Getting Virtual

Virtual reality freaks me out a little.

I have used augmented reality as a bit of a gimmick and community connector in my classroom before via Aurasma. My students used the tool to discover vocabulary and to link speeches to posters for viewing by parents and fellow classmates. It was fun and interactive, but not necessarily revolutionizing learning. It was an engagement strategy.

Virtual reality is at a different level - generally involving the use of fancy headsets and gloves (which may not be cost-effective in the classroom just yet). The most familiar piece of virtual reality equipment in the classroom today is Google Cardboard which can be effective for virtual fieldtrips, but really limits the interaction of the student with the trip. They can only look - not see, touch, interact and play with the things they are seeing.

Furthermore, I have trouble making connections with much of it as an English Language Arts teacher. At times it makes sense to go on a virtual tour of something we've read, but as is inherent of reading, there is a certain amount of visualization that I want to happen in my students' minds. It is difficult to see how virtual reality would lend itself to an ELA classroom just yet.

But that's the key - just yet. In this article by Holly Korbey she begins to address some of the revolutions beginning education regarding virtual reality - the ability to view and handle 3D organs in medical programs, for instance, and I begin to wonder if, at some point, the words may be able to leap off the page for some of my students in the next five years and become more tactile things. Or, will that just be another kind of fun gimmick in ELA?

Anybody have any great ideas about how some of this new VR might change learning? I really think ideas like this one could revolutionize how we can teach peer-to-peer relationships in our classrooms.