According to incomplete data, more and more K 12 schools choose VR/AR to enter the classroom. It is estimated that by 2025, the number of students using VR/AR technology in K 12 schools will exceed150,000.

What role can VR/AR play in education?

If no research shows the influence of VR or AR on education, then virtual reality experiences such as landing on the moon or sinking the Titanic may be closer to entertainment than education. These critics say that most of the use of vr technology in education may be just a kind of marketing, and vr technology is not a breakthrough new technology.

Computer scientists began to experiment with "virtual experience" in 1950s, and in 1980s, they invented VR goggles and gloves to simulate the immersion of virtual world.

"My question is always: What's the difference between virtual reality and educational movies?" Audrey Watters, an educational technology blogger and contributor, said, "I am really worried that people will increasingly use educational movies under the guise of simulation or virtual reality technology, instead of students' field trips and other rich offline activities. "

VR headsets and gloves may cost hundreds of dollars, which makes it difficult for most school systems to provide universal access services. Although lower-priced products, such as Google Cardboard, which costs $65,438+$05, can be easily installed on smartphones, these VR boxes often cannot provide a better experience. In fact, critics believe that the so-called virtual reality or augmented reality applications in schools are not carried out through VR headsets but on laptops, tablets and mobile phones. In other words, many people are not sure what VR is, and this definition is still evolving.

However, for virtual reality advocates like Maya Georgieva, this technology is rapidly changing the way people look at and experience the world. Maya Georgieva is an educational technology expert with 65,438+05 years of experience in higher education and global education. She is also the co-founder of DigitalBodies, a virtual reality education research and consulting company. She believes that although virtual reality technology is still regarded as a supplement to teaching in K 12 classroom, with the increase of VR content, teachers and students will feel quite excited, and people's inherent thinking about the role of VR in education will also change.

"We heard teachers agree that the VR experience will cause more problems and bring more participation to students." Maya Georgieva said, "Children usually need time to build a mental model that suits their learning style. Virtual reality technology provides them with a stepping stone, which may be a jump connecting these points. "

Supporters of vr technology can find real success stories. The following are some applications of vr technology in K 12 classroom:

Make science a reality

Many doctors have been using vr technology to assist surgery, such as making 3D models of the root causes of diseases for effective preparation and treatment. Teachers of science subjects can also deepen students' understanding of biology or anatomy through vr technology. These subjects require students to master the internal working principles of cells and organs, but they are invisible to human eyes, so VR is a good tool.

In Belmont, California, biology teachers in high schools have been using zSpace Studio's mixed reality computer to teach. This kind of computer is equipped with special glasses, which can make cells and organs "pop up" on the 3D screen, thus helping students to better understand the working principle of the heart.

Through the application of Cyber Science, zSpace Studio and human anatomy atlas, students can clearly observe that with the beating of the heart, arterial blood keeps flowing, and blood vessels are always open and closed.

"The real organs for anatomy are preserved, without flexibility, blood vessels and muscles are no longer spewing. I have taught biology for 22 years, and I have never been able to make students understand the structure, relationship and direction of organs as clearly as using virtual reality. " A biology teacher said.

Peer and other platforms provide students with mixed reality content and vivid visual models for complex physical science concepts, such as gravity, molecular bonds and forces. By using Peer software, students can wear virtual reality headsets to observe and understand the aerodynamics of windmills, and then use their newly acquired understanding to build their own windmills. Peer software can also be used to test the working principle of windmills.

Experience it in the university you want.

Visiting universities around the world is usually expensive and time-consuming, which is impossible for many potential college students. From Georgia Institute of Technology to the University of Minnesota, applications like Campus Tours and YouVisit are providing 360-degree virtual reality tours for hundreds of universities. These VR experiences help to cultivate the "familiarity and sense of belonging" of students who have no money to visit universities in advance, and may encourage them to consider more schools when choosing universities.

By using some equipment (no fancy VR head display), prospective college students can "walk" on the path around the campus, "see" themselves among other college students, and go to the classroom or back to the dormitory. By clicking on campus buildings, students can enter and visit more than 65,438+0,000 universities and experience them, such as the library of the University of California, San Diego, or the electronic engineering laboratory of Princeton University.

Gordon Meyer, the marketing director of YouVisit, said: "In order to understand a place, people always want to visit it in person and get the realism of the environment. This is human nature. Immersive experience is the best way to provide such opportunities, especially for those students who can't travel and experience on campus. "

Vocational and technical training

Nowadays, although fewer and fewer students receive vocational and technical training, vocational and technical schools may be reborn through new virtual reality experience, train them how to repair cars through vr technology, and allow them to complete safety training in 3D. Hong Kong Vocational Education Institute has used virtual reality technology to teach aircraft engineering and building maintenance skills.

VR/AR education

At present, the virtual reality platform zSpace has cooperated with Shenzhen Guotai 'an Education Technology Co., Ltd. to launch its own professional simulation technology. Using the zSpace car training platform, students can disassemble and reassemble systems, such as transmissions or engines, without risk or waste of materials.

"The application of virtual car training has pushed the application of" car shop "a few years ago to a new height. Traditional teaching materials and courseware are two-dimensional, while actual automobile training is irreversible and expensive. " Paul Kellenberger, president and CEO of zSpace, said in a statement, "Through VR applications, students practice maintenance and technology repeatedly, build strong skills, and save money and classroom space for schools."

Reproduce history

VR/AR education

The fifth-grade students of Corey Engstrom School established an early American colony, filled with historical figures, but instead of clay, cardboard and glue, they created a colony in the virtual world with digital technology.

By using the Edu space platform, students can create their own virtual reality experience, allowing their colonists to buy and sell goods, sell merchant ships and then trade at sea. Corey Engstrom's class was not equipped with expensive VR headsets and gloves, and the students created a 3D colony on the tablet.

After creating a virtual world, CoSpace users can use basic cardboard helmets to bring their vision into 3D life, or choose to use computers or tablets to realize it. The platform is considered by EdTech Digest as the winner of the best product this year.

Even without gorgeous VR equipment, this experience gives students the opportunity to understand life a long time ago and enhance their understanding of history.

Engstrom runs an online virtual reality community to help educators interested in technology.

He said, "People can't let time to go back go back to the past to experience historical events or scenes, but virtual reality technology does provide students with an opportunity to enter a space they have never been to, such as a place where students can't go, such as colonial America."

Construct empathy

To truly understand a person's point of view, you must "put yourself in their shoes". Virtual reality technology has gained the nickname "empathy machine" by giving students the ability to observe through other people's eyes and "experience what any animator can understand".

This year, Global Nomads, a non-profit organization, established a virtual reality world by using virtual reality technology in 20 classrooms in the United States and the Middle East. Through the virtual reality simulation of the project, students can stroll on the rural streets of Jordan or Kentucky, immerse themselves in daily life and learn about other cultures and scenery along the way.

A group of high school students in Los Angeles can "enter" the heart of Syria through virtual reality simulation in a school in Compton, and experience bomb explosions and gun battles in the war, which helps them gain a view of life during the war. Afterwards, Compton students held a video conversation with Syrian youth in the refugee camp to discuss their experiences.

Nonny, the producer who created this simulation scene, said: "I never thought about bringing it to high school students, nor did I think that these students might make due contributions to the lives of Syrian child refugees."

Embodied Labs Lab is providing VR training for students so that they can better take care of the elderly and let them experience the medical challenges faced by the elderly, such as macular degeneration and hearing loss. In the VR simulation of "We are Alfred", students can experience the influence of visual impairment at family birthday parties.

The platform was selected as one of the five winners of the EdSim Challenge of the U.S. Department of Education, and will provide students with "immersive simulation" to prepare for the fierce global competition in 2 1 century.

99VR Vision Jun said: As we have seen, the new education methods in the future will make students more truly understand what they need to learn, and also have more horizons and rich worldviews. It is the VR/AR that has been working hard today. I hope VR/AR technology will appear in every classroom as soon as possible.