Sparking a Passion for STEM, Part 5: Q&A with Santa Teresa High School’s Bryan Reed

This week, we’ve been talking to a group of teachers who spent their summer at Oculus as part of a summer fellowship program through Ignited, a nonprofit focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). So far, we've chatted with Physics Teacher Ryan Stagg, Science Teacher Betsy Huynh, and Technology Enrichment Teacher Kevin Olson.

Today, we’re sitting down with Santa Teresa High School Theater Teacher Bryan Reed to learn about his time at Oculus.

Bryan Reed: My name is Bryan Reed. I’m a theater teacher at Santa Teresa High School, a public high school in San Jose, CA. I’ve been teaching for 20 years now. In addition to teaching, I’m currently the performing arts department chair, a 504 coordinator, and a member of School Site Council.

BR: The short answer is there are no “typical days” as a theater educator. My school is on a lab schedule, so most days I don’t teach all of my classes. I’m on my feet a lot, walking around the theater—which is my classroom—and watching students rehearse and giving feedback. In my advanced classes, like musical theater and advanced drama, classes pretty much run themselves as students know the routines and help newer students pick up class procedures. This allows me to function more as a facilitator than as a traditional teacher.

BR: I’ve always been interested in technology and how to integrate it into education. I also enjoy video games in my personal life, so exploring VR for the classroom was a natural fit. I had done an Ignited fellowship before and apply almost every year to be a part of the program. One of the teachers at my school is a coach for Ignited and has been for several years, so I was already pretty familiar with the program.

BR: My first time using VR was an experience at the Tech Museum in San Jose. Before coming to Oculus, that was it. The experience was OK, but I knew there was much more VR could do. I had seen the ads on Facebook for Beat Saber, but I had never played any VR games.

BR: VR can add so many things to education. The ability to immerse students in an environment they couldn’t normally experience is a real selling point. It’s hard to bring the whole class to the Parthenon, but in VR it’s much easier. The freedom to explore new places students are unlikely to visit in person is awesome. VR can also highlight scale in a way pictures will never be able to. VR allows students to work and learn at their own pace—and focus on the parts of the experiences that really appeal to them.

BR: I worked with another teacher, Betsy Huynh, examining the educational potential of VR. She approached the subject from a STEM perspective, and I from a humanities perspective. We tried a lot of educational applications for Oculus Go and Rift and evaluated their educational potential. We developed a list of “Essential Questions for Educational VR” that we used as a framework for evaluating the educational potential of applications. We looked at some specific applications and suggested ways to modify them for the classroom, and also offered suggestion to make the current VR environment more practical for widespread use in the classroom.

BR: I learned a great deal about what VR can and cannot do for education. I also saw a glimpse into the future of VR and ruminated a lot on its potential as a groundbreaking educational tool, if used properly. Mostly, it turned me into an advocate for educational VR at my school.

BR: In preparing for my interview, I read many articles on educational VR to understand how it was being used in the classroom already. Once we started the fellowship, Betsy and I spent as much time as we could diving into VR apps and getting to know the ins and outs of the technology. And I spent some time beforehand looking into educational VR material online.

BR: I have permission to run professional development courses at my school focused on the current state of VR for education and what’s coming in the future. Hopefully my colleagues will embrace VR and start using it in their own classrooms. I hope to use 3D cameras to record some of my students’ performances and turn them into VR theatrical experiences, assuming I can get equipment donated or raise the funds to make it happen.

BR: I had worked a summer fellowship for Ignited before, so I had some experience in that environment. Betsy and I were usually on the same bus. We ate breakfast together and then started working on some aspect of the project. We spent time most days trying out educational apps, talking about their strengths, weaknesses, and what we would like to see done differently. We developed our list of apps, evaluated them using the questions we developed, and spent time talking with other people at Facebook and Oculus about anything related to educational VR. Teaching can be a very isolating profession, so it was nice to be able to work closely with another educator on the project.