PREPARING STUDENTS TO USE VIRTUAL TRAVEL TO DEVELOP PRESCHOOLERS' COGNITIVE INTEREST
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17770/etr2025vol3.8523Keywords:
cognitive interest, preschool children, virtual travel, student trainingAbstract
The modern educational space is undergoing significant changes under the influence of digital technologies, which open up new opportunities for teaching and upbringing of children. One of the innovative means of developing the cognitive interest of preschool children is the use of virtual journeys, which allow to broaden the worldview, stimulate curiosity and intensify educational and cognitive activities. The article deals with theoretical and practical aspects of preparing students for the use of virtual travel. The importance of digital technologies in preschool education, their impact on the formation of curiosity and motivation to learn about the world around us is analysed. The key methodological aspects of preparing future teachers for the implementation of virtual excursions, including the choice of content, integration with the educational programme and creation of an interactive educational environment are outlined. Attention is focused on the importance of developing students' digital competence for the effective use of modern educational resources in working with preschool children. An experimental study was conducted, the respondents of which were 67 2nd year students of the bachelor's degree in speciality 012 Preschool Education of Vinnytsia Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi State Pedagogical University, studying under the educational programmes “Preschool Education. Primary Education”, “Preschool Education. Speech Therapy” full-time and part-time study programmes. The readiness of future specialists to use virtual travel to develop the cognitive interest of preschoolers is investigated. For this purpose, the relevant criteria were developed and their indicators were determined: motivational (need to use virtual travel; desire for new knowledge in this area); cognitive (knowledge of the peculiarities of using virtual travel to develop the cognitive interest of preschool children); activity (ability to use virtual travel in the educational process). The study revealed mostly medium and low levels of readiness of the students who participated in the survey. The authors of the article provide examples of technologies that should be used in working with students to increase their readiness to use virtual travel in teaching preschoolers: Google Earth and Google Maps – for virtual tours of the world, CoSpaces Edu – for creating interactive media content (virtual reality, augmented reality, interactive 3D content), BYOD technology (“bring your own device”) – promotes the integration of mobile learning with other competence-based technologies. The recommendation to reduce the number of applicants with adequate and initial levels of readiness to use virtual travel in the development of cognitive interest of preschool children is to study the relevant elective discipline.
References
Ü. Alan, We’ve All Traveled, We’ve All Learnt: Virtual Field Trips in Early Childhood Education. Anadolu Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 7(4), 2023, pp. 883-905. DOI:10.34056/aujef.1346279
H. S. Alazmi, G. M. Alemtairy, The effects of immersive virtual reality field trips upon student academic achievement, cognitive load, and multimodal presence in a social studies educational context. Education and Information Technologies, 29, 2024, pp. 22189-22211. DOI:10.1007/s10639-024-12682-3
N. Andersen, G. Makransky, R. Mayer, Fostering science interests through head-mounted displays. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 39(1), 2023, pp. 127-141. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12656
P. Araiza-Alba, T. Keane, B. Matthews, K. Simpson, G. Strugnell, W. Chen, J. Kaufman, The potential of 360-degree virtual reality videos to teach water-safety skills to children. Computers and Education, 163, 2021, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.104096
A. Bodzin, R. Junior, T. Hammond, D. Anastasio, Investigating engagement and flow with a placed-based immersive virtual reality game. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 30(3), 2020, pp. 347–360.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-020-09870-4
C. Carbonell-Carrera, J. Saorin, D. Melián Díaz, User VR experience and motivation study in an immersive 3D geovisualization environment using a game engine for landscape design teaching. Land, 10(5), 2021, p. 492. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10050492
R. C. Chang, L. Y. Chung, Y. M. Huang, Developing an interactive augmented reality system as a complement to plant education and comparing its effectiveness with video learning. Interactive Learning Environments, 24(6), 2016, pp. 1245-1264. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2014.982131
K. H. Cheng, Teachers’ perceptions of exploiting immersive virtual field trips for learning in primary education. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 54(3), 2022, pp. 438-455.
https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2021.1876576
A. Eckhoff, Participation takes many forms: exploring the frameworks surrounding children’s engagement in participatory research. In A. Eckhoff (Ed.), Participatory research with young children. 2019, pp. 3-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19365-2
M. Garcia, L. Nadelson, A. Yeh, «We're going on a virtual trip!»: A switching-replications experiment of 360-degree videos as a physical field trip alternative in primary education. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 17(1), 2023, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40723-023-00110-x
I. Han, Immersive virtual field trips in education: A mixed-methods study on elementary students’ presence and perceived learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(2), 2020, pp. 420-435. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12842
I. Han, “We're going on a virtual trip!”: a switching-replications experiment of 360-degree videos as a physical field trip alternative in primary education. International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 17(1), 2023, р. 4. DOI:10.1186/s40723-023-00110-x
N. Heuke, R. Schmidt, B. Stumpe, Creating Virtual Field Trips for Education: A Comparison of Software and Tools for Creating Virtual Field Trips with 360° Images. International Journal of Technology in Education, 6(3), 2023, pp. 385-417. DOI:10.46328/ijte.441.
C. Leininger-Frézal, S. Sprenger, Virtual Field Trips in Binational Collaborative Teacher Training: Opportunities and Challenges in the Context of Education for Sustainable Development. Sustainability, 14(19), 2022, р. 12933. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912933.
G. Petersen, S. Klingenberg, R. Mayer, G. Makransky, The virtual field trip: Investigating how to optimize immersive virtual learning in climate change education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(6), 2020, pp. 2099–2115. DOI:10.31234/osf.io/m7vp9
S. Rapti, T. Sapounidis, S. Tselegkaridis, Investigating Educators’ and Students’ Perspectives on Virtual Reality Enhanced Teaching in Preschool. Early Childhood Education Journal, 2024 DOI:10.1007/s10643-024-01659-z
K. A. Ritter, T. L. Chambers, Three-dimensional modeled environments versus 360 degree panoramas for mobile virtual reality training. Virtual reality. Advance online publication, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-021-00502-9
M. Rupp, K. Odette, J. Kozachuk, J.Michaelis, J. Smither, D. McConnell, Investigating learning outcomes and subjective experiences in 360-degree videos. Computers and Education, 128, 2019, pp. 256-268. https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.compedu.2018.09.015
I. Stakhova, A. Kushnir, N. Franchuk, K. Kolesnik, L. Lyubchak, M. Vatso, Enhancing the Digital Competence of Prospective Primary School Teachers through Utilizing Kahoot! International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education This link is disabled,16(4), 2024, pp. 467-478. https://www.iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/2245
O. Shykyrynska, V. Liapunova, O. Melnykova, K. Mnyshenko, T. Petryshyna, Readiness of The Future Preschool and Primary Education Specialists to form the Foundations of Children’s Cyber Security. Environment. Technology. Resources. Rezekne, Latvia Proceedings of the 15th International Scientific and Practical Conference. Volume II, 2024, pp. 481-484. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17770/etr2024vol2.8087.
M. Videnovik, V. Trajkovik, L. Kiønig, T. Vold, Increasing quality of learning experience using augmented reality educational games. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 79(33-34), 2020, pp. 23861–23885. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-020-09046-7
M. Zhou, G. Chen, P. Ferreira, M. Smith, Consumer behavior in the online classroom: Using video analytics and machine learning to understand the consumption of video courseware. Journal of Marketing Research, 58(6), 2021, pp. 1079-1100. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437211042013
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Oleksandra Shykyrynska, Natalia Pakhalchuk, Kateryna Kolesnik, Tetiana Kryvosheya, Inna Karuk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.