This article will involve and include some of the information necessary to develop an understanding for institutions of learning and students on how can virtual reality improve education.
As far as history is recorded education has been the main tool which has been used for the development of the mind and the different methods applied within the educational realms to acquire and access information. Like any other sphere education evolves in terms of how it is consumed and applied from one generation to the next, in actual in does not entirely change but the methods are refined. So, the question of how can virtual reality improve education will be answered by different methods of evolution used to refine education.
How can virtual reality improve education for a more technological progressive society?
The nature of how virtual reality can improve education on its own can be described as an interactive and immersive experience that integrates digital information with real environments and people. It was primarily used by gaming gimmicks or programmers for refining this kind of entertainment and was later discovered it can be applied in most sectors including education and the role it can play on raising educational quality.
How can virtual reality improve education in science?
Imagine a student sitting in class and going through 356 pages of a text book to learn experiments particularly in science laboratories but is not limited to and having to spend 6 hours in school and five days a week to acquire information. In this regard how virtual reality can improve education and information acquiring methods is by presenting prototype concepts of reality or classroom environment in virtual space including elements for students to interact with the use of virtual hands in order to touch, pick and move elements like it would take place in a real environment through the use of controllers or pads which allow this interaction to take pace. The exercise saves space, time and money invested for a physical learning environment making it easy for learners and students to practically interact with elements of their area of learning through virtual environment.
How can virtual reality improve education in art?
In the instance of art students where an ideal practical environment would be a classroom filled with clay, paint brushes and canvass board with the paint/ clay all over the floor and you can imagine the mass in that particular environment, so how can virtual reality improve education in art is the designing of prototypes such as a canvass, paint brush and clay for sculpturing which they can touch, drop or pick up paint brushes, moving objects and the ability to sculpture a perfect piece with the use of virtual hands through the same controllers which allows room for the development of the use of virtual hands and maybe in future controllers will be eliminated by allowing the use of real hands through virtual technology to refine the creation process of this environment.
How virtual reality can improve education can be complex through a diversified range of educational courses such as accounting and related course which can make use of collaborative methods of both virtual reality and augmented reality, which are pretty similar but not the same. For one to understand how virtual reality can improve education in this regard, a brief definition of augmented reality has to be applied. According to Wikipedia, Augmented reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. The Wikipedia definition also gives an insight of how virtual reality can improve education on a particular course by substituting the use a physical book with applications outside of a computer screen where you directly interact with the software through sensory modalities e.g. The reaction of a computer program based on input by the user is represented in a in immersive prototype reality on augmented or virtual reality.
So, the question of how can virtual reality improve education can be answered that students can start to enjoy and perform more better in subject areas where they were not performing well in. It has also been proven through research.
Albert Einstein once said “You can never judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree”, which means we do not all process information the same way as in the same case of how it is consumed and therefore how can virtual reality improve education is by allowing learners to become a best version of the themselves in immersive virtual learning environment.
The training of teachers and lecturers in virtual reality is the most important part of how can virtual reality improve education as they are at the forefront of transferring information in virtual reality there are virtual teachers.
Proposed methods of how can virtual reality improve education
- Conceptual prototype development- At developmental stages the use of computer architects or programmers is very important for the training of teachers and lecturers to enhance an effective and immersive learning environment on how virtual reality can improve education.
- Educational architect- This will at the end champion the methods that will be used by teachers on virtual reality for their virtual classrooms sometimes will be presented in oculus, a virtual speech guide or virtual teacher.
- Improved learning methods both for students and teachers on how can virtual reality improve education
Below are the desired outcomes on how can virtual reality improve education - Technological progressive society
- Improved learning methods
- Immersive and easy to learn methods used for acquiring information
- Teachers introducing innovative elements (Collaborative engagements)
- Raised educational quality
- Integration of digital information with real environments in which people live in.
- Enhancing the interaction between the real world and the users experience.
- Students who struggle to perform well at school can be expected improve their capabilities through virtual reality.
In conclusion of how can virtual reality improve education is immersing individuals in virtual reality with the same environment but in virtual space and can learning even more fun for student and learners. This will also see them reduce the stress of studying books and engaging more with the practicality of the actual work or job that can get the ready for the work market.