INTRO
Virtual reality is a unique form of what we know and what we can envision. Simply said, virtual reality is a mix of a virtual world made real. Furthermore, virtual reality is a computerized environment that uses special equipment such as the Virtual reality headset to display this world, software, and special gloves for haptic and fast responses.
Overall, virtual reality enables you to experience a digital world differently: by using computer mechanisms. Altogether, these mechanisms are built to provide you the feeling of actually testing something real.
Ever since virtual reality made a boom in different areas, people started finding more and more various ways to use this astonishing virtual reality. Moreover, people began wondering how much will virtual reality change the world as we know it? And if virtual reality will change the way we learn?
Virtual reality is easy to be used in various areas by everyone. But how much can it really revolutionize education, and with what benefits?
CAN VR REVOLUTIONIZE EDUCATION?
Simply said, YES. Imagine walking next to the Eiffel Tower or having a cappuccino next to the Colosseum in Rome without having to leave your favorite coffee shop, just around the corner.
In that same manner, virtual reality can be applied to teaching. That being said it’s important to understand that you don’t have to think hard nowadays to imagine. You can actually live your imagination in seconds.
Education Technology or simply EdTech companies are using VR to bring and show vivid experiences like these to the classroom, continually highlighting the technology’s ability to grab the attention of young minds. After all, kids nowadays love to engage. If they can’t engage with something, they are bored. And when they engage, they learn. This is how virtual reality can revolutionize education through real-life steps.
PROVIDES A SAFE ENVIRONMENT
Virtual reality is a fantastic tool for shaping a safe environment for learning. When it comes to risky or unstable learning processes, virtual reality is everyone’s friend.
Some learning processes are of high risks, such as chemical experiments in a laboratory, or early piloting flight classes. In a safe environment, students can interact with dangerous scenarios and environments without putting themselves in harm’s way.
In reality, an experiment can go wrong and cause damage to expensive equipment or even physically harm the students. Using VR, students can remain safe, without fear or real disasters, and learn skills by repeating them in a safe setting.
CREATE SPACE FOR COLLABORATIVE LEARNING AND COOPERATION
Putting virtual reality into today’s learning processes means that students can interact in different ways (different from methods in traditional classroom settings). Therefore, they can for instance create avatars, like in VR Chat.
This will enable them to immerse themselves in technology and explore how independent they can be with a given computer technology.
Don’t forget: some students are merely shy. By using VR, they can overcome their fears and shyness through their avatars. For them, this may be seen as a safe way to interact with others, collaborate, contribute ideas, and above all – enjoy.
This is also an excellent way for students to learn more about technology and educate the community on its benefits.
VR CAN ENGAGE TEACHERS AS MUCH AS STUDENTS
The educational process of any type and form can’t be implemented adequately without teachers and their hard work. If something has to be presented to students, teachers must test it and see the purpose first, to present the benefits to the students accurately.
It may be believed that VR will make teachers irrelevant in the classroom, while the reality is quite the opposite. VR Immersive learning enables instructors to act as facilitators empowering teachers. Teachers must put more time and energy into understanding different learning styles, techniques, and technology that can help them deliver more and better content to students.
VR enables teachers to track student’s development faster and bring about changes in pedagogical methodology.
Overall, virtual reality in education should be seen as a supplement rather than a replacement. Virtual reality is here to shake others, maybe dated, methods of learning, and explore other ways that otherwise wouldn’t be in traditional classrooms.
Education should be about putting the real-world experiences and recreating them in a safe and controlled VR setting for better results tomorrow.
ARVRtech is leading the growing EdTech revolution with our Immersive4Learning platform. I4L utilizes Artificial Intelligence in order to generate a personalized learning experience for users and can be applied for a mixture of use cases. The Immersive4Learning platform improves conventional education, language learning and can even be used for industrial and corporate training!
