Enacting Equity and Ethics through VR in the Public Speaking Classroom

This chapter demonstrates how a collective VR experience of the Virtual Martin Luther King (vMLK) Project leads to significant learning outcomes in the Public Speaking course at a major university. Written student reflections and survey data demonstrate that the VR experience fosters the kind of reflection that evokes a participatory readiness for civic engagement by enabling students to put themselves into the position of those who heard the speech in 1960 and then transferring that experience to themselves as speakers who are engaging with issues and ideas today. The result is an ethical approach—utilizing VR—for teaching students how to engage in advocacy in and with communities.