Congratulations to FRIT Alumna Dr. Tricia Thrasher (PhD, French SLATE, 2022) and Associate Professor Randall Sadler (Linguistics) who received funding from Meta Platform Technologies, formerly known as Facebook, and Immerse, Inc., a company specializing in Virtual Reality (VR) for teaching languages.

Their project, "Immersive technologies for language learning in underserved public schools in Illinois, California, and Texas: Guiding K-12 teachers in the implementation of VR-enhanced pedagogy", will provide a total of 500 Meta Quest II headsets to 9 schools located in Illinois, Texas, and California. It will also provide funds to train teachers at those schools in the use of VR. Their plans also include developing a website that provides guidelines and support for the use of VR in education, including reviews of a number of currently existing apps, video tutorials, lesson plans for their implementation, theoretical background, and a summary of current research in the area.

Bravo, Dr. Thrasher and Dr. Sadler!