Putting on a headset is exciting. But excitement fades quickly, and if the lesson behind it is thin, students remember the novelty and not the science. Used well, though, virtual and augmented reality can do something a textbook can't: let students stand inside an idea.
VR and AR are different tools
Virtual reality replaces the world around you. It's ideal for places students can't easily go, such as the inside of a cell, the surface of Mars or a virtual field trip.
Augmented reality adds to the world around you. It's ideal for bringing objects into the room: a molecule on the desk, a planet hovering over the classroom, or the inner workings of a machine.
Where immersion earns its place
- Scale. Atoms and galaxies are both impossible to picture. Being able to walk around them changes how students think about size.
- Space. Three-dimensional structures such as molecules, crystals and anatomy are far easier to understand when you can turn them in your hands.
- Process. Seeing a process unfold, like a reaction, a heartbeat or a gear train, helps students connect cause and effect.
- Access. Virtual field trips bring places within reach that a school trip budget never could.
Signs of a gimmick
A quick test: could the same idea be taught just as well with a good diagram? If so, the headset isn't adding much. Immersion should reveal something that flat media hides.
Making a VR or AR lesson stick
- Set a question first. Students should go in looking for something specific.
- Keep sessions short. A focused few minutes of immersion often beats a long one.
- Come back to the room. Discuss, sketch or write about what students saw. That's where the learning is consolidated.
- Connect it to the next task. Follow up with classwork that uses what they explored.
Immersion at Classigoo
Classigoo brings VR and AR experiences, interactive simulations and virtual field trips into the same platform students already use for their classwork. AR and VR labs are included on the Standard and Enterprise plans.
Our VR/AR work is driven by the same principle as the rest of the platform: technology should make hard ideas easier to grasp, not replace the thinking. A headset is just a very good window. What students do with the view is still the lesson.
