Creating VR for the classroom

In my previous post I talked about Virtual Reality and how it has gained interest in education. Once again, I would like to emphasize what a powerful tool VR can be in engaging students. VR is the new “cool” technology that helps students retain the information in a way that no textbook will ever be able to. Students have the ability to experience learning as if it were happening right in front of their eyes. They have the ability to take expensive virtual trips they would not be able to take otherwise or even travel in the past and be present in events that have marked human history, progress and development. Virtual reality educational games are being used in a variety of learning situations. They provide a highly visual way of teaching children about how things work and how to express themselves.

There are many tools in the market to design VR games, some are free and some come at a very low cost. The Unreal Engine is an example of a very well known, cost-free package that allows for creation of games form 2D hand drawn looking platformers up to cinematic movie like experiences. Unity 3D is another cost-free platform that has grown to compete with Unreal Engine.

Lumberyard is another cost-free platform recently unveiled by Amazon, whose community is now beginning to grow rapidly.

As virtual reality is gaining popularity in education, the idea of students creating their own experiences is becoming more and more realistic. There are great advantages in involving students in the design process. Some of the positives include teaching and improving creativity, problem-solving skills, perseverance, and technology skills.

Two tools that can help students create their own virtual reality experiences are InstaVR and VizorVR. Neither one of them requires downloading any special software as they are both web-based. By using InstaVR, students can add sequences of 360 pictures or videos together with text, images or music. It is relatively easy to export and can work with any of the major VR headsets.

VizorVR is a more robust editing and creating tool than InstaVR. It requires more time and energy form students in order to learn how to use it. It provides the ability to co-edit experiences like when using Google Docs, for example. It also allows for digital world creation and has more options for interactivity and effects than InstaVR.

These are only two of the many tools for creating Virtual Reality, a great way to empower students to create digital experiences on the cutting edge. Imagine the confidence, the accomplishment and the ownership of learning that the students will feel through the creation of their own virtual reality experiences!

vir·tu·al re·al·i·ty /ˈˌvərCH(əw)əl rēˈalədē/ Noun COMPUTING the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.

“Virtual” means near and “reality” is what we experience as human beings. Virtual reality, basically means “near-reality,” and refers to reality emulation.

We interpret reality by the way our brain processes information it gets through our five basic senses; taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing and also some other senses that help us function, like balance. We can thus conclude that if we give our senses made-up information, then our perception of reality would change and we would be presented with a version of reality that is not real, it is near-real, which is what the meaning of virtual is. In other words… virtual reality! 

In technical terms, virtual reality is “the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. That person becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment and whilst there, is able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions” (What is Virtual Reality? Retrieved on February 7, 2017 from http://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/what-is-virtual-reality.html). Virtual reality is implemented through computer technology and uses systems such as headsets and special gloves in order to stimulate our senses and create the “illusion” of reality.

Virtual reality spans over a timeframe of approximately 70 years. However, it gained the public’s attention in the late 80’s and 90’s. Over the past 5 years, the virtual reality (VR) industry has been changing dramatically from focusing mainly on vehicle simulations, military training programs and theme park rides (view infographic). It has been gaining interest in the area of education, with many companies willing to invest, some even solely dedicated to providing schools with curriculum packages that include the technological tools and teacher training to support VR-based instruction.

Many of these early efforts have focused on sciences, like biology, anatomy, geology and astronomy. Virtual reality is the answer when it is too dangerous, expensive or impractical to do something. Students with no access to labs, now have the opportunity to conduct virtual experiments, for example walk through molecules and see their structure, or attend and participate in a complicated surgery, gaining real-world experience however taking only the virtual risk. In other subject areas, students have the ability to interact with animals and their environment, take virtual field trips to zoos, museums or even places impossible to visit, like Ancient Greece or Mars. They are given the opportunity to not only study about the Constitutional Convention, for example, but even be present in the room when it happens! Furthermore, it bridges cultures and allows the students to interact and collaborate from various parts around the world.

Some virtual reality apps used in education include Google Expeditions which offers 360 degree virtual field trips; New Classrooms, an adaptive, personalized math curriculum; Light-Sail, a literacy software that combines engaging books and in-text assessments; Lecture VR, which simulates a lecture hall in virtual reality accompanying  lectures with images, videos and other immersive experiences; Alchemy VR, which creates and educational experience, where the students will get to see a myriad of different things come to life; Nearpod, which combines virtual reality with traditional lesson-plans; EON Reality, which allows students and teachers to combine 3D content with videos, sound effects, notes, Powerpoint, and more.. View Top 10 Companies working on education in Virtual Reality

Award winning schools in the country have been incorporating virtual reality into their curriculum as a powerful tool to engage students. Its success in education is based on the fact that we retain 90% of what we do and see. Students retain a lot more information that way, rather than by reading a textbook. Virtual reality seems to be the next big thing in education. Educators will be able to capture the attention of their students like never before and get them more actively involved in the classroom, and utilizing VR in the classroom will make students feel like they are using the “coolest” thing around. Using VR will make learning more exciting to students and will increase retention because it engages students in a way that textbooks cannot possibly do.

Furthermore, and despite the fact that virtual reality is still developing, real progress has been made in the cost of VR hardware, headsets in particular. Head-mounted displays (HMDs) are commercially available today for as low as $20 for Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR for $99. As a result, access has become a lot more affordable for many more individual users and many more schools.

For all these reasons, educators and students alike, engaging into transformative experiences in an endless effort to seek an ever-expanding immersive landscape, give VR a definitive place of value in education.

On the other hand, VR has certain negative aspects about it. Motion sickness linked of the use of the VR headset has been identified to affect some people negatively to its use. Another negative aspect of using this kind of technology is the addiction to living in this virtual world and the consequences that could have to assuming responsibilities in real life, and also the deception it can create in communication. Another negative aspect of VR includes the lack of laws regarding these worlds, due to the fast paced development of Virtual Reality and online worlds. Users can say and do things in these worlds that are illegal in reality. Also, users may be less inhibited than in real life due to a sense of anonymity, and may act in a way that is socially unacceptable (Virtual Reality Pros and Cons. Retrieved on February 7, 2017 from http://virtual-reality.weebly.com/pros-and-cons.html).

Though the world of virtual reality technology is a fun and exciting one which throws up many alternative ways of learning for discussion, the current implementation and creation has disadvantages. In my opinion, it is still an exciting and engaging media to use in the classroom that will certainly change the way students learn in schools today.