Virtual Reality in the Classroom?

I know what you’re thinking — that sounds crazy right?! But it’s not. Virtual Reality has already been introduced into some classrooms and is expected to increase significantly within the next decade. The first Virtual Reality head-mounted display was invented in 1968 by Ivan Sutherland, but the headset had to be mounted to a ceiling and was used as more of a lab project than a product for the public. However, in the past couple years the technology has been made more accessible and more affordable. For example, we now have Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Google Cardboard– which only costs around $10. Below are image comparisons of Sutherland’s original VR headset to modern VR headsets.

Since VR is becoming more and more common in the school system, in ECI 201 we went to NC State’s Virtual Reality Studio in D.H. Hill Library to practice working with it and see how it could be used. NC State’s VR Studio includes eight work stations with Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and other equipment that you can access as an NC State student, faculty member, or staff member.

When I found out we were going to be working with VR in ECI 201 I was extremely excited, because I had always wanted to try it and see what it’s like, but I’d never had the money or the resources to experience it. I was a little bit skeptical about how VR could be used for anything other than gaming, so I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect on the educational side of things, but nonetheless I was just excited to go play with it!

In D.H. Hill’s VR Studio we worked mostly with Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift and used the programs Google Tilt Brush, Google Earth VR, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, and a couple more.

My favorite part of the VR Studio was using Google Tilt Brush. I love to paint and draw, so getting to draw virtually, in 3D, and in 360 degrees was so much fun. There were so many different tools I got to use to create my masterpiece. It’s kind of hard to describe what it’s like drawing in 3D, so click below to watch a video on Google Tilt Brush:

After experiencing VR for ourselves and seeing what it would be like, we had multiple class discussions about ways VR is already being used in the classrooms and the benefits it has for education. Once I had used a VR headset, I realized that the possibilities for educational use are almost endless. VR headsets are beneficial to learning because they allow students to interact directly with virtual objects and the surrounding environment, it can be easier to visualize concepts, curiosity and interest in learning increases because VR is new, interesting, and involves the student in the learning, it makes learning feel more like play, and it can combine multiple aspects of different subjects into one activity. The VR program that I felt could have the most impact on the classroom is Google Earth VR.

Google Earth VR is an extremely useful tool because it allows you to “teleport” pretty much anywhere in the world, and your students can experience it as if they were actually there. This tool is especially useful for Social Studies classes because teachers could make a tour of historical places that are being studied. Lesson plans can stem off of the virtual tour, so as students go to different locations, the teacher can talk about each place and its significance. This use of VR is also helpful because while it is usually unfeasible to take an entire class on field trips around the world (or even just around the country) especially more than once a year or semester, taking a VR field trip is something that could happen more than once and at a much lower cost.

How would I specifically want to use Google Earth VR in my classroom?

I would want to create a Virtual Reality Field Trip to places around the world that had current real-world significance in the news, and tie it back into the original Social Studies curriculum that I was already teaching. For example, one field trip I would want to create if I was a teacher right now is a VR field trip to the Notre Dame Cathedral, since a large fire caused major destruction to it recently. To read more about what happened, click below, but my purpose for making this a Virtual Reality Field Trip is so that students could be immersed into the location in France and get to experience what it was like before the fire. I would want to explain the history of the Cathedral and its importance to France and to us. I would want to connect it to other major disasters or catastrophes throughout history to try and gauge more interest and importance from the students. I think this would be an awesome lesson plan because it would help keep students engaged in current events, but even more engaged than just hearing about them on the news.

*All images are embedded to the site or are my own