01 / NOTICE
Observation and feedback
Support attention to what is happening in a learning experience and provide opportunities for reflection.
01 · Two decades of innovation
Learning by entering the experience
For more than two decades, Professor Sue Gregory has explored how emerging technologies can enrich teaching, learning and professional practice. Since 2007, her work with virtual worlds has helped bring learning into interactive environments where students can participate, collaborate and learn by doing.
Her research has connected pedagogy and technology through learning spaces, role-play, virtual classrooms and professional experience. These environments have offered students new ways to engage with ideas and practise skills in contexts that extend beyond the conventional classroom.
Across this work, the focus has remained on educational purpose: using technology to create experiences that are engaging, authentic and useful to learners.
02 · From exploration to rehearsal
Practice, reflect and try again
Immersive environments can give learners opportunities to take part in realistic situations, test approaches and reflect on their decisions. This is especially valuable in professional learning, where confidence and judgement grow through practice.
For pre-service teachers, virtual classroom experiences can support rehearsal of classroom situations before professional placement. Learners can explore different responses, consider their effects and return to a scenario with a new approach. The aim is to complement, not replace, learning with educators and in real classrooms.
Learning through rehearsal
Experience a situation · make a decision · reflect on the response · practise again.
Experience a situation · make a decision · reflect on the response · practise again.
03 · The future with AIR-VW
Bringing immersive environments and AI together
Sue’s Professorial Research Fellowship advances this work through the AIR-VW Framework, which brings together immersive technologies and coordinated artificial intelligence to support responsive professional learning.
02 / RESPOND
Contextual intervention
Help shape interactions that respond to the situation and the learner’s developing professional judgement.
03 / ADAPT
Adaptive implementation
Enable learning experiences to adjust and offer new opportunities to practise across contexts.
What might this mean for a future teacher?
A pre-service teacher could rehearse a classroom scenario, receive feedback, reflect on a decision and try another response in a supported environment before facing a similar situation in practice.
A pre-service teacher could rehearse a classroom scenario, receive feedback, reflect on a decision and try another response in a supported environment before facing a similar situation in practice.
Looking ahead
Technology in service of better learning
The AIR-VW vision is to make professional rehearsal more responsive, repeatable and accessible. It builds on Sue’s longstanding research in virtual worlds and asks how immersive learning can help people develop the confidence, practical skills and professional judgement to meet real-world challenges.
The framework is an evolving research direction. Its development is guided by educational purpose and the role of human educators in shaping meaningful learning.
Explore Virtual Classrooms