Giving Compass' Take:

• EdSurge interviews Christine Johns, a Detroit-area superintendent who has integrated technology such as augmented and virtual reality into her schools' curriculum, with an eye on career and job training.

• The results of AR/VR in classrooms show promise. Nonprofits in the edtech space should look at how various initiatives parallel the approach taken by Johns.

• Here's more on how VR in particular can usher in an era of immersive learning.

As the superintendent for Michigan’s second largest school district — with approximately 27,000 students — Christine Johns is intent on finding innovative ways to give students the skills and resources they need to thrive at each stage of their education and to participate fully in a global economy.

Johns spoke with EdSurge about using augmented and virtual reality to help students become college and career ready, measuring the impact of new technologies, and the importance of professional development.

EDSURGE: How does technology fit into your goal of helping all students become college and career ready?

CHRISTINE JOHNS: Our economy has changed significantly. To have access to high paying careers in the future requires some type of post-secondary education. So, how do we give our students the skills and the resources they need so that they can have what all parents desire for their children ... a high quality of life? Education, I believe, is that ticket.

We need to find ways to give our children access to current and future technologies that will allow them to fully participate in our global economy.

EDSURGE: Why specifically did you choose to adopt AR/VR technology?

JOHNS: Virtual reality has evolved over the last several years, particularly in the area of education and what's available to students.

Utica Community Schools is situated is in the heart of the automotive, defense and healthcare industries, and our community has a heavy manufacturing base. Many of the businesses are already using virtual reality — whether it’s doctors performing surgery, designers building cars or the defense industry testing products in virtual environments.

Why would we not give our children those same experiences in our classrooms?

Read the full article about how AR and VR can inspire education innovation by Wendy McMahon at EdSurge.