WLLC Alumnus Founds VR Lab at The Winchendon School

Photos by Jhonatan Carmona Tangarife

Students from The Winchendon School's Spanish and French classes participating in VR Lab during the week of Jan. 29.

Jhonatan Carmona Tangarife, a 2023 alumnus of the World Languages, Literature & Cultures Spanish M.A. program, founded a "VR Lab" at The Winchendon School in Winchendon, Massachusetts, his post-graduate place of employment.  

Carmona, an international student from Colombia, worked in the World Languages & Digital Humanities Studio (WLDH Studio) in conjunction with his teaching assistantship with the Spanish M.A. program. He helped found the "VR Classroom" here at the U of A at the WLDH Studio with fellow researcher Michael Hall (Ph.D. student, CLCS) in fall 2022. With the experience Carmona gained at the studio, he wanted to continue this work after he graduated to propose the creation of a "VR Classroom" at The Winchendon School.  

The Winchendon School is a coeducational, private preparatory boarding and day school composed of two campuses: one in Massachusetts and another in Manhattan, New York. There are 325 students enrolled across both campuses. 

Photos are from the Spanish and French classes's VR Lab during the week of Jan. 29. All photos have been provided by Jhonatan Carmona with approval of the principal of The Winchendon School.

"Thanks to the experience at the WLDH Studio, I was able to structure a proposal and start a VR Lab," Carmona said. "So far, the school has purchased six VR headsets: three MetaQuest 2 headsets and three MetaQuest 3 headsets." 

Carmona continued, discussing the application research he and the VR Classroom conducted to determine the most useful applications for language learners: 

I started using the same apps we explored at the Studio for Spanish classes and French classes, like Noun Town and Language Lab. I am also using Beat Saber to practice listening with music, 360 videos for cultural explorations. Teachers of other subjects are also interested in using VR — our art teacher used 360 videos to explore the works of Georgia O'Keefe, and it was amazing. I enjoy helping other teachers to explore these resources and use them in their classes, or just for fun! Like [organizing] a Beat Saber tournament for all students.  

Hall, who is currently a digital humanities pedagogy researcher and Ph.D student, described working with Carmona: "Working with Jhonatan on the VR Club for Language Learning (that has become the VR Classroom) was one of my most rewarding experiences at UARK. From when we started through now, we've had nearly 700 people use our Meta Quest 2 headsets to cook in Italian, order coffee in French and explore Argentina in Spanish." 

Curtis Maughan, the director of the WLDH Studio and teaching assistant professor of digital humanities, commented on Carmona's work: "I'm very proud and heartened to see Jhonny's continued success at Winchendon after his excellent work as a Spanish TA and WLDH Studio researcher at the University of Arkansas. We certainly miss him here at the studio and look forward to collaborating with him in the future." 

The WLDH Studio is located in the J.B. Hunt Building, room 207, and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. To stay in the loop on WLLC and the studio's events, including VR-related activities, be sure to check out the WLLC website, WLLC Instagram and WLLC Facebook page.