Virtual Reality is changing the education system globally

With the widespread popularity of games like POKEMON GO, virtual reality has become the center of attraction for many. With almost 20 million users and more than U.S Dollars 5.7 million spent it will be an understatement if said that VR is not changing the world or more evidently ruling it. According to estimation within the next several years, growth in VR will surely surpass smartphone technology. VR allows for high impact learning experiences with affordability. With high impact learning methodologies and infusion of pocket-friendly processes and gadgets, virtual reality is becoming the most promising change in the learning environment that can be created by most of the colleges/schools/institutes. This has the great potential to rule our classrooms in the future.

Virtual reality or VR is the technological front which uses a computer or other devices to create a stimulating environment so that the user can have the inside it type of feeling, instead of watching the screen in the front VR completely change the user experience to immerse and interact with a 3D world. It focuses on stimulating each and every sense of human body such as hearing, smell, hearing, and touch, it is completely an artificial unreal world but which seems real based on the detailed information collected.

A recent update in the virtual reality domain is in the use of immediately recognizing component which is head-mounted display or HMD, the biggest difference between the virtual reality system and the traditional interface usage is the immersing stimulation of the visual details human senses and eyes produce in combination with each other. For example, the CAVE automatic system of the virtual environment is based on actively showing the content in the screen of room sizes.

In the current scenario, virtual reality is using either the reality headsets or glasses to create a multi-project environment which has the power to generate realistic images as well as sounds to trigger other sensation and stimulates user physical presence to introduce into the virtual environment. A user is able to enter the virtual worlds, have interaction with the device’s features and move around. The basic functioning is based on the auditory and sensory reflex and their transmission in the brain. Today the virtual reality is being used in the medical sciences, flight simulation, military training, automobile industry, etc. even the world famous jet propulsion laboratory of NASA is using VR for its tour in the space in training modules. The implication of automated machine learning is quite similar to virtual reality where the realm is touching new limits every day.

How VR is becoming essential in education

Education is the base of working of any society. It is the transformation one can go through on the journey from beginning to end. On top of all, it makes a person more civilized and opens up the gates for future challenges. With the era of digital advancement, people are finding various ways to make the education system more strengthening as students can be able to grasp things more easily, quickly and effectively. With many introductions of experiments and technological opportunities, virtual reality can offer to educational system it enables the better learning system and evolution of education in a positive direction. In this article, we will try to understand how virtual reality is changing the education system.

Educators are becoming well versed with the change all other industries are also feeling. The positive impact is moving forward from the classroom experiences of four walls. Rather from kindergarten to middle school and colleges to professional courses virtual reality is giving the power of research with a combination of high impact imaginative experiences. This increases the retention power as well as the outcome in terms of understanding and learning. Unfortunately, these kinds of programs are not regularly used in institutions as they required a large amount of money and extra workforce, but with the recent developments in the field of virtual reality has made the introduction of high speed streaming actual visualization studies are made possible.

From taking the tour of students to rainforests of the Amazon to the great wall of China, micro exploration of every aspect of math, science, history, and geography is possible that can shape up the understanding procedure for the students. The rate of interest and capacity of students are much higher when compared to old school conventional method of teaching. This is surely changing the face of in-class lectures and classes. Now history students can explore the great Mayan tribe and their excavation sites in the most versatile 3-d VR screens and on the other hand biology students can see the structure of the heart and blood pumping arteries on the same screen. Not only for school students but it supports the tough and rigid training modules of many professional courses like medicine and engineering and helps in the development of the relevant practical skills in any field. Imagine just knock on the door of the library and wear the VR glasses and start exploring the virtual transformation experience to enhance all your perception and thinking ability, and off-course questioning power also.

Best practices of VR in education

As we can feel that many institutes are welcoming this change in the technology with open arms, the potential change in the educational revolution is on the way already. But before introducing any new technology it becomes must to thoroughly try and test it first and determine what the best practices to follow are? Find out the most meaningful application and same goes with the virtual reality.

Google expedition is the latest addition to this league which provides expedition library of the field trips of various geographical location present for the regular smartphone, the project was extremely successful among thousands of school where Google is taking more than a million students in 11 countries on this journey of VR app. Teachers can take their students all around the globe anywhere from mars to the Statue of Liberty.

Enhancing the learning experience

Science is one of the places where new engineers are born who further develop future technology, in these labs only they understand the basic functioning and concepts of science. Virtual reality gives the power to these labs to scale up and make the whole learning procedure more dynamic and engaging. A cost-effective pocket-friendly small device can uplift the understanding of even complex subjects as an easier business. Also, w must understand that people learn the best from what they do, moreover in the modern education system much focus is given on the actual experiences rather than theoretical influences. But sadly still in most part of the system, more students are focused on just manual readings rather than understanding the concepts, in such case, virtual reality can provide the anchoring power to them to discover, learn and inspire to be prepared for the opportunities in a better sense. Students who learn through the VR system are more inspired to discover things rather than just making things work superficially. not only for the content re-imagination but VR is also proving its worth for the exploration of the creativity of the individuals by giving the young budding artist the power of tools like tilt brush where they can interact with their own creation. The recent example is the 3D painting scale VR app by Google.

A ray of hope

Virtual reality can prove very beneficial for the group of learner who is more visual explorer rather than pre-decided text, like children with dyslexia and autism where learning pattern needs to continuously change and updating and explanatory in nature. The whole concept and mechanism of visualizing complex functionality allow easier comprehensive learning. With all the points described, we can say that VR is becoming the doorstep to the educational revolution and in the 21st century, much will be moving beyond just books and boring lectures. We will enter into the technologically advanced phase of learning where exploring every micro-detail with interesting reconstruction would be the prime focus. This will inspire the whole generation of young budding engineers, doctors, artists, explorers to understand what they actually want to innovate to change the face of the world continuously.

But we cannot forget that along with these teachers has to evolve too continuously for the apt decision making and open perceiving attitude to accept these changes inside their classrooms. The whole aim of this technological update is to make education more available, compatible, affordable to everyone out there even with geographical restrictions.

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