Virtual Reality in Education

What if you could travel back in time to year 117 when the Roman Empire was at its peak to study for your history exam? Or travel to the Moon to conduct your physics experiment in its low-gravity environment? Well—you can’t unless you have a rocket or a time machine. This is where virtual reality comes in. Virtual reality creates an entirely digital world, with a 360-degree view that feels real. Virtual realities are interactive and immersive. The most common way to access virtual reality is through a VR Headset from companies such as Oculus or Meta. 

Adding virtual reality into our schools provides students with more immersive learning experiences when compared to traditional methods such as textbooks or movies. It can help students grasp concepts that are difficult to comprehend, such as complex geometric 3D shapes. Despite these perks, virtual reality has many drawbacks such as cost, setup time, and the simple fact that it is a new concept still in its infancy. In this blog, we will look at the main pros and cons of virtual reality and a company’s mission to bring it to fruition, ClassVR.

Pros:

Cons:

With all of these pros and cons in mind, a variety of companies are trying to get VR into classrooms across the country. One of which is ClassVR, a company that makes implementing VR into classrooms easy, safe, secure, and intuitive. With over 40,000+ classrooms worldwide implementing ClassVR, it’s safe to say that it has been a success. 

By dividing their VR program into different age groups, ClassVR can tailor their given curriculum to appeal to kindergarteners, middle schoolers, or high school students. For example, kids ages 4 - 7 years old were shown a 3D image of a giraffe and were asked to describe what they saw. This improved their vocabulary and communication skills. 

For older students between the ages of 16 - 17, teacher Matthew Shively used ClassVR in his chemistry class to allow students to view elements and compounds with a 360-degree view. This made the lesson more interesting and gave the students a better view of 3D elements that would usually only be seen in a 2D textbook. 

“During the session, I gave the students the opportunity to view elements and compounds with a 360-degree view, right at their desk. Using the chemistry 3D objects for several elements and compounds, they were able to see the structural changes and sometimes slight or drastic differences.” - Matthew Shively

For programming, students were given experience with modeling and coding by students creating their own ClassVR experience. They then were able to experience their creations in the virtual reality space. 

Despite its many ups and downs, virtual reality in classrooms is not science fiction. It exists and has worked in many different classrooms across the country as seen by ClassVR. If virtual reality can be implemented in schools well, it will revolutionize learning with its increased engagement and interactivity. Maybe you can’t travel back in time to the Roman Empire or go to the moon, but if you can simulate it perfectly, there is no difference!

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