By Jon Campbell on March 23, 2019
Virtual Reality (VR) is a ‘hot topic’ in Ed Tech right now, and the discussion is not as much ‘will it happen?’ but ‘when?’ Much of the research and test cases have been led by the industry and, in researching this post, I wanted to take a different approach and look at VR as a full-time public school educator. This post isn’t designed to sell you a VR system to teachers and districts, as so many posts are, but to try answer common questions educators might have about VR.
What is VR?
Virtual Reality is a system of using screens, headphones, and handheld controllers to create an immersive experience for the user. The concept has been around for a long time in tech terms. When we’re talking about it in the classroom, it’s most likely a headset that fits over the student’s eyes and, by using a separate screen for each eye, gives them a 3D view of whatever the teacher chooses. That’s coupled with sensors inside the headset that determine which way the student is looking and changes the view to match. These systems can come with headphones to add audio, and/or hand-controllers so that the student can manipulate the world they’re viewing, just like a mouse on a PC.
That’s great, but how could it in my classroom?
Many of us use YouTube or other streaming videos in our classroom, and VR is the natural extension of that, with additional benefits. Immersive videos allow students to be focused, removed from distractions in the classroom. It also allows students to look around, to view and in some cases explore the locations or situations you take them to.
What can I look forward to?
Shortly, these uses could encompass all subjects in the K-12 system. Biology classes could float through the bloodstream, Physics classes could orbit the planets of the solar system. English classes could stand on stage at Shakespeares Globe Theatre. Sports classes could don headsets and stand on the field at the Super Bowl, analyzing strategy. History classes could stand atop the Pyramids or on the beaches of Normandy, all while still sitting in their seats in your classroom.
As VR continues to evolve, interactivity will increase. Students will be able to manipulate the virtual world around them. We could see students manipulating the DNA building blocks of life at a microscopic level, or reaching under tectonic plates to examine the layers beneath.
Why isn’t this already happening?
The number one reason it’s not already happening is cost. At the time of writing, a single commercially-available student set is priced at $700 (Canadian), which can get expensive when you’re trying to outfit a class or lab. There are cheaper alternatives that require the student to supply their own device (Google Cardboard is about $20), but that then excludes those students who can’t afford or be permitted to provide their personal device. There are companies (ClassVR) who are working on educational alternatives, but they don’t have the reach yet to make VR available on a large scale.
Another roadblock is the lack of available bandwidth to students. These headsets are wireless and so need enough Wifi bandwidth and availability to stream High Definition video to all students.
This sounds exciting! How can I try it out now?
There are some great opportunities to try out VR right now, to see the beginnings of something exciting.
- Google Cardboard (prices range from about $10 – $40 CAD) – Headsets that use your phone to display VR videos from places like YouTube but needs to be handheld.
- Google DayDream ($139 CAD) – a more comfortable device that can be strapped to your head. Includes a controller to interact with the world.
- Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are the current top-end devices, both retailing for about $700 with all the peripherals.
For a taste of what’s currently available for software experiences:
- Google Street View – it’s been around for years but could be a great resource for exploring the world
- Youtube Virtual Reality – A large collection of virtual reality videos, viewable both with a VR headset or on your mobile device.
- Discovery VR – Curated by the Discovery Channel
- Nearpod – a massive collection of curated lesson plans aimed at educators.
Comments:
There a number of very important and significant ideas here in this thread, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading through them all. They prompted me to think about VR in slightly newer ways than I have previous. With that being said, I think there is a stark difference between VR in the classroom, and VR in Education. Jon’s post seems to revolve specifically around the former, while I think there are some important conceptual aspects to explore regarding the latter. I do not discount the value of bringing VR into the classroom through headsets and software, however, I do think that alternative strategies warrant exploration. Second Life, for example, is an online virtual reality platform that can be used for free. Although not specifically designed for education, it has the capability to house educational institutions where by users can enrol and actually participate in accredited courses. I would be more inclined to utilize Second Life in institutions of higher learning as opposed to high school, for instance, but there is a heavy body of scholarship that encourages the fostering of experiential and constructivist learning within the virtual realm. Currently, there are a number of institutions (Stanford for example) that employ Second Life as a means of housing mass amounts of digital information or coursework. Immersive in nature, it has the potential to offer an engaging and meaningful learning experience. For example, Rockcliffe University Consortium is an online organization that offers courses and certifications through virtual campuses; Rockcliffe also provides for its users digital library collections, virtual ‘sandboxes’ and collaborative educational gaming.
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10 Sep1 Thumbs Up!julio palacios
As with most here, I think virtual reality is exciting. I can’t help but acknowledge that the child-part of me is drooling with the possibility of gaming and entertainment when it comes to VR. The educator side of me does express some concerns regarding implementing this technology in a classroom. VR is such a spectacle-based medium. We are amazed by its immersion, we are awed by its realism, and we are jarred when we’re disconnected from this immersion (ie. lag, software glitches, and technical difficulties). I remember an interesting dissemination provided by Kelly McErlean (2018) on how the spectacle (CG and special effects) in film have affected the narrative. “Digital spectacle has become a dominant feature of films. Audiences never fully suspend belief because they must judge the effect as well as the story…In each film the conceptual leaps must first reference previous cinematic experiences then surpass audience expectations to order to be successful.” Will young users be discontent with VR technologies that are slightly dated? Will software developed 4 years ago still have the impact/relevance when pegged against the current video games and cinema that this audience is already consuming? Is integrating VR technology into the classroom positioning an educational institution to play a continuous and costly game of keep-up? I also worry that the direction VR is headed is towards a very ecosystem-centic model where the user (or institution) will have to buy into a brand / OS and buy peripherals and software that is only supported by that one brand. This becomes problematic as it makes it difficult to migrate away from a brand once hardware / licenses have been purchased. This concern is coupled with the idea of planned adolescence in hardware and software. McErlean, K. (2018). Interactive narrative. In Interactive narratives and transmedia storytelling: Creating immersive stories across new media platforms (pp. 120-151). New York: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www-taylorfrancis-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/books/9781317268444
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31 Mar0 Thumbs Up!benson chang
I am curious about one aspect of the VR as described. Why is Wifi bandwidth a limitation? I presume this statement is specifically talking about the school having enough bandwidth for full classes of students, but if VR is to be utilized fully, why do the students need to physically be at the school? Can’t each student just be responsible for their own bandwidth at home?
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31 Mar0 Thumbs Up!benson chang
I am curious about one aspect of the VR as described. Why is Wifi bandwidth a limitation? I presume this statement is specifically talking about the school having enough bandwidth for full classes of students, but if VR is to be utilized fully, why do the students need to physically be at the school? Can’t each student just be responsible for their own bandwidth at home?
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Hi Jon, I enjoyed you short and concise take on how VR can be used in the classroom. You have demonstrated a very practical approach to how and why VR can be implemented as well as some reasons why it is not. I can really see VR as a great teaching tool, creating a immersive and interactive learning experience.
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30 Mar0 Thumbs Up!christopher clarke
Hi Jon. Thanks for sharing your thoughts around VR as it relates to education. I think you did a good job of giving an intro to VR in the classroom. I would have really liked to hear more on where you think VR could go in the classroom. I like Basia’s point about the need for social interactions in a VR classroom setting. It makes me think of the virtual learning environments of Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One” or Tad Williams’ “Otherland” series. If the social interaction becomes possible, then the classroom itself can stretch across the globe. Students from around the world could come together to form a VR class. The examples you give sound like amazing experiences, but you’re right that the cost isn’t there yet. Those VR experiences could already be out there for use, but I wonder if you ran across any estimated projections on costs dropping to more viable levels.
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John; Thank you for your explanation on VR and its ability to be used in the classroom. I think the ability for these devices for experiential learning is massive. As a school we actually bought a set of the google cardboard vr headsets and they have been used in several classes. I understand what brain is saying below, but with everything it comes down to classroom management. There will always be some destruction in the classroom and all we can do is mitigate the cost. As always if a solidly built and cost effective system would certainly be the most valuable for the public education system. The google cardboard is cheap and pretty hard to break, but you also get what you pay for. I think the ability for students to visualize concepts would dramatically increase understanding. As for mobile devices almost all of my students have one. And for the few that don’t the school should be able to afford to purchase devices. Eric
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Hi Jon, Thanks for this little exposé on VR. I like what you said about VR affording learning experiences currently unavailable to students. Certainly, VR can facilitate realistic, situated learning experiences students would typically have no ability to access (i.e. your comments about a physics class orbiting the planets of our solar system). My question is, what would this really look like implemented on a large scale in a classroom? One of my biggest hesitations (cost aside) would be managing the technical side of using these devices in a large class. I have found that students often lack respect for school property (I have seen lots of abuse of computer labs over the years). I just don’t know if I would trust large group of teens with equipment that was so fragile and expensive. Yes, on a small scale you could make it work, but I would think there will be lots of management issues when trying to roll this our in a larger context.
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“Biology classes could float through the bloodstream” gave me flashbacks to Magic School Bus. Thank you for sharing your A3, Jon. While VR certainly has great potential in the classroom and in sports, one thing that has always made me shy away from it is how it isolates users. It would be great if, as you say, classes could float through the bloodstream together, but I haven’t seen any applications that can connect devices in a co-operative play-through kind of experience. The social aspect is what makes learning in a classroom different from independent learning. As homework, it’s great; students can engage in VR at home, without teacher guidance. I do think though that the next important step for VR-assisted learning is to make it a social experience. I would also love to have a way to control what students are viewing remotely, for example, from a teacher’s phone. As mobile phones and internet access become universal, do you foresee some kind of standardization or categorization for VR resources, for example, for classroom use versus for leisure?
VR in Education is well on it’s way, though teaching strategies to embed VR and training for educators is not currently prevalent. However, there are ways to work around this to get VR started in schools without jumping in full steam ahead with full kits for the classroom!
Here are some of the discoveries that I have made using VR in the classroom:
1. Google Cardboards are a GREAT alternative for viewing concepts, but not for kinesthetically engaging with them. However, for visual learners, it can be extremely beneficial to see and explore visually what it is we are discussing or learning. I navigated the lack of mobile devices by putting students into groups of 3 and they had to take turns exploring what was made visible in VR. This encouraged them to discuss, collaborate and share within their small groups. For a class of 30, I needed 10 students to have access to a strong enough mobile device, and 10 google cardboards. Many classrooms have this.
2. VR Labs are a great way to start getting access to high quality VR. Students and teachers can book times when they will explore pre-purchased programs and learning engagements. The VR headset can be connected to a monitor for a group of students or other educators to observe the experience of the player. Immersing in full VR technology enables the player to start tackling problem solving in developed simulations. Students can also take Independent Learning Courses to start learning how to develop VR for future career development.
3. VR in the classroom: Occulus Quest is a great way to feasibly create a classroom set. There will always be the difficulties of internet, cost, and maintenance, but this is just the same as getting laptop or iPad carts. With the pandemic at this time, I believe it will be a number of years before any school districts invest in VR devices for the classroom, primarily out of concern of sharing germs as the device goes on the face. And now we are seeing more collaborative platforms like VR Chat, where individuals can congregate, solve puzzles, or explore worlds together.
This article does a good intro summary of VR in education, which is good for people to have.
One point close to my heart that I think this article misses, is it focuses on students using VR to receive content passively, rather than use VR to visit problems globally and solve them proactively. This is my pet peeve about most edtech. Most of it is passive learning. VR has huge potential to allow students to visit global problems up close and in depth to gain a better understanding of how the problem effects people/environment and then design a better solution due to the VR experience.
Another point I want to make, that is touched on in the article, is that VR as I see it now, is limited by the cost and hardware. Is VR mobile if it is super expensive and requires a separate headset from your mobile device? As much as I love the possibilities with VR, I think it’s huge achilles heel is the hardware.
I pick up this one not only because it was edited very well, but also for it’s friendly to the readers who know little about VR. It uses simple language to explain what is VR clearly and provides useful links.