Virtual Reality

When I initially thought of virtual reality all I could picture were video games. I visualized the black goggles connected to a system where the user entered some fantasy world and tried to become immersed in it. It allowed for more physical interactions, but was still just a digital 3-D fantasy, so to speak.

After this week, it seems there are a lot of great applications for the classroom. Virtual reality can allow for students to gain experiences, otherwise not possible. It can allow them to participate in highly engaging activities with the potential to learn more than they would in a traditional classroom.

I particularly like the multitude of virtual science labs for my students as my school doesn’t currently have any lab supplies and doesn’t appear like we will any time. However, we do have two computer labs which I can easily access. Sometimes I think it’s hard to understand a concept without seeing it in action. You can only read about something so much or listen to someone lecture about it so much. I feel that seeing it in action or being able to interact with it yourself allows for you to make a better connection and to absorb the material better.

I think that as long as students see an educational purpose and that you set up “digital rules,” you can run virtual simulations very successfully. I think that you need to make them have a purpose too and you need to have them answer questions about what they are doing, otherwise yes they will see it as “just a game.”