4 Ways AR and VR Transform Education
Extended Reality is becoming a part of our daily lives, with its applications being used either for work or for pleasure. Under this umbrella comes Augmented and Virtual Reality, that help deliver imagination and magic to people that use it in their respective fields. You would hear the term Immersive Technology being used to describe these two branches of eXtended Reality (XR). This is because the technology achieves what no other human can possibly achieve if done on their own: it completely wraps the user in a world that is either virtual, or grabs their attention by adding to the environment they're present in. A user is immersed while using these technologies to a point where they don't exist, or notice changes, that occur in their surroundings. This is what Extended Reality does, and this is one of the reasons why immersive technology should enter the classroom setting.
AR and VR: A brief:
As explained in an earlier article, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality may appear to be the same. They perform the same functions, which is to teleport the user to world that might or might not be their own, but they're not the same. Drilling down to their defining differences, here's how they vary from one another:
-
Augmented Reality. This branch of extended reality adds to the environment you are a part of. There isn't a virtual world created for you, (that's what Virtual Reality is for), but you get to superimpose animation of any sort on a specified target. For example, if the text of a chapter is talking about the architecture of a certain house, then AR would allow you to see what you visualize. In a chemistry textbook, the animations rendered could take up the form of a chemistry set, with acids and bases mixing with one another to give a certain formula.
-
Virtual Reality. This branch does teleport you to a world that is not your own. As a user, you get to experience a three-dimensional world solely created for a singular purpose. This technology also requires extra hardware, which comes in the form of a Virtual Headset and eyewear, which help cut out distractions in your surrounding. This finds its use in any subject of your choosing: historical sites could be visited and observed within the walls of your classroom, or students could get active and try to map points out on a three-dimensional coordinate system. The only advantage that AR has when comparing AR and VR, is that no additional funds need to be spent to purchase dedicated hardware. All that you would require is your smartphone or tablet to guide you in understanding a topic.
From the above brief, I think we're well-equipped to dive into the 4 ways AR and VR will transform education in the coming years.
Instilling the Magic.
When you put on a VR device, for example the Google Cardboard, and when you observe the life of ancient Romans or witness the issues of being a refugee through the eyes of thirteen-year olds, that's when you start to believe that you are living in the world you're seeing. With the help of Virtual Reality, students and teachers together can help solve real-world problems by doing their small bit, as was the case with Marie Graham, a pre-K-to-12 school teacher who now, along with her students at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, have collaborated with tech companies to provide VR as a source of relaxation for patients at a Children's Healthcare.
VR and AR as the Next Mass Medium
Virtual and Augmented Reality have been used to promote interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). At the Virtual Science Center in Sunnyvale, California, exhibit designers collaborated with tech companies, museums, science centers and education professionals, to create virtual reality experiences to promote the same. AR and VR are heading down the road to becoming the most influential mode of communication medium, just like what the television was when it first kicked-off. With both these technologies being less expensive than what they were when they had entered the market space, companies and industries will extensively adopt them to attract consumers and learners alike.
Simple is the Way.
The beauty of extended reality, is that you don't need to be a programmer or a coder to gain a meaningful experience from using its branches. AR/VR labs in universities are utilized by non-technical students, who take advantage of existing applications to develop their projects, as well as computer science students who create sophisticated articles from scratch. For further simplification, an administration should try and pick a development platform that can grow and flex with the administration over time.
First Impressions are Lasting Impressions.
VR and AR don't just help when it comes to gaming, which is what most people associate these technologies with. This is a great learning tool, and can help teachers reconstruct their syllabi according to the student. These technologies drive home the importance of having education be student-centric, and how making the student feel valuable and important can help better their performance. It's also important to recognize areas where AR and VR might not be so useful, as there are some topics that it yet cannot provide a solution for. What can be noted is that its relatively inexpensive, which means that it can still be a successful and good investment for a school or campus with its limited reach.
Extended Reality can prove to be a useful tool for all industries that wish to teach or train their people. Technology has touched many lives and fields, all that's left is for us to embrace the change as it takes us one step closer to the future we envision to live in.
Related articles: