Virtual reality, while still relatively young, is an extremely impactful way of exploring the real world without having to, well, be out in the real world. Its potential is enormous and the learning opportunities it helps create are astounding. Some teachers, however, shy away from trying it because they assume that it’s too complicated or too expensive. The truth is that it’s outrageously easy to use and extremely affordable—even for educators. So, does virtual reality have a future in K-12 classrooms? We’re about to find out.
Making Classroom Virtual Reality Real
If you haven’t tried out a virtual reality device yet, you’re missing out. VR headsets, like the Oculus Rift or Zeiss VR One, offer users a truly immersive experience that brings them to the furthest corners of the Earth or to nearby places they never took the time to explore. Virtual reality can bring us inside world famous buildings, inside the rain forest or even inside the body and offer amazingly lifelike learning experiences in the process. It even has a powerful, though to this point, untapped, role to play in 21st century education as well. Virtual reality in the classroom has some innovative implications for learning, but can also be used by teachers and students in all grades to enhance basic learning principles and help engage children in entirely new ways.
Virtual reality is like any other modern-day technology. It helps make lessons that were once taught using a textbook and note paper much easier to deliver. Since many of the VR headsets are designed for people with little to knowledge of virtual reality, they’re also extremely easy for children to wear and get comfortable with. The benefits for teachers and schools include their affordability and ability to open new avenues for kids to explore the concepts they’re learning. One area in particular in which virtual reality can transform education is in science classes. Virtual reality makes the impossible possible as students would previously not have been easily able to explore animal skeletons, internal body systems or environmental areas. Now, however, they can and they can do it interactively, collaboratively and in a truly hands-on way.
Using virtual reality in the classroom, teachers can eliminate some of the costs that come with procuring lab materials that they’d most likely only be able to use only once. Since VR can engulf students directly in their learning and help teachers save valuable dollars, some people have begun arguing that virtual reality could be one of those tools that could potentially rescue education. Virtual reality can help students build and develop important real-world skills, like problem solving, exploration and curiosity among others. Not to mention, it would be incredibly beneficial for kids to get used to using these virtual tools, which can be adapted to any age group. VR looks poised to have a substantial role in the future of education and of society as a whole. Starting to introduce children to the realistic lessons it helps inspire will go a long way in helping them prepare for and succeed in the future.
VR Popping Up in More Makerspaces
Makerspaces are constantly seen as the ideal places for students to explore new technologies and get creative when making innovative projects. As one of the latest and greatest tech innovations, virtual reality is making its way into K-12 and afterschool makerspaces more and more. With the goal of most makerspaces being to take learning beyond books, VR does just that. We already touched on the fact that virtual reality expeditions can take children to places that textbooks cannot, but it’s becoming just as valuable in makerspaces as it is in classrooms and in “real life” for that matter. Virtual reality devices provide students with easy access to pertinent information, making them that much more valuable.
Like all makerspace tools do, virtual reality devices help students explore, create and learn in ways that are both new and exciting to them. They also serve as a modern place for technology and libraries to meet. Think about it; virtual reality is some pretty cutting-edge technology, but the vast libraries of information they can hold and provide access to are much more substantial and impressive. Plus, virtual reality can give a new meaning to learning in almost any school subject, particularly those with STEM tie-ins. It gives kids a unique opportunity to observe simulations or side-by-side comparisons, so that they’re exposed to all sides of an event and all angles of engagement. Another key advantage of learning with VR in makerspaces is that the headsets are extremely lightweight and, for the most part, completely portable. This allows schools to use them in their makerspace or in other classrooms throughout the school day pretty much at will. For those virtual reality sets that require an extra device, most makerspaces are able to easily accommodate a tablet or laptop computer.
As a learning tool, VR has a lot of potential to teach kids concepts in new ways. It is even being used by workers in a variety of modern professions to help train for specific scenarios by providing an authentic rendering of how the situation might transpire. Even if students are not familiar with how to use virtual reality tools, makerspaces provide the ideal environment for them to learn. The loose atmosphere allows and encourages kids to try new things without the fear of failure standing in the way. Since it’s pretty tough to fail at virtual reality (it’s not possible—you’re always learning something), VR devices have already and will continue to make welcomed additions to school makerspaces, if nothing else, for their exploration possibilities alone.
Virtual Reality Set for Increased Educational Role
Have you ever seen those movie previews that end with “coming soon…to a theater near you?” Well, virtual reality could very well soon be coming to a classroom near you. It has a number of implications for improving the way students learn, especially in science classes, making it an intriguing option for shifting the way kids learn. Using VR tools, kids are able to sense movement, explore the human body in 3D and virtually mix chemicals to enjoy a technologically enhanced version of learning. VR has become a hot trend in education just as it has in the general tech industry. Some virtual reality companies even see VR as the future of K-12 education and have already begun developing apps and gear to support this potential transition. But, for now, much of the excitement lies in smartphones—only to be experienced with the donning of VR goggles.
One of the most prolific uses of virtual reality in K-12 education, as you may have guessed from a couple of previous references, is the ability for students to use it to explore the human body. Not only does VR provide images and 3D replications of bodily systems, it also lets kids view the parts in context as well as interactively. This does not require the use of expensive and hard-to-come-by technology, either. It’s more about schools using the technology they already have (like smartphones, for example) and applying it in innovative ways. Researchers are also working on ways to possibly make virtual reality seem even more real by creating a way for users to actually be able to feel the objects they are encountering in the virtual world. This would be tough to accommodate in a classroom (especially since it’s not yet developed), but discussing its potential with students could be a great way to supplement VR experiences and other lessons.
When it comes to in-class lessons and VR games in the classroom, much is being done to find the best ways for using virtual reality to help students learn. The possibilities are aplenty and include possibilities for creating virtual science labs, where students can master the different functions of lab equipment and experiment in a safe place. In this case, virtual reality enhances the real world of chemistry by augmenting the experimentation with additional resources, eliminating the need for cleanup, magnifying student observations and stimulating physical actions. Even in other subjects, it is expected that there will soon be no shortage of VR-enabled lessons for teachers to use across all disciplines and with students in all grade levels. Just like traditional learning experiences, virtual reality-centered lessons will teach critical objectives, include interactive learning opportunities and help students answer open-ended questions, making the potential future of VR in education and extremely intriguing one.
It Appears Virtual Reality Just Might Be Here to Stay
When it was first realized that virtual reality could play a role in education, most teachers and administrators jumped to the conclusion that they could use it for special activities or field trips and that those would probably be its only uses. A short time later, however, and we have already come to realize that VR and its reach has the potential to enhance and impact 21st century learning in some extremely meaningful ways. Field trips—a consensus student favorite—used to involve paying a fee, traveling an hour or two and exploring some ancient artifacts in a stuffy museum. Virtual reality has now enabled students to travel to all ends of the Earth, exploring different continents, ascending mountain tops, diving to the bottom of the ocean and, most importantly, getting familiar with a technology that is soon to be pervasive in everyday life.
In an era in which teaching students to access the deepest parts of their natural creativity is so important, educators have come to realize that technology plays a legitimate role in helping them find it. As new as it is, virtual reality has joined that list of tools that allow kids to expand their insights and transform the ways in which they have traditionally learned. It’s able to flick the switch in students’ imaginations, which has led to some experts already predicting that it’s on its way to revolutionizing education. Reading was once the medium in which children learned about the world and imagined how the settings they were learning about looked at that time. Now, they only have to put on some goggles and they can see for themselves. And, they can see how it looks now. Much of modern-day learning is feeling, trying and seeing for yourself—the last of which virtual reality is able to deliver.
In order for VR to fully enter K-12 education and remain there, it must be developed in a way that is more educational for students rather than simply teaching them the technology and taking them to new places. Luckily, the potential exists for making VR a valuable addition to a teacher’s toolbox. In most aspects of learning, being in the middle of the topic or subject that is being discussed tremendously benefits students. Engaging in the active simulation of learning topics helps students visualize it more completely and understand more fully all of the components of their lessons. This, among other things, helps give VR extremely valuable potential for augmenting science, history, English, geography, math, languages and even computer science classes. As VR continues to develop, school systems would be wise to plan for its inevitable arrival and start researching innovative ways to use it to help kids learn.
Using Virtual Reality in the Classroom Correctly
Though not yet too common, there are some schools and districts that have begun adding VR-based classes into their curricula. As is the case with any new technology, it’s not uncommon for both students and teachers to be hesitant when they first encounter it in the classroom. Those who are against using virtual reality in K-12 education will argue that the risk (and the cost) is much greater than the reward. We cannot truly know how effective learning with VR will be, however, until it’s actually tested and implemented over the period of a school year. One thing we do know is that virtual reality provides kids with hands-on learning opportunities they won't want to let go of.
The first problem with implementing VR in education is that its value still remains unknown to most teachers. The important thing to remember is that, when it comes to virtual reality, its development is not slowing down. At the same time, neither is the drive to innovate in education every day. Students can still do a lot even with the most basic VR tools, but, if their schools are able to give them access to more advanced programs, learning could become limitless. There are programs that let students dissect almost anything in the world—virtually—as well as explore whatever they want. VR, however, can also be used in electrical engineering, physics, medical sciences and to mold clay models, giving it tons of value in all levels of education. The future of VR in education is still pretty uncertain, but if it is to happen, the chances for success are increased by following a few simple guidelines.
Frist and foremost, educators need to be relating their VR use to the current content they're teaching—not just letting students use the technology for busy work. It’s also important not to try to do too much. For example, VR is a catalyst to open-ended discussions and activities; let it be the spark that activates the lightbulb in students and create deeper learning. Aside from that, teachers should connect virtual reality to action research whenever possible. This helps students solve an immediate problem by examining something’s effectiveness as well as its benefits. Since students learn more by creating content rather than consuming it, teachers should encourage kids to create their own content in virtual reality, including presentations they can later deliver to the class. And, finally, teachers should encourage students to share their VR successes with others, capitalizing on the novelty and excitement of learning with such an innovative tool.
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