Young people are naturally inquisitive. They really don’t need to be told to explore, to question, or to acquire knowledge, but they do need to be provided environments and tools that allow them to enjoy the journey. Virtual reality is a tool with the ability to provide educational experiences in environments that were previous inaccessible.

Immersive education through VR allows students to be more engaged with academic content, allowing them to retain information more easily. It also causes them to think about things from a different perspective than previously considered.

Rather than looking at an image of the human body, for example, or even seeing a model of how the heart works, virtual reality allows students to go into the heart. They can see an atom split – not by looking at a picture in a book or watching a video, but by going into the atom virtually. Students can explore caves, animal habitats, space, and even events that occurred in the past – as if they’re really there.

When I think about the potential for virtual reality, I envision new art forms, scientific exploration, advances in medicine, and the ability to experience past events or cultures (virtually). I envision people who “think outside the box” because we have a new “box”! We can literally do things that have never before been possible for humankind.

Advances in digital technology over the past 60 years have changed the world. Virtual reality actually gives us the ability to create new worlds. We could choose to ignore the possibilities or we can embrace the potential and discover amazing results we hadn’t previously considered.

Options for VR in Education

Virtual Field Trips: Virtual Field Trips enable people to visit everything from the ruins of Mesa Verde to the Louvre. They can even tour the International Space Station and walk on the moon. Students from all areas of the globe have access to buildings, historic sites and other locations most of them would never realistically be able to visit in real life.

Language Immersion: Immersion has always been the best way to learn a foreign language, but not all students have access to environments such immersive schools or a semester abroad. In VR, students can interact with native speakers in a virtual world where they also have the added benefit of body language. The student is more likely to retain the information learned because it’s interactive. If interaction with a real person makes them nervous, they can start with programs that provide the sense of realism and immersion with animated computer characters.

Collaborative Learning: Part of the reason group play is important during childhood is because children thrive when they’re collaborating with others. Imagine students being able to work together on a space station, participate in a cattle round-up, or navigate a ship through pirate-infested waters of the late 1600s. Virtual reality enables students – each with specific responsibilities during the mission or assignment – to collaborate in a group environment that encourages practice, repetition, and fun – all of which help retention.

Immersive Learning: If you’re familiar with the popular children’s series The Magic School Bus, then you know how thrilling it was for the kids to learn about bees, the human body, the solar system, and everything else by becoming part of the experience. With virtual reality, we can enter the hive, flow through the digestive system, travel around the solar system, etc. It’s possible to immerse ourselves in any environment and quite honestly, humans learn best through connection – to others and to the environment. Active participation makes learning more enjoyable, creates greater engagement, and produces higher retention rates.

Empathy Training: Although computers, smart phones, the internet, etc. have brought us closer in some ways, these things have torn us apart in other ways. People use those same amazing tools to bully and harass others – tearing them down in unimaginable ways. Virtual reality effectively brings humanness back to technology and empathy training can reach young people raised in the Information Age. It’s much more difficult to bully someone when they’re seen as a real person rather than some pixels on the internet. Empathy training can also be used to share the experiences of an older person with degenerative eye disease, walk in the steps of a refuge, combat bullying (this amateur video was created by high school students), or help people understand autism.

Homebound Learning: Students can be put on homebound education for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they’re injured or sick and cannot attend school. Occasionally they are ordered to finish out the school year at home because they’ve been disruptive in the traditional environment. Homebound learning is not the same thing as home education. Typically homebound students are assigned a public school teacher who comes to the home to help with assignments and the student does most of his or her work independently. VR could help in this situation because teachers could communicate with homebound students in a virtual classroom.

Life Skills Training: This could range from practice for college or job interviews to cooking, sewing, public speaking, etc.. Immersive training in virtual environments can be a huge asset for students as they transition from high school to college, job, or full-time family life.

Driver Training: Most high schools offer some sort of driver’s education course. It would be financially beneficial (lower insurance costs, vehicle maintenance, etc.) if students were first trained in virtual environments. They would have an array of vehicles in which to train; driving scenarios could be simulated; students could even practice how to respond in the event of an accident. Among other safety simulations, students could have realistic immersive scenarios that allow them to understand the dangers of texting and driving.

Home Education: Obviously students who learn at home can use all the ideas listed here, but there are other benefits. Most people who have concerns about homeschoolers always bring up the question of socialization. Although most homeschoolers are in fact incredibly well-socialized, some students struggle with communication the same as students in every other educational setting. Social VR can help them overcome social anxieties. Parents can also use virtual reality to integrate various training you see mentioned here (field trips, life skills, job training, etc.) and academic studies (visiting history sites, exploring scientific or mathematical concepts, etc.).

Vocational Training: Many high schools offer training for select trades – cosmetology, plumbing, auto repair, woodshop, and others. Some students genuinely have no interest in college or they they have a talent that can be better suited to vocational training rather than a college degree accompanied by thousands of dollars of debt. Vocational training can prepare students and make them job-ready upon graduation. This is more easily achieved when they have immersive experience that could be obtained through virtual reality.

Other Advanced Training: It’s expensive to train new workers and employers frequently don’t want to invest the time or money necessary for training since many employees decide to leave. When students receive immersive training in virtual reality, they can learn advanced skills and also have a better understanding about whether or not they actually want to pursue that particular career.

Many students wait for years to learn skills in fields that are considered too dangerous or costly to integrate in traditional educational settings. In virtual reality, they can learn in realistic scenarios and even repeat the training as much as they want without increasing cost or risking safety. Job training in VR ultimately results in higher skilled workers with some prior (virtual) experience.

Greater Accessibility for Students with Special Needs: VR makes the world more accessible for all students, but this is especially pertinent for students who struggle with physical, intellectual or mental disabilities. VR can make children who have never walked feel like they are running or riding bicycles. It can help people with autism and other disorders community more openly. It levels the playing field for students who have always felt different due to looks, grades, or whatever. Virtual reality gives young learners an opportunity to enjoy an environment where they can interact with others without prejudice.

College Tours: High school students can now visit college campuses and take virtual tours.

Art and Design: Programs like Google’s Tilt Brush and Facebook’s Quill open new realms for art and design. Illustrators, designers, sculptors, or artists from any genre can create freely in the virtual environment. Students interested in architecture, design, and engineering can access numerous tools to help them design and then build in virtual environments.

Distance Learning: Students can have access to guest speakers, attend virtual lectures, and experience training with professors around the globe. Distance learning in VR would provide students with direct access to instructors in virtual environments.

Cultural Diversity: Virtual reality allows people to visit other countries, try new experiences, and meet people different from themselves. Virtual social environments enable people from all different backgrounds to fellowship in an area of common interest. VR allows us to meet people of different races, religions, gender, socioeconomic status, etc. and the things that typically tear us apart are cast aside in the headset. I always joke that it’s easier to make friends in VR because no one cares what you look like, where you’re from, how much money you have, etc. Although we still strive for progress against prejudice, VR does allow for terrific cultural diversity and most people find hope in the diversity found within virtual environments.

VR Helps Teens Engage in the World

We have a generation of young people who have literally grown up using digital technology. Their noses are frequently stuck in a cell phone, looking at a tablet, reading a digital book, or otherwise digitally engaged – sometimes to the dismay of the people present in the physical environment because teens are frequently disengaged from the world around them.

Many people are going to ask how virtual reality is going to make this problem better rather than worse. For one thing, I would argue that much of digital technology is passive. It entertains us. It informs us. We expect it to do something for us. While this sometimes be true, for the most part programs in virtual reality require active participation rather than passive observation. Virtual reality requires that the person once again become engaged with their surroundings. VR actually recognizes the real world – and reminds teens that it’s worth exploring.

Conclusion

The potential benefits of virtual reality in education are endless and I couldn’t possibly detail all the ways this technology could be utilized.

Sometimes I read articles that point out the fact that Silicon Valley executives send their children to Waldorf or Montessori schools and follow educational methods that focus on learner-centered approaches. Rather than forcing children to learn within a certain model, where they’re expected to achieve pre-determined milestones or risk being labeled a failure, learner-centered education allows children to develop naturally. They achieve milestones, develop skills, and discover talents at their own pace – and they enjoy the process.

Virtual reality actually allows this type of learning. Not everyone has access to a safe neighborhood or a Montessori-type school, but we could give everyone access to the world with virtual reality. We could give them the freedom to pursue individual interests and have hands-on experiences that wouldn’t even be possible in a physical school.

Needless to say, we would be wise to embrace the concept that perhaps we see only a glimpse of the future. It’s possible that virtual reality combines the best of worlds in regards to education. We can use the technology as a tool, but then we basically we just need to step back and allow students to express things that come naturally to them – curiosity, creativity, enthusiasm, imagination, resourcefulness, etc. In other words, we need to leave them alone and let them show us how to learn.