the pace.
Appropriate individual pacing should allow
all students to feel confident enough to
learn the content and apply the skills
needed to complete the game successfully.
In addition, personalized support
encourages student enthusiasm and
engagement in learning through
confidence. Scaffolding is needed to
provide personalized support to each
student. First, the virtual reality must
provide guidance for each step so students
feel confident with the directions. Second,
the software needs to provide hints or tips
to help students rethink their answers or
choices in order to complete a specific
task. Most importantly, the virtual reality
must provide feedback to build a safe
climate of learning. The communication
must be constant and mostly positive.
Social and emotional support Developing a social and emotionally
supportive learning environment in the
classroom certainly entails meticulous
planning. In the end, this lesson should
foster student engagement that also can
impact the way their classroom operates on
a daily basis. A well-planned lesson is key
to providing a degree of structure and
confidence. Furthermore, the teacher must
constantly guide students throughout the
entire lesson to incite student confidence
and engagement. The teacher cannot be a
passive monitor. Through active guidance,
student exploration should be present. The
technology must also be working
appropriately to decrease frustration.
Students can have the option to collaborate
with each other for certain tasks. In the
end, there will be a survey where students
can express their satisfaction.

Self regulation Self Regulated Learning (SRL) has huge

potential to enhance student learning with
virtual reality technology. This type of
learning can influence the learner’s
metacognition during the entire learning
experience., including before and after the
virtual reality usage. The teacher must be
able to expect how students will reflect on
their own learning. Also, they must be
aware of the main elements of SRL. It all
comes back to teacher planning and
guidance. Thus, the teacher must provide
instruction in laymen’s terms on what
technology they will be using and how to
use it. Most importantly, the teacher must
be able to get the students to understand
how they will know if they mastered the
content or task. This virtual reality
experience will allow students to take
 ownership in their choices of the order of
which rooms to visit, the pace of how long
to visit, and the interactions to collaborate
with others for more enriched learning.
VR/AR has become much more learner-
friendly in recent years. VR/AR is student
centered and allows self-organization to
occur. Many students increase their ability
to understand a topic using VR/AR and can
construct meaning of complex topics such
as medical imaging or physics (Yeung,
2004). Moreover, the teacher must ensure
that guidelines for mastery have been
established and understood by all learners.
So, students can reflect on their tasks and
choices to see if they need to rethink and
revisit certain rooms in order to be
successful.

Collaboration It is imperative that teachers insure the

technology in use is appropriate for each
student’s prior experiences with
instructional technology. Teachers must
choose a realistic and pragmatic
technology to use in the classroom. Before
using the White House virtual reality the
teacher will make sure she has made
students comfortable and confident with
the technology. The first day would include
a demo and how to wear the virtual reality
gear. The second day, during stations, one
station will be dedicated to practicing with
this technology. The third day, during
independent work, the student will have to
meet one-on-one with the teacher to
display signs of confidence and familiarity
with the technology. The fourth day will be
dedicated to engaging in the game.
Furthermore, the teacher must foster
familiarity and confidence with each
 student through carefully selected and
taught usage guidelines to foster a positive
learning experience with this new
technology.

Authentic Learning (task based instruction) Students must be authentically engaged. It

is extremely easy for students to look
engaged, especially if they are simply
doing routine and monotonous tasks
masked by technology. Technology
centered instruction cannot be too
formulaic or predictable. The teacher’s
instruction and guidance may promote
enthusiasm that can foster more authentic
engagement and learning.

The three preliminary activities prior to the

VR tour of the White House should prepare
students for the usage of the technology
and the objectives. It is vital that students
are familiar with the technology they are
about to use. Playing the White House VR
cannot be their first interaction with this
technology. Also there is a degree of
structure, but there are also personalized
choices so students can take ownership and
invest. There will be tasks after the virtual
reality experience where they will have to
apply the content and skills they learned.
The lesson will conclude with a survey
where they can create a personalized
reflection based off of their experiences
from the specific virtual reality software
and technology. In addition, they will also
reflect on what they learned from using this
technology, hopefully elaborating if/why
virtual reality enhanced their learning.

Assessment for learning A student’s completion, or mere

participation, of a virtual reality activity
 should not be used to measure student
learning. The virtual reality technology
must be framed by certain learning
standards where the content correlates with
the course. Next, the teacher should use the
standards to determine student learning
objectives. After completion of the virtual
reality technology, students will be
required to complete an enrichment activity
to measure what content students learned
from the virtual reality technology. Then,
there will be a survey where students can
elaborate or how or if the virtual reality
helped students learn the content and skills
of the standards and learning objectives.

8. Procedures (Describe the instructional steps that will be taken to implement the
lesson/training. This section should provide detailed, step-by-step procedures.)

1. Introduction: The students will be asked to create Know, Want to know and Learned
(finish at the end, “L” section) about the executive branch of the US Government. The
first day would include a demo and how to wear the Oculus Go gear. The second day,
during stations, one station will be dedicated to practicing with this technology.
2. The students will be introduced to the executive branch with a video clip. Within the
seven minute clip the students will be exposed to the roles and/or jobs of the President.
The students will watch the provided video clip, “Goofy and the Roles of the President”
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBzKcTprG64.) The third day, during this
independent work, the student will have to meet one-on-one with the teacher to display
signs of confidence and familiarity with the technology.
a. Each student will list and provide a brief summary of 5-6 roles the president has
as the head of the government. (All information from the lessons will be
compiled on a Google Doc for sharing later.)
b. If the student prefers to read about the roles of the president rather than watch a
clip they can visit https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-
content/seven-roles-one-president/ and complete the same assignment as above.
3. After the student completes the needed list of the president their next responsibility will
be to load the VR Reality called “The People’s House” into their Oculus Go device. Here
students will be provided the opportunity to virtually tour parts of the actual White
House. A video summarizing the VR Reality experience can be viewed at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqW2qm02jwI
 Step One: Watch the minute video clip introducing the virtual tour.
Step Two: Click “start exploring today.”
Step Three: There are 3 stories provided to look through. For this assignment the
student will work their way through the Eisenhower Executive Office Building,
The State, and Ground Floors.
c. On each floor students will explore and virtually visit the White House. They will
find art collections, furniture, and a history of the People’s Mansion. Students
will be asked to locate and provide basic information about objects throughout the
mansion. (All added to the above mentioned Google Document.)
i. Four pieces of artwork (who/what pictured, who made or painted it, when
was it crafted)
ii. Five rooms within the White House itself (where located, what can be
found within the room, when and why room added..if available)
iii. Find out and describe how someone could go about visiting the White
House in person rather than virtually.
iv. 5-7 sentence summary of the tour of the White House. Within the
summary the students need to discuss their favorite room, their least
favorite thing visited, and an interesting fact learned (not including the
above list). Finally, their summary should include whether they thought
the virtual tour of the White House was a good substitute for visiting the
actual house or would visiting it in person be better?
2. After students finish their tour of the White House they will be asked to complete an
assignment on ICivics.org. They will be able to select from the following choices (A-C;
D is a MUST) to learn more about the roles of the Executive Branch. (They can work
alone or pick a partner to complete the final two activities. If working with a partner,
pairs must create a new Google Doc that both have editing rights.)
a. A Very Big Branch
b. Being President
c. BGCA Lesson Five: Being the President
d. Three Branches: Laws in Action
3. In closing, each student (individually) needs to complete the “L” section from the
beginning with at least 4 things they learned throughout the lesson. They must pick a
topic from each of the activities completed in the lesson above: one from the Goofy
Video/Reading, one from the Virtual Tour, one from the A-C choice, and finally one
from D. One “L” requirement is that they have to reflect on how the Virtual Reality tour
helped enhance their learning of the content.

9. Reflection: I thought this project was very interesting and motivating. I was able to
make a lot of real life connections with VR. VR allows students to experience and
explore different places in the world without leaving the classroom. This is absolutely
amazing! The equipment and materials also assist with providing them with the real life
experiences. This also allows students to experience different job descriptions/titles first-
hand. I think it would be amazing to allow students to share their world by allowing them
 to design their own Virtual Reality content. Virtual Reality can be integrated into any
subject, grade, or content. It motivates students and leaves them wondering. In addition, I
personally have worked with Special Needs students every year of my career and virtual
reality can most certainly be used to support their needs. For example, students with
limited mobility issues are given the chance to travel through the entire White House.
The allows for another adaptation or differentiation for struggling students. The VR will
allow students who struggle with language a chance to be involved in a more visual
aspect than just reading information from a page. According to Walsh (2017), “ The
University of Michigan is using VR to let potential football playing students experience
what it's like to experience being on the field in a full stadium” (Walsh, 2017). I think this
opportunity for students is advantageous and brilliant. There are many students who want
to play football, but may be afraid. There are parents who are in this same category. VR
allows them to have a real-life experience of what it may look like. As Conkin (2017)
stated, “ Such technologies create social platforms that are beginning to transform
how we communicate, create, learn, and collaborate” (Conkin, 2017).

10. References
(2018, May 11). Retrieved June 15, 2018, from https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/oculus-go/
Bajarin, T. (2017, May 16). Virtual Reality: Promises and Pitfalls of VR Technology. Retrieved
from http://time.com/4780507/virtual-reality-vr-problems/
ICivics. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2018, from https://www.icivics.org/
Jagneaux, D. (2018, May 03). Oculus Go Review: Standalone VR For The Masses. Retrieved
June 15, 2018, from https://uploadvr.com/oculus-go-review-standalone-vr/
Lee, K. (2012, February 07). Augmented Reality in Education and Training. Retrieved June 11,
2018, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11528-012-0559-3
Oculus Go [Photograph found in Devindra Hardawar]. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2018, from
https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/01/oculus-go-
review/#gallery=868642&slide=7320592&index=2
Oculus Go Specifications. (2017, October 12). Retrieved June 15, 2018, from
https://www.sizescreens.com/oculus-go-specifications/
Seven Roles for One President | Scholastic. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/seven-roles-one-president/
The People's House - Inside the White House with Barack and Michelle Obama. (2017, May 17).
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqW2qm02jwI
Understanding Goverment with Goofy: The President's Job. (2015, March 21). Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBzKcTprG64
Walsh, K. (2017, November 28). Kelly Walsh. Retrieved from
https://www.emergingedtech.com/2017/06/real-uses-of-virtual-reality-in-education-how-schools-
are-using-vr/
Yeung, Y. (2004, October). ERIC Number: ED489988 Record Type: Non-Journal Publication
Date: 2004-Sep Pages: 8 Abstractor: Author Reference Count: 21 ISBN: N/A ISSN: N/A A
Learner-Centered Approach for Training Science Teachers through Virtual Reality and 3D
Visualization Technologies: Practical Experience for Sharing[Scholarly project]. Retrieved June
12, 2018, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED489988