VIRTUAL London Heritages Conference

Abstract

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This paper reflects on the foundational principles shaping our approach to utilizing immersive technologies for East London public history content. It explores how these technologies can foster active learning and decolonial modes of teaching and thinking. Insights are drawn from the delivery and evaluation of our multi-modal immersive experience, Millennium Mills: Feeding Edwardian London, which has engaged nearly 3,000 activations of our 360-degree videos, a curated digital gallery, and an augmented reality heritage trail at various pop-up events across the UK and globally. The concept of “Object Learning”—my term for emergent blended, hybrid, or active learning—is highlighted for its capacity to offer multiple perspectives and enable experiential learning within both formal and informal environments. Millennium Mills examines the global emergence of industrial farming and supply chains, tracing their journey from London’s Royal Docks to Montreal, and onward to Saskatchewan’s wheat farms. The experience aims to develop a decolonial understanding of the global grain trade’s origins, revealing both the intended and unintended consequences of this early form of food globalization for London’s population and beyond. This paper consolidates my ongoing public research initiatives, including recent keynote lectures and our recent 2025 publication, Virtual Reality in History Education: Instructional Design Considerations for Designing Authentic, Deep, and Meaningful Learning (https://doi.org/10.59668/2033.19032).