Converging Digital Literacy through Virtual Reality

Virtual reality has become a new platform for communication and engagement to share knowledge. This paper describes the TalkTech 2020 project, in which students at two universities on different continents partnered to use CoSpaces EDU, a beginner's VR authoring tool, to develop virtual visits to international businesses in their home countries. They researched their assigned companies' innovations, products, and services, and conveyed their findings in an original digital story presented in VR. The project represents a convergence of learning about business and technology with arts and sciences, as students develop skills in digital literacy, creative thinking, problem solving, teamwork, and cultural awareness. These experiences will help students prepare for their future careers in many disciplines. The VR experiences that students created for their partners enabled them to learn about and virtually visit international businesses in each other's home countries. They discussed cultural similarities and differences during a video call with their international partners, managed the challenges of working as international team members arranging online meetings across time zones, and chose the collaboration tools that they thought would serve them best to complete the project.