I created a Video for A1 outlining the mobility essence, education merit and rationale for virtual reality in the classroom!
Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
A1. Virtual Reality in the Classroom
6 responses to “A1. Virtual Reality in the Classroom”
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Hi Rika, your video really caught my attention! I love that you covered the history of VR and its application in classrooms. Wondering if you’ve personally experienced VR in your learning journey, how did that make you feel? My interaction with VR was mostly for entertaining or recreational purposes, with less focus on producing learning outcomes. I could see it’s still a very pricey option for schools to afford and offer to all students. Even for families too, kids may be crazy about it at the beginning and then quickly lose interest.
As much as I’m excited to see VR in classrooms, I’m also cautious of the balance between reality and virtual reality. Similar to the nature of social media, VR games share the same nature of keeping users’ login time as long as possible. I hope there will be VR regulations and protocols available by the time it enters massively into classrooms.
Hi Zheng:
I have tried VR for field trips to the Aquarium with my classroom and also to play video games (it was very realistic and scary). I must say, alike what I mentioned in the video, VR does immerse you emotionally. Even if I kept that in mind, I still found it hard to separate my emotions from the experience. I do agree the dangers of escaping reality exist, but for some people living in depression or a difficult situation, sometimes that escape is better for coping than reality.
I do see the value in terms of socioeconomically, so I hope schools can afford to adopt it. Alike technology being newly introduced in the classroom, I think teachers should always think ahead about pros and cons especially knowing their classroom, before the instruction of the technology.
Hello Rika. Nice work! I found your video enjoyable and very informative. I think it’s good to start getting more informed about VR, AR, and MR technologies as it is becoming clear that many fields, including education, are moving in this direction. I think these are technologies with lots of potential that just have to overcome some of the limitations they still have, like the ones you mention in the video. I’m not an expert in this subject but I can see from the history of VR and AR (which I have explored in my assignments) that there has been substantial advancements, so I think it is a matter of time for this to become more widely used. This week I visited UBC’s Emerging Media Lab (EML) and had mi first VR experience. I was amazed at how realistic and engaging it is. I was in an environment in which all the data had been obtained from real images. It was a recreation of a real-life location basically and the experience is so immersive that you forget about being in a room wearing a headset. Quite impressive!
Hi Eduardo:
Thank you for sharing your experience. I was telling Zheng about my experience of how no matter how many times I repeat to myself , “this is fake,” I can’t help but become emotionally involved and feel right there in the stimulated environment. The signals my brain gets from the experience, tell me this is real. Unlike some of the earlier creations where wind was blown or your chair moved, it still felt really real mostly because of our own vivid imagination.
Braden was talking about the cardboard headsets. Have you ever explored those? Or have you every tried the VR lens but you are sitting on what move around to feel like a rollercoaster? I think that was my first VR experience and it was many years ago.
Hi Rika, I enjoyed watching your video and learning more about VR in the classroom. I think that it is interesting that you identified some of the same benefits that I did by examining an augmented reality tool for classroom usage, specifically the ability to make abstract concepts more tangible for learners. It would be compelling to further examine the different benefits of using AR versus VR in an educational context. To your point about the high cost of VR headsets, I increasingly have found that tools are being developed to avoid those costs by combining a mobile device with a cardboard headset. I wonder if these types of VR setups would be as effective as those headsets that come preassembled? Thanks for sharing!
Hi Braden:
I have never come across the VR headsets made of cardboard. That sounds interesting for children to try to build themselves. I’m guessing it combines the use of mirrors like the Wheatstone Mirror Stereoscope.
I feel that Augmented Reality uses the environment and adds challenges or activities to the current environment. Virtual reality allows access to aspects students cannot reach in the current now and here. Thus, transporting them somewhere through virtual reality. I think both have different values. For example, Augmented Reality can add measurement or directional activities related to math, whereas virtual reality allows for the manipulation of 3D materials that are not currently present in the classroom. Both have differing benefits in an educational context.