What kind of role can VR/AR really play in education?
According to incomplete data more and more K12 schools are choosing VR/AR for their classrooms. It is expected that by 2025, the number of students who have used VR/AR technology in K12 schools will exceed 15 million.
What role can VR/AR really play in education?
Without research showing the impact of VR or AR on education, virtual reality experiences like landing on the moon or sinking the Titanic might be closer to entertainment than education. These critics say that most of the use of vr technology in education is probably just a form of marketing, and that vr technology is not a groundbreaking new technology.
Computer scientists began experimenting with "virtual experiences" in the 1950s, and by the 1980s, VR glasses and gloves were invented to simulate the immersion of a virtual world.
"My question has always been: what's the difference between virtual reality and educational films, anyway?" Said EdTech blogger and contributor Audrey Watters, "I do worry that people will increasingly use educational films in the guise of simulation or virtual reality technology in lieu of field trips for students and other offline enrichment activities."
VR headsets and gloves can cost hundreds of dollars, making it difficult for most school systems to provide universal access. While less expensive products -- such as Google Cardboard, which sells for $15 -- can be easily mounted on smartphones, these VR boxes often don't offer a better experience. In fact, critics argue that what schools now call virtual reality or augmented reality applications take place not through VR headsets but on laptops, tablets and phones. In other words, many people still aren't sure what exactly VR is, and the definition is still evolving.
However, for virtual reality advocates like Maya Georgieva, an educational technologist with 15 years of experience in higher education and global education, and VR education research and consulting firm co-founder of DigitalBodies. She believes that while virtual reality is still viewed as a supplement to teaching and learning in the K12 classroom, as the amount of VR content increases, teachers and students alike will become quite excited, and the inherent thinking about the role VR plays in education will change.
"We've heard teachers agree that VR experiences will generate more questions and more engagement for students." Maya Georgieva said, "For kids, it often takes time to build a mental model of how they learn. Virtual reality technology provides them with a stepping stone, possibly a jump to connect those dots."
Supporters of vr technology can identify real success stories, here are some of the applications of vr technology in K12 classrooms:
Making science real
Many doctors have been using vr technology to concur with surgeries, such as making 3D models of the root cause of a disease and thus effectively preparing for treatment. Teachers of science subjects can also use vr technology to deepen their students' understanding of biology or anatomy. These subjects require students to grasp the inner workings of cells and organs that are not visible to the human eye, making VR a better tool.
In Belmont, California, high school biology teachers have been using zSpace Studio's mixed-reality computers for instruction. These computers are equipped with special glasses that allow cells and organs to "pop up" on a 3-D screen, thus helping students better understand how the heart works.
By using apps such as Cyber Science, zSpace Studio, and Human Anatomy Atlas, students can clearly observe that blood flows in arteries all the time as the heart beats, and that blood vessels open and close at all times.
"The real organs used in dissection are preserved and inflexible, with blood vessels and muscles that no longer squirt. I've been teaching biology for 22 years and have never been able to get my students to understand the structure, relationships and orientation of organs as clearly as they do using virtual reality." One biology teacher said.
Platforms such as Peer already provide students with mixed reality content that provides lifelike, at-a-glance visual models of complex physical science concepts such as gravity, molecular bonding, and forces. Using the Peer software, students can wear virtual reality headset devices to observe and understand the aerodynamics of a windmill, then apply their newfound understanding to build their own windmills, as well as use the Peer software to test how windmills work.
Experience a trip to a longed-for university
Visiting universities around the world is often expensive and time-consuming, and for many potential college students, it's out of the question. Apps like Campus Tours and YouVisit are offering 360-degree virtual reality tours of hundreds of campuses, from Georgia Tech to the University of Minnesota. These VR experiences help foster a sense of "familiarity and belonging" for students who can't afford to visit colleges in advance, and may encourage them to consider more schools when choosing a college.
With the use of a few devices (no fancy VR headsets required), prospective students can "walk" the trails around campus and "see" themselves among other college students as they make their way to class or back to their dorms. By clicking on campus buildings, students can enter and visit more than 1,000 universities and experiences, such as the library at the University of California, San Diego, or the electrical engineering labs at Princeton University.
Gordon Meyer, YouVisit's director of marketing, said, "To get to know a place, it's always human nature for people to want to physically look around a place and get a sense of the realism of the environment. Immersion experiences are the best way to provide that opportunity, especially for students who can't travel and experience it firsthand on campus."
Vocational and technical training
Today, while fewer and fewer students are pursuing vocational and technical training, vocational and technical schools may get a new lease on life with new virtual reality experiences that train them how to fix cars through vr technology and allow them to complete safety training in 3D. The Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education already uses vr technology to teach aircraft engineering and building maintenance skills.
VR/AR education
Virtual reality platform zSpace has now launched its own career simulation technology in partnership with Shenzhen Guotaian Education Technology Co. Using the zSpace automotive training platform, students can disassemble and reorganize systems, such as transmissions or engines, without risk or material waste.
"Virtual automotive training applications take the "auto store" category of a few years ago to a whole new level. Traditional textbooks and courseware are two-dimensional, while actual automotive training is irreversible and expensive." Paul Kellenberger, president and CEO of zSpace, said in a statement, "With VR apps, students repeatedly practice repairs and techniques, building strong skills, and saving schools money and classroom space."
Recreating history
VR/AR education
Fifth-graders at Corey Engstrom's school built an early American colony, populating it with historical figures, but instead of using clay, cardboard, and glue to create plat maps, they digitally created a colony in the virtual world.
By using the platform CoSpaces Edu, students can create their own virtual reality experience, which allows them to have their own colonists buy and sell goods, sell merchant ships, and then go out to sea to trade.Corey Engstrom's class didn't come equipped with expensive VR headsets and gloves, and the students created the colony in 3-D right on their tablets.
After creating their virtual worlds, CoSpace users can use a basic cardboard headset to bring their visions to life in 3D, or choose to use a computer or tablet to do so. The platform was deemed a winner of this year's Best of the Best by EdTech Digest.
Even without the flashy VR equipment , the experience gives students a chance to learn about life long ago and enhance their understanding of history.
Engstrom runs an online virtual reality community that helps educators who are interested in technology.
He says "one can't turn back the clock and go back and re-experience events or scenes from history, but virtual reality technology does provide an opportunity to give students a chance to go into a space they've never been to before, such as a place where students wouldn't otherwise be able to go, like colonial America."
Constructing empathy
To truly understand someone's point of view, you have to, as the saying goes, "walk a mile in their shoes." By giving students the ability to see through someone else's eyes and "experience what any animator can understand," virtual reality technology has earned the nickname "empathy machine.
This year, the nonprofit organization Global Nomads used virtual reality to create a virtual reality world in 20 classrooms in the United States and the Middle East. Through the program's virtual reality simulations, students can walk the streets of Jordan or rural Kentucky, immersing themselves in their daily lives and learning about other cultures and landscapes along the way.
A group of Los Angeles high school students at a school in Compton were able to "enter" the heart of Syria through a virtual reality simulation, experiencing the bomb blasts and gun battles of war, which helped them gain perspective on life during the war. Afterward, Compton students held video conversations with Syrian youth in refugee camps to discuss their experiences.
Nonny, the producer who created the simulation, said, "I never thought about bringing it to high school students or that these students might be able to make a difference in the lives of Syrian child refugees."
Embodied Labs is providing VR training for students to better care for older adults by allowing them to experience the medical challenges older adults face, such as macular degeneration and hearing loss. In the "We Are Alfred" VR simulation, students can experience the effects of visual impairment at a family birthday party.
The platform was selected as one of five winners of the U.S. Department of Education's EdSim Challenge, which will provide "immersive simulations" to prepare students for the competitive global world of the 21st century.
99VR Viewer says: As we've seen, the future of education is a new way for students to understand what they need to learn in a more authentic way, and to have a more eye-opening and enriched view of the world. And to bring these, it is in today's VR / AR have been trying to develop, I hope that every classroom soon VR / AR technology .