VR Reflection

I really did not know much about virtual reality before this week of researching it. It has been a very enlightening week of research. The most important aspect of my research this week was defining virtual reality. There are many different kinds of virtual reality available and finding the kind that could even plausibly work in schools is important. So discussions with my peers in education helped me form my definition and shape what my perspective of virtual reality is.

Virtual reality in schools is like using videos and projectors and virtual field trips in the classroom. In many other industries virtual reality entails using special equipment, gloves, helmets, vehicles, and rooms.  This kind of virtual reality is just not plausible in a school setting. It costs too much and is too difficult to maintain. But there are plenty of options for educators to incorporate virtual reality into their classrooms.

I think that virtual reality (school style virtual reality) is completely attainable in a classroom. I think that it could be helpful to show students things they wouldn’t be able to see normally. However, I think the word of the day is balance. All throughout teaching we are constantly doing a circus-like balancing act. Kids need hands on experiences, but they also need technology instruction. As long as you aren’t only teaching one specific way, using virtual reality as a teaching tool is totally acceptable.

Virtual worlds are neither better nor worse than real life experiences when judging your teaching. They are just different. If virtual reality is allowing students to experience something totally new that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience, then that is a great teaching tool. If the real life hands on experience is available, I would do that first however.

I think that as society we have made virtual reality a game. Im not saying that games can’t be learning experience though. So I think what we need to do as educators is not get students to view virtual reality as a learning experience. We need them to view everything as a learning experience and see the learning in everything, even video games. As humans we are constantly learning things from our environment. We can learn from everything we do, as long as we have a life-long-learning mindset. It is that mindset that we need to adjust in not only children, but everyone in society.