Why VR and AR in the Classroom? How Do Students Help?
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CC-BY, Lidia Ristea
Why VR and AR in the classroom? How do students help?
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated 3D environment that allows students to explore and interact with a virtual environment in a way that approximates reality.
Digital tools created with VR technologies, such as 3D learning environments, allow students to understand deep theoretical concepts.
The gamification of concepts can completely change the way a student learns, and the implementation of virtual reality in classrooms can allow students to see different concepts unfold with their own eyes. Students can interact with different aspects of the virtual world, helping them to learn and understand more beyond the written word.
Virtual reality is a great benefit for education because VR applications can be used to create virtual tours of the inside and outside of museums and other historical and touristic sites that can be viewed from home at any time, as was the case during the pandemic when many visits were prohibited.
The biggest benefit of using VR in education is the understanding of STEM subjects; concepts that are too abstract can be made attractive through virtual reality.
Concepts that are difficult to understand by reading texts can come to life in virtual environments and students can be more interested and able to learn through virtual experiments.
VR promotes active learning through immersive experiences in virtual environments, helping students TO hone their problem-solving skills.
Virtual Reality is beneficial for students with special educational needs by creating new opportunities and opening up access to theoretical and practical notions.
One of the most widely used VR applications is CoSpaces for mobile phones, but also as an online application.
Learning activities with CoSpaces
Application model
CC-BY, Lidia Ristea
Game development, historical recreations, scientific models, art exhibitions, infographics, literary interpretations, deepening language learning.
An example of a cross-curricular lesson: Transforming the classroom with place-based virtual learning – students can create a virtual representation of an urban area, presenting sustainability and food security and reflecting the social history of the area.
CoSpaces can be used to create cross-curricular projects where students can learn about the history and geography of a geographical area in English, create escape rooms and apply the knowledge acquired to a contemporary challenge in a local context.
Augmented Reality (AR) is an enhanced version of the real physical world made using digital images, sounds or other sensory stimuli and delivered through technology.
A primary goal of augmented reality is to highlight specific features of the physical world, increase understanding of these features, and provide intelligent and accessible insights that can be applied to real-world applications.
The benefits of augmented reality can also be extended to healthcare, where it can play a much more important role by allowing users to see highly detailed 3D images of various body systems when they hover their mobile device over a target image.
This use of AR can become a powerful learning tool for training professionals in the medical, architectural and other fields.
In education, AR helps students easily access, process and remember information, and makes learning more engaging and fun because it can be used at all levels of education, from pre-school to college or even the workplace.
One of the most widely used online applications is CleverBooks, based on Augmented Reality, where you can create interactive lessons that make connections between different subjects and have a great impact on students.
The CleverBooks app is based on a set of scanned flashcards that allow users to view 3D representations of the main characters in the lesson. Students can see the characters’ actions and use the app’s features to rotate, zoom and more. The application also provides specific information about each character.
For example, with the Android application Clever Books for Geometry, students can recognise regular and irregular shapes, as well as compare polygons (2D) and solids (3D) through associations with various real-life objects. They will identify types of polygons such as: square, rectangle, circle, triangle, hexagon, and will calculate their areas and perimeters.
Then there is CleverBooks for Geography, where students can see and identify species of plants, animals and mammals, and then verify their choices by searching for information on the internet.
Resources can be used from the internal library or lessons can be created in the ARC Geometry or Geography applications and students can join using a class code or login link.
The Geometry and Geography markers must be printed in advance to be used on mobile devices.
Tests can be created where students can select the correct answer with questions such as:
Identify the properties of 2D shapes.
Identify the 3D shapes that have the same number of edges and faces.
Select which of the presented images are 2D shapes.
Select which of the following images are 3D shapes.
Students can make recordings during tests or lessons and create video material.
The use of AR can improve the ability to collaborate, as Augmented Reality applications offer vast opportunities to diversify and change courses that may be boring for some students. Interactive lessons, where all students are involved in the learning process at the same time, help to improve teamwork skills.
Teachers can make the curriculum more engaging by using Augmented Reality or mixed reality. Interactive experiences will help students maintain focus and improve motivation. Student results can be improved by using AR and VR in the classroom, working with stories and puzzles.
A major advantage of Augmented Reality is the graphic representation of concepts, thanks to which students can learn more easily and not forget the visual information.
For example, an Augmented Reality app can make learning chemistry fun by allowing users to find atomic weights, chemical elements and visualise the reaction between two chemicals, as well as explore the environment and relief shapes to learn about natural phenomena, where the student can be directly involved in these processes, which can lead to the development of the educational act.
About the author
Lidia is a Computer Science and ICT teacher. She has been working in education for 27 years.
Throughout this period, she coordinated many national and international projects in which she involved the students to train them in the use of many digital tools.
She was a Go-Lab ambassador (2015-2019), and now she is a Scientix Ambassador since 2016, a Leading Teacher Code Week since 2020 and a Board Member in European Network of STEAM Educators since 2020.
Her professional interest is to inform and train teachers in the application of digital resources in the classroom, participation in the implementation of Code Week activities, in projects supported and promoted on the Scientix platform.
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