A lot of teachers and educators we talk to turn out to be excited about the possibilities of Virtual Reality in the classroom. Seeing how impressive Virtual Reality experiences can be, we are not surprised by this. VR allows you to visit historical battles, active volcanos, constructions and archeological sites. With VR, you can study microorganisms, complex datasets or mathematical figures. For students of all ages, VR offers the ability to examine abstract educational material from a new and different perspective.
Additionally, the opportunity to create just about anything in Virtual Reality can be quite alluring. Ways to develop continue to improve, creating new possibilities every so often. During each workshop we organize, we discover new and exciting ways to apply VR.
Many schools and educators wish to start experimenting with Virtual Reality in their classrooms. The question is: where to start? In this post, we discuss a number of ways you can start using Virtual Reality in your classroom.
Virtual Reality in the classroom
Believe it or not, but several interesting VR applications (that can be used in education) are already available to you. For example, Google Expeditions is an impressive application that allows for social interaction during the experience. Through a WiFi connection, all students appear in the same virtual environment and experience the same content together. Simultaneously, the teacher can point out any important content of the environment with arrows by using a tablet connected to the VR experience. As such, the teacher is able to connect the educational material with the virtual environment.
Design and construct with Virtual Reality
Aside from ready-to-use VR applications, students can also utilise Virtual Reality as a tool to design with. Such a method of designing can prove very useful, especially for educational programs focusing on 3D-design. For example, students can present self-designed products to their clients in VR. Alternatively, students could, after creating structures in SketchUP or AutoCAD, visit and walk around in their own constructions. Yet another example would be the use of 360°-cameras to bring different professional practices directly into the classroom, allowing teachers to connect educational material with actual workplaces.
Virtual Reality and media literacy
A different way to experiment with the use of Virtual Reality in your classroom would be to create your own lesson(s) about VR. In regard to media literacy, helping students familiarize with new technologies is an important part of education. As such, children can be taught that, while it is a lot of fun to play video games with, experiencing VR should be done responsibly. Not only would they learn about the ways in which VR is being applied to different fields, but they could be invited and challenged to think of new, innovative ways to use VR for themselves. Lastly, giving them the opportunity to start experimenting with creating and developing with Virtual Reality will help them realize they can be more than a consumer; they can be a creator!
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