Historic Boston School Expands Immersive Education Program

Steeped in history and tradition, Boston's St. John School embraces revolutionary educational technologies.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) - Since 1873 St. John School has resided in historic North Square adjacent to the Paul Revere House on Boston's Freedom Trail. For over 140 years the elementary school has touched the lives of generations of children in the heart of a proud and dynamic city.

Steeped in history and tradition, and located at the very site of the American Revolution, St. John School is, today, leading the charge in a new revolution. A revolution in education.

In 2013 St. John School began to offer students access to Immersive Education. One year later the school has expanded its Immersive Education after-school program to include Minecraft, Scratch Junior, virtual reality (VR) and 3D printing. This fall students from grades 3 through 6 will use Immersive Education technologies and techniques to create their own video games, interactive stories, living cartoons and animations to immerse themselves in history, science, technology, engineering, arts & architecture, and math (STEaM).

Immersive Education is a suite of advanced digital technologies that "immerse" and engage learners in a way that is not possible with traditional teaching methods. Virtual reality (VR), virtual worlds, game-based learning systems, simulations, augmented reality (AR), fully immersive environments (such as caves and domes), creative computing systems, and 3D printing are among the Immersive Education technologies that elementary schools and universities around the world are using to fundamentally change the way students learn. Educators and parents are invited to participate at http://ImmersiveEducation.org

Although only in its 2nd year the Immersive Education program at St. John School has already been a great success. In August students from the program were selected to present and demonstrate their work at an international conference at the MIT Media Lab, and earlier the St. John School program was featured at the international Immersive Education Summit at Boston College.

Last year the students were featured at the Catholic Schools Foundation's 23th Annual Inner-City Scholarship gala. The event was attended by Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley. Pope John Paul II appointed O’Malley Archbishop of Boston in July 2003, and Pope Benedict XVI named him a Cardinal in 2006.

This year the event honored New England Patriot's football team owner Robert K. Kraft. Kraft received the prestigious award for his commitment to bettering education in the community and in recognition of his support for the Inner-City Scholarship Fund. The gala dinner during which Kraft was honored raised over $3.2 million for the scholarship fund.

Educators and parents interested in Immersive Education are invited to participate at http://ImmersiveEducation.org

PRESS CONTACT
Barbara Mikolajczak
Immersive Education Initiative
http://ImmersiveEducation.org
barbara.miko(at)ImmersiveEducation(dot)org
+1 (617) 997-1017

THOUSANDS OF MEMBERS WORLDWIDE
The Immersive Education Initiative is a non-profit international collaboration of educational institutions, research institutes, museums, consortia and companies. The Initiative was established in 2005 with the mission to define and develop standards, best practices, technology platforms, training and education programs, and communities of support for virtual worlds, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality, simulations, game-based learning and training systems, and fully immersive environments such as caves and domes.

Thousands of faculty, researchers, staff and administrators are members of the Immersive Education Initiative, who together service millions of academic and corporate learners worldwide.

Chapters support the rapid and continued growth of Immersive Education throughout the world, and constitute the geographically distributed structure of the organization through which regional and local members are supported and enriched. Chapters organize officially sanctioned Summits, Days, workshops, collaborations, seminars, lectures, forums, meetings, public service events and activities, technical groups, technical work items, research, and related activities.

To learn more visit http://ImmersiveEducation.org