Case Study Snapshot
Gemma Zeeman is a teacher, and the founder of Immersive Discoveries, with experience of using 360-degree cameras to create educational resources. With funding from Adnodd, she worked with two other primary teachers to develop Exploring beliefs and worldviews through immersive spaces.
The project created five interactive 360-degree environments covering Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Humanism. These are available to schools across Wales through the national Hwb learning platform.
Gemma used a 360-degree camera to capture the locations and ThingLink to turn the photographs into interactive spaces. Written information and community interviews were embedded within each environment. Pupils could also take part in an escape-room challenge linked to what they had explored.
What was the challenge?
Religion, Values and Ethics is part of the Curriculum for Wales, but arranging visits to places of worship is not always straightforward. Trips can be expensive and difficult to organise. Some schools may also encounter sensitivities about visiting particular religious settings.
Gemma wanted to give pupils a stronger sense of these places than they could gain from reading a webpage or looking at a conventional photograph. Her idea was to create an experience that could support a real visit or provide meaningful access when a visit was not possible.
“It became almost like a field trip. It is not a replacement for a physical field trip, because those are absolutely invaluable, but it really opens things up for schools.”
The project also had to give equal attention to religious and non-religious worldviews. Finding locations for the religious spaces was relatively straightforward. Representing Humanism proved more difficult because it is not associated with a particular place of worship.
The team eventually chose places that reflected humanist values. Rather than presenting a single representative building, the Humanism environment connected values with settings such as a theatre and a woodland.
What did you do?
Gemma visited each location with a 360-degree camera. The resulting photographs allowed pupils to look around the space rather than viewing it from one fixed angle.
The photographs were uploaded to ThingLink, where the team added interactive tags. Pupils could select a point within the environment to learn about an object or hear directly from someone connected with the community. Linked photographs allowed them to move through the location as if following a virtual tour.
Authentic community voices were an important part of the design. Gemma interviewed people from the places represented and embedded their recorded explanations within the spaces.
“It felt very important that children were learning about this from the people in those communities. It needed to be in their words.”
The team also created an escape-room activity for each environment. The questions encouraged pupils to search the space carefully and use what they discovered to solve the challenge.
Gemma originally saw the escape rooms as an optional addition. Feedback suggested that they became one of the most popular parts of the resource.
Multimodal Use
The project brings together immersive photography and recorded voices within one exploratory environment. Pupils can choose how they move through the material rather than following a fixed route.
ThingLink’s read-aloud function makes unfamiliar terminology easier to access. Pupils can listen to the information if reading the text is difficult, while the 360-degree images provide a strong visual context for what they are learning.
The resource also includes immersive music performances linked to the Humanism theme of human creativity. A 360-degree camera was placed in the middle of each performance so pupils could decide where to look. During the string quartet, for example, they could turn towards an individual musician and see how that part contributed to the performance.
Although the spaces can be viewed using a VR headset, one of their strengths is that specialist equipment is not required. On an iPad, pupils can physically turn the device to change their view, creating a sense of immersion with technology already available in many classrooms.
What did this look like in practice?
One teacher used the resource with a Year 6 class and gathered pupils’ responses afterwards. The children explored the spaces using iPads, moving the devices around to change their view.
Gemma had not anticipated quite how physical this would become:
“There were children standing around the classroom turning in circles and exploring the spaces. That was a lovely addition I had not necessarily thought about when we were building it.”
Pupils did not need the teacher to lead them through every part of the experience. They could follow what interested them and then listen to further information when they wanted to know more. Teachers were provided with some questions to help them frame the activity, but the experience remained deliberately pupil-led.
The resource is also flexible enough to sit within a single lesson or support a longer sequence of work. It can introduce a place before a visit and help pupils revisit what they saw afterwards.
What was the impact?
The strongest response was to the sense of exploration. Teachers valued the fact that pupils could move independently through the environments without needing a detailed explanation at every stage.
The escape rooms encouraged pupils to look more closely. Instead of clicking quickly through the resource, they needed to find relevant details and apply what they had learned.
“People loved the escape rooms. They came out as a huge benefit because pupils really enjoyed them.”
The project also reduced the preparation burden for teachers. Creating an accurate and engaging set of resources about different worldviews can require considerable research. By bringing the content together in an adaptable format, the project gave teachers something they could fit around the needs of their own class.
The immersive approach opened access to places that pupils might otherwise encounter only through second-hand descriptions. It did this without requiring schools to invest in a class set of VR headsets.
Ethical or practical considerations
Representing religious and non-religious worldviews accurately was one of the most important considerations. The team wanted the communities to speak for themselves and asked knowledgeable members of each community to check the content.
This human checking became particularly important when Gemma experimented with AI translation. While trying to identify Hebrew inscriptions in the synagogue, she tested the text using several AI systems. The translation still turned out to be wrong and was corrected only when someone from the synagogue reviewed it.
“I had put it through three AI systems, but it was still mistranslated. Having an expert in those areas was absolutely huge.”
The experience offered a useful reminder that AI can assist with unfamiliar content but cannot replace relevant cultural or linguistic expertise.
The team also avoided including visitors in the 360-degree photographs, as doing so would have created consent and privacy issues.
Recorded contributors gave permission for their videos to be used and were able to review them.
Bilingual publication introduced another practical consideration. All the content had to be professionally translated into Welsh, so the amount of written material affected both the budget and the production timetable. The team eventually removed a substantial amount of text after recognising that some sections had moved too far away from the original learning purpose.
Reflections and Advice
Gemma’s main reflection is that immersive technology should be used because it adds something meaningful to the learning, not simply because it looks impressive.
“Is it an enhancement, or is it there for the flashy show of it? Technology has to add something to the experience.”
Maintaining a clear purpose is especially important because an immersive environment can hold a huge amount of material. During the development of the Humanism spaces, the team became absorbed in interesting scientific content and temporarily lost sight of its connection with the worldview they were representing.
Gemma would also like pupils to become creators rather than only explorers. Her next step would be to give them a 360-degree photograph and ask them to build an interactive environment from their own research.
This possibility became visible when Gemma worked with a Year 3 class. After a short introduction to ThingLink, the pupils began adding their own material and helping one another. Some discovered that they could record directly on their iPads and started creating short videos for their spaces without being prompted.
Quick start guide for colleagues
Begin with a clear idea of what the immersive experience will enable pupils to understand. If you do not have access to a 360-degree camera, ThingLink includes images that can be used as a starting point.
A basic interactive space requires only a modest level of digital confidence. Gemma found that primary-aged pupils could begin creating after about ten minutes of guidance. Building a more complex escape room takes longer, but it is not necessary for a first attempt.
If several people are developing the resource, agree how the interactive tags will work before creating the individual spaces. A consistent visual key will help pupils know what to expect as they move between environments.
Most importantly, resist the temptation to include everything you discover. Keep returning to the learning purpose and ask whether each element helps pupils experience or understand something that would otherwise be difficult to access.
As Gemma puts it:
“Give it a go. You do not need a VR headset, and you do not have to own a 360-degree camera. It is much more accessible than people imagine.”
