Virtual reality in education is on the horizon, and without a doubt, it’ll change the world as we know it. Twenty-first century classrooms will be technologically advanced places of learning, with VR technology significantly increasing students’ engagement and learning. There are a growing number of virtual reality headsets and apps to explore. Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters U ntil recently, virtual reality had been something of a fantasy for storytellers.
Educationis the base for a thriving society, and the transfer of knowledge has been atop priority for civilizations since the very beginning. People are constantlylooking for ways to make knowledge transfer more easily, more quickly, and moreeffectively.
Inthe era of digital devices, we have an opportunity to enable better learningwith technology. Virtual Reality (VR) seems to be the natural next step for theevolution of education.
Inthis article, I’ll show how virtual reality can transform the way educationalcontent is delivered.
Exclusive articles about Virtual reality 6 things you need to know about virtual reality (from the guy who’s doing it right) For all the hoo-hah and fanfare around next-generation technologies like Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard, it’s still early days for virtual reality. Augmented reality or AR is a visual and sometimes interactive experience in a real-world environment where the objects in the real-world are “augmented” by computer-generated perceptual information. These virtual enhancements in the real world can appear as something visual and auditory. 10 Augmented reality apps for the classroom.
How we learn today
Before diving into the details of how VR in education will help improve the learning process, it’s important to understand why we need to improve the quality of education in the first place. Historically, most technologies designed to aid learning have been aimed at enabling access to information — facts and observations about the world. Before computers, we had a powerful tool that helped us retain facts: books.
In the era of digital technologies, books are being turned into eBooks. Modern search engines make fact-finding really easy — with just a few clicks you can discover answers to many questions.
Whileknowledge has become more easily available for more people, the currentapproach to education has two significant problems:
- It’s based on the sameold format — fact retention. Teaching methods are focused on providingfacts; however, having access to and consuming a lot of information isn’tlearning. Being informed isn’t the same as being educated.
- Alot of people have difficulties comprehending information. Toomuch information received in a short period of time can easily overwhelmstudents. As a result, they become bored, disengaged, and usually not sure whythey are learning about a topic in the first place.
What makes VR in education beneficial?
Virtualreality can be used to enhance student learning and engagement. VR educationcan transform the way educational content is delivered; it works on the premiseof creating a virtual world — real or imagined — andallows users not only see it but also interact with it. Being immersedin what you’re learning motivates you to fully understand it. It’ll requireless cognitive load to process the information.
Hereare just a few properties that makes virtual reality in education so powerful.
Better sense of place
Whenstudents read about something, they often want to experience it. With VR, theyaren’t limited to word descriptions or book illustrations; they can explore thetopic and see how things are put together.
Thanksto the feeling of presence VR provides, students can learn about a subject byliving it. It’s easy to forget that VR experiences aren’t real — a bodyactually believes it’s in a new place. This feeling engages the mind in a waythat is remarkable.
Scale learning experiences
Technologies such as science labs are amazing — they allow students to understand how things work based on practical experience.
A relatively small VR device can even act as a whole science lab.
But such technologies are expensive and almost impossible to scale. They are also limited in the number of things they can do.
Learn by doing
It’sa well-known fact that people learn best by doing; however, if you inspectmodern education, you’ll see how little learning actually happens by doing.Students are focused on reading instructions rather than using them inpractice.
VRin education provides an experience anchor to the instruction. With VReducation, learners are inspired to discover for themselves. Students have anopportunity to learn by doing rather than passively reading.
Emotional reaction
Visceralreactions to what we are experiencing are fundamental to forming memories. VRin education makes it easy to engage students the whole time, makingexperiences memorable.
Develop creativity
Havingvirtual reality in education is useful not only for content consumption, butit’s also great for content creation. By giving students powerful tools such asTilt Brush, you help them boost their creativity.
Visual learning
A lot of people are visual learners — VR is really helpful for this group of learners. Instead of reading about things, students actually see the things they’re learning about. Being able to visualize complex functions or mechanisms makes them easier to comprehend.
Users are ready to embrace new technology
Thefirst idea that pops into anyone’s mind when they think about VR technology isan entertainment experience. Many designers see VR as an extension of thegaming industry. It’s true that VR has historically been dedicated to gaming,but things are changing. According to a recent survey conducted by GreenlightVR, desire for education outweighs desire for gaming content — 63.9 percent vs.61 percent.
Categories of VR educational experiences
Where can we apply virtual reality in education? The answer is almost everywhere. VR creates an infinite set of possibilities that people can experience. Here are few types of experiences you can create with VR.
Virtual fields trips
VR technology can be used to engage students in topics related to geography, history, or literature by offering a deeply immersive senses of place and time. Simply imagine geography lessons where you can visit any place on the globe — this type of experience is much more enriching than just reading about it.
With VR, they aren’t limited to word descriptions or book illustrations; they can explore the topic and see how things are put together.
Google Expeditions is one good example of an app designed to provide such an experience. Expedition is a library of field trips available for regular smartphone users. Each trip is comprised of VR panoramas, and trips vary from the Great Wall of China to Mars. People all over the world can visit places that are virtually impossible to visit in person.
Googlepiloted this app in hundreds of schools all over the world. The project wasextremely successful, with Google taking more than 1 million students in 11countries on expeditions.
Ofcourse, virtual reality will never replace real field trips and travels, norshould it. But, VR enables experiences to happen that would be otherwiseimpossible.
High tech training
VRis a good solution for highly technical training fields like the military orthe medical industry. For example, the most significant challenge for medicalstudents learning anatomy is understanding the body in three dimensions and howdifferent systems fit together. VR education can help overcome this problem.
Onegood example is the VR system used by Mendel Grammar School in Opava City,Czech Republic, which helps students in biology classes learn about the anatomyof the eye. The team working on this project employed a Leap Motion controllerand specially-adapted Oculus Rift headsets to provide an innovative way oflearning anatomy.
Internships
Gettingexposure to different careers is an essential part of the learning process.From early childhood, we dream about what we want to be when we grow up, andthose dreams are usually inspired by the professionals in our lives. Often, weget this understanding through internships.
I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
Albert EinsteinAnotherbenefit of having virtual reality in education is its ability to help broadenstudents’ exposure to careers. It improves people’s ability to imaginethemselves in others’ shoes. Career expeditions show what it’s like to work ina field — students can explore a day in someone’s career, see what person isstudying, and understand what a person likes — or doesn’t like — about theirjob. As a result, the experience becomes familiar to students.
Group learning
Virtual Reality: Apps Ideas & Resources List
Someof the most important knowledge we gain doesn’t come from what we hear fromlecturers, but rather from collegiality and debate. VR education gives theopportunity to make learning experiences social by allowing students tocommunicate with each other. Using avatars and mapped facial expressions,people can come together to discuss, synthesize, and learn from one another.
Distance learning
VRallows us to bridge the gap between educators and learners. With VR, distancelearning tools can put educators and students together in the same room withdigital representations of themselves — teachers can teleport into the VR worldand guide students through their experiences.
Design challenges for VR education experiences
Clearly, the future of virtual reality in education is very exciting and full of potential. We are just at the dawn of this powerful technology and designing for VR is full of challenges that we should be ready to overcome.
5 key properties of good VR learning experiences
VR edu apps should have the following properties:
- Immersive. Designers should strive to create the feeling that users are in an experience. For example, if you develop a history app, make history come alive for students.
- Easy to use. Eliminate the need to have special skills to interact with a VR app.
- Meaningful. Meaning is really important for students. You can’t create a good VR learning experience without a good story. That’s why it so important to advance the art of storytelling. Stories quite simply provide the best vehicle for delivering messages that are not only heard and understood, but that also inspire and elicit action.
- Adaptable. As Albert Einstein once said, “I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” VR experiences should allow students to explore at their own pace. The app should provide complete control over the level of difficulty. Designers should establish how students learn and then use this knowledge to design VR products that allow effective learning.
- Measurable. Each educational tool should provide measured impact. Teachers should be able to track the metrics of education so they can measure the resulting knowledge of a subject. When designing experiences for VR education, it’s essential to choose appropriate metrics and make it clear what criterium will be used to measure success and failure.
Creating a new role for teachers with VR education
Thetransition from analog teaching practices to digital ones is going to changewhat teaching looks like. The role of a teacher will change from contentdelivery to content facilitation. Teachers will be focused on creatingconditions for exploring, rather than providing ready-made knowledge.
Our changing understanding of immersive experiences
It’s clear we’re in the early stages of VR — and it’s going to keep changing. However, technology will continue to push boundaries of how immersive VR can become. We’re even going to see advancements in eye tracking and body tracking in coming years. What we consider an immersive experience today will be considered table stakes in the not-too-distant future.
Making VR accessible
VRhas a high price point that is a significant barrier for many users. If weanalyze the success of Google Expeditions, it’s clear that Google was able toreach this many students because the hardware was really accessible. To make VReducation accessible to a majority of users, it’s important to focus oncreating VR experiences for devices users already have and repurpose them intopowerful tools for education. A phone we have in our pockets and $20-100headset devices — such as Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR — should beenough to give students good VR experiences.
Open New Horizons with VR Education
Virtualreality in education is on the horizon, and without a doubt, it’ll change theworld as we know it. Twenty-first century classrooms will be technologically advanced placesof learning, with VR technology significantly increasing students’ engagementand learning. VR experiences will inspire awhole new generation of young and bright students, ready to innovate and changethe world.
At the same time, the next big thing in education no longer relies on technology, but rather on a teacher’s decision to push forward and adopt these technologies inside the classroom. The global goal should be to make knowledge available, accessible, and affordable for everyone on the planet. Learn more about the design of other Emerging Technologies here.
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Virtual Reality or VR isn’t far from reality anymore. Technology has helped make the impossible possible. A VR headset covering your head and eyes, and you can be transported to another world within seconds. A world that’s full of moving life, thrilling experiences, and lots of excitement and fun.
And there’s literally no end to what all you can achieve with a VR experience. A real-time bike or car racing involvement just sitting on a chair, flying high in the sky like a free bird as you recline on your couch, and even dining in the air or surrounded by wildlife! The VR technology can surely outnumber your wildest imagination here. You think of it and you can experience it as well as real.
It is Possible to Use VR Apps on Android SmartPhones:
Technology has gone a step further and brought this experience for you right in the palm of your hand. With everyone these days becoming hugely obsessed with VR and longing to experience it just once, it’s now available in the form of an app. And you can download this on any platform on any device. Google, Facebook, Samsung, Apple, all of them have taken a dive in this domain.
Must Check: Best VR Headsets for iPhone 11 Pro Max
10 Best VR Apps for Android (2020)
Virtual Reality: Apps Ideas & Resources Videos
Android is currently one of the most commonly used platforms, we present here a list of the top 10 VR apps which can be easily downloaded on Android for free.
1. Google Cardboard
This is the most popular Android VR app running in the market at the moment. It’s also one of the two official VR apps offered by Google for the Android platform. This app is specifically designed for Android users to give them a clear idea of setting up the VR headset and the basic VR features by Google Cardboard. So essentially you need this app on your phone to understand how to use the other Cardboard VR-supported apps for Android.
2. YouTube VR
This is another of the frequented VR apps for Android. The prime advantage for users: YouTube comes pre-installed on most devices so additional download required and it’s free of cost too. YouTube’s VR playback feature takes the whole VR experience a level higher by allowing you to enjoy a cinematic experience for all your favorite YouTube videos.
3. Google Daydream
This is the second official VR app by Google after Google Cardboard. In order to enjoy a VR experience on this app, you’ll need a Daydream-compatible phone though in addition to a Daydream View headset.
4. Fulldive VR
Like its name, this app would let you take a full dive into the world of VR videos, games, and movies. And you can do so much more too – browse through the web, store all your photos, even take 360 degree pictures and videos with its VR-enabled camera. The app successfully runs on any Android headset – Oculus, Daydream, and Cardboard.
5. New York Times VR
This one is specifically for news lovers, offering them an up the notch experience in news delivery. Daily news updates from the world over, ranging from 30-second snippets to full-length news coverage. Whether it’s weather forecasts you’re after or the latest fashion news, you’ll get everything here. Moreover, you need not worry about spending up your mobile data too; you can first download the videos you wish to watch and then see them later offline in your own time.
6. InCell VR
This is an educational game designed for children, with the intent to let them know a bit about the human body and its cells in an entertaining platform. You’d be required to play the role of a human defender in this game set in the 2100s time plot. You’ve been shrunk to fit inside a human body and your objective is to go around the whole body, fighting off flu virus on the way. You also get to learn so much about human biology as you play along.
7. Minos Starfighter VR
One of those typical futuristic space shooting games but with exciting features on offer for the Android platform. You get a chance to become a space fighter pilot fighting alien enemies from space. The USP of the game lies in its larger-than-life images, graphics, and remarkable sound quality – all of which succeed in making the whole experience surreal.
8. Netflix VR
One of the best movie-watching experiences on your Android VR app, this one gives you two different types of movie-viewing experiences. One, where your media content remains static, known as rustic living room experience. And two, where you literally feel yourself taking a dive into your TV set or movie; the content moves in accordance with your eye movement. This is called void experience.
9. VR Thrills Roller Coaster 360
A totally thrilling and once in a lifetime experience to remember. You actually get to feel being on board a roller coaster and experience the adrenalin rush while sitting indoors. There are more than 360 pre-recorded videos of roller coasters designed on basic 3D models. Download today and get the thrill.
10. Expeditions
Go to any place on the globe with Expeditions app on your Android. It’s perfect for student learning as it allows common trip-sharing experience with small classroom groups using VR headsets. You can literally take tours to more than 900 places around the world.
VR vs. 3D Television:
While many still argue that VR apps are pretty much the same as 3D TV and might just end up the same way as the latter, the reality is far from this. Yes, one similarity between both the concepts is that both require wearing headsets to get the experience. However, the basic, which is also the most important, the difference between the two technologies is the feeling of being immersed in the experience.
3D TV works on letting the user wear headsets and watch images on the other side of the screen in a larger-than-life way so that your brain knows what exactly is happening. But in VR, the whole virtual experience can literally be felt in real-time even though part of you knows it’s unreal.
This is the power of VR – letting you immerse in the whole experience and feeling it for real as though it’s actually happening right in front of you. And this is made possible by super-real graphics of high quality, surround sounds, and HD images.
Summing Up
VR apps are here to stay, despite the argument that they may pass away as a fad. There is no doing away with the ecstatic experience they have to offer, that too free of cost, not at least for a few years to come.