Virtual reality in education
Virtual reality (VR) headsets and similar devices are used in education settings to produce a virtual visual representation of topics, such as a place, a historical event or a natural phenomenon.
This technology uses vast amounts of textual and visual data on a specific topic or place to create an immersive simulation. The simulation may be set in the past or the future. For example, a pupil can wear a VR headset and ‘walk’ through a museum in a different country or ‘visit’ a historical site.
VR is also used in higher education. At Northumbria University nursing students are given VR devices for specialist simulation-based education covering a range of conditions. Students wear VR headsets and are immersed in simulated clinical environments with patient-facing scenarios that enable them to practice and test their knowledge and abilities in a near-real environment.
In other higher education settings, VR has been used to spark business students’ creativity when researching and developing solutions to tackle societal and environmental issues, such as poverty and climate change.
Simulation technologies
Simulation technologies run on AI models that draw on massive historical datasets to create realistic virtual simulations of a certain place or geological phenomenon in the past, present or future.
What are the benefits of this technology?
The use of VR in education has the potential to enhance the learning experience of students, as it can make the learning process more immediate and tangible. Research shows that VR can help young children engage and be confident with academic topics.
Design and communication researchers have also been using VR to enhance empathy. In one scenario, VR helped share a first-person view of homelessness, allowing others to understand and empathise with this way of living. Used in this way, VR can be used to share stories that might be otherwise overlooked.
What are the risks of this technology?
One of the risks of using VR in schools is that it could worsen existing social and economic inequalities. In 2023, a VR-only school was founded in Florida to offer parents, who disagreed with some of the ideas included in their local public schools’ curricula, a conservative alternative where they decide the curriculum and the peer group. Situations such as this could lead to the perpetuation of narrowly focused viewpoints and cultural polarisation. It could also exacerbate inequalities, as the necessary technology may not be available to all pupils.
It has also been argued that the use of VR in the classroom could be linked to a decline in children’s attention spans, as it increases their ‘screen time’ – time spent on digital devices.
Additionally, some argue that VR could amplify the negative effects of social media on children and adolescents’ mental health, as the embodied and immersive experiences create a level of realism which is more interactive and compelling than simply interacting with a flat screen.