Virtual Reality is opening doors for gaming, film, communication and education. Despite growing pains, the immersive tech is making a successful transition into the classroom for two key reasons: affordability and available content.
VR's growing pains are being addressed in ways that prove VR can revolutionize how we educate students and share experiences. This revolution begins with affordability and available content.
VR has established multiple points of entry for consumers. This refers to the range of VR products emerging in the market. In addition to high end/expensive VR, consumers now have access to more entry level experiences, such as Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard.Google Cardboard brings immersive VR to everyone in a simple and affordable way – starting at just $15. Affordable options like these allow educators to embrace the technology, without digging into other areas of funding.
Quality educational VR content is also being created and shared for free.
Google Expeditions is a free VR app where students explore coral reefs or the surface of Mars. With Expeditions, teachers can take students on immersive, virtual journeys.
Cardboard Camera allows you to take your own 360 degree VR photos – moments in time you can relive in virtual reality. It’s one of the few ways you can make your own VR content at very low costs.
A key element to teachers adopting VR is empowering them to create their own content. Teacher-created lessons that incorporate VR will be the most impactful to classrooms, and are essential to VR’s long-term success in education. To help propel educators to a point where they’re comfortable creating VR curriculums, companies like Nearpod are stepping in with “ready-to-use lessons”
Nearpod’s co-founder, Felipe Sommer, says he and his company are “enabling teachers to put this content directly in their classrooms. The biggest issue…was teachers not having the time or skills to publish quality content. So we’re creating a lot of content to try to solve that issue. We also allow them to add virtual reality to their lessons and create their own content.”
For the full report on education's embrace of VR, check out the complete article from Level Up Village.
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