Abstract:

College professors are constantly looking for innovative ways to teach abstract concepts. The use of immersive technology is helping freshmen students at Tecnologico de Monterrey university to understand the birth and evolution of two key political science concepts: citizenship and democracy. The faculty in charge of the course along with educational innovation experts designed a set of dynamic activities.

The activities consisted in a group of students using virtual reality headset and handheld devices to walk through recreations of ancient civilizations. The civilizations chosen for the activity where Ur, Athens, and Pompeii, where citizenship and democracy were born. Virtual Reality gives students a change to travel to the past and perceive in a 360º environments of emblematic cities form the ancient Sumerian, Greek, and Roman civilizations. In these digital travels, students get immerse into the physical, cultural, religious, socioeconomic, environmental, architectural, political, and technological environments of each civilization.

The digital trips were named "Welcome to Ur, Mesopotamia," "Welcome to Athens," and "Welcome to Pompeii." The first takes place in 3500 B.C., in Ur, the first city built by humanity and the cradle of state institutions, writing, as well as the code of laws and urban life. The second travel took them to the capital of Greece in the 5th century B.C., where citizenship, democracy, citizen participation, and democratic institutions emerged. The latest historical three-dimensional trip was to 79 B.C., where students stepped into the streets of Pompeii. The use of technology helped participants to have a better understanding of the rights and obligations of Roman citizenship, and review concepts such as the formation of a republic, of a municipality, and of the senate. The importance of using immersive technology is to aid the understanding of historical concepts and their evolution by bonding them to concrete circumstances.

The use of virtual reality along with the contents of the Citizenship and Democracy course seeks to inspire students to be to be agents of change in their communities while promoting a democratic culture. The course may be mandatory for college students at Tecnologico de Monterrey but the opportunity to raise awareness and promote an active citizenship is unique.

Keywords:

Virtual reality, Educational innovation, Citizenship and Democracy.