Behind the Goggles

Since the 1950s, virtual reality (VR) has been on the edge of educational technology without entering the mainstream. The most common use of this emergent technology has been gaming and entertainment and high-end consumer products. My experiences in China though suggest the world is changing. 

Recently, I have begun incorporating more VR into my classroom to introduce abstract scientific concepts like the atom. I have discovered that VR can be a useful tool, allowing students to visualise complicated ideas in new ways.

The potential returns in education are immense, and I believe one of the countries embracing this technology and moving it into the mainstream is China. China’s growing and affluent middle class have already embraced mobile technology and are well on the way to welcoming the VR revolution, creating exciting new opportunities in education. VR has gone from being merely a gimmick for the entertainment industry to providing educators and learners with a way to provide immersive learning experiences

NetDragon is enabling students to experience content in a 360-degree immersive digital world and interact with cartoon characters embedded in e-books. The company’s education-related VR content spans multiple disciplines, covering biology, geography and science. Zhao Ziming, an analyst at the internet consultancy Analysys International in Beijing states:

“VR technology has great potential in education, especially in scientific experiments, many schools cannot offer students appropriate facilities for learning. VR can help solve the problem by offering immersive digital experience and enriching class activities.”

Data on the use of VR in secondary schools globally is limited but the steady growth of this technology in education is shown in the rapid increase of companies like zSpace, Alchemy VR and Immersive VR Education dedicated to providing schools with curricula, content and tools to support VR­-based learning in the classroom suggest it is an area of educational technology on the rise. 

As a science teacher, I have seen the slow development of VR­-based learning applications in science with learning opportunities notably enhanced through interaction with abstract concepts in the form of three-dimensional objects and this is the subject where most early applications have been developed.

However, many other subjects are now using VR tools to collaboratively construct learning. As an example of historical recreations like that of the Gallipoli landing has been recreated virtually by students through Minecraft.

One of the drivers in implementing VR in the classroom in China has been the diminishing cost of virtual reality headsets. While dedicated headsets such as the Oculus Rift are the most obvious examples of ways to enjoy VR, these require input from a PC.

Therefore, what will provide the greatest impetus to the use of VR in China are smartphone headsets. Affordable to the mass market, these convert a mobile device into a virtual reality experience.

The development of smartphone headsets has seen the price of VR hardware steadily declining, this is illustrated in the head­-mounted displays commercially available today: Google Cardboard for $NZ20 and Samsung Gear VR for $NZ99. Additionally, Google has launched Pioneer Expeditions that has allowed thousands of schools around the world to take their classes on a virtual trip independent of the location, wealth or social position of their students. Even now, a major Chinese producer Xiaomi is preparing to release its own.

With smartphone penetration rate growing rapidly in China (China sold 457 million smartphones in 2015, up 17.7% year on year), smart phone friendly VR technology is already developing a huge market for education-focused content.

Virtual reality creates a medium that can provide immersive education across China’s expansive geography, reaching regions which otherwise would not benefit from high-level teaching. VR can provide remote tutorials, in-depth immersion in geographical locations, or teach students how to understand complicated scientific principles. One major advantage is that physical teaching can transmit from any corner of the globe, meaning that China can have access to the world or vice versa through the simple medium of VR mobile based hardware. 

So will this global distribution of VR content and access create a pedagogical shift as these new technologies allow an English teacher in a township of Pretoria to “take” her students to Verona to look at the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, or a history teacher in a favela in San Paulo to “bring” her Ancient Civilizations class to the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza?

Only time will tell, but one utopian application of this technology could be seen in terms of bridging cultures and fostering understanding among students, as it will soon be possible for a year 10 class in the NZ to participate in a virtual trip with a year 10 class in China in real time.

At present, VR use should be increasing in education due to factors like improving bandwidth in schools, devices falling in cost and improving lesson plans incorporating VR working in schools.  Unfortunately, there remain few initiatives to train or support teachers to incorporate virtual reality into student lessons in meaningful ways. So it is still uncertain that implementation could be done at scale.

The potential of virtual reality to engage students is as intriguing as ever, but it’s also not the first time we’ve heard the hype. So now is it time to seize the day?