VR has a role to play in modernising the classroom, moving away from the 1800s model to something that is more accessible to students everywhere. Vicarious learning matters, however, as we often learn from watching others and interacting with our peers. The field trip is in fact the perfect metaphor for VR learning. You don’t go on field trips every day, they are designed to augment the classroom, not replace it. VR should do the same. So while there is an argument to be made for slow, steady, and considered integration of this new and powerful technology into the classroom, how is this to be achieved without jeopardizing the benefits afforded by structured, in-class learning? Is it possible to achieve the best of both worlds, as in the vision set out in Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One?
This was the topic up for discussion during my second panel at the Global Educations and Skills Forum in Dubai last weekend, which you can watch below.
SPEAKERS
- Kate Russell, chair
- Elise Ogle, Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab
- Paul Turnbull, Mid-Pacific Institute
- Glenn Lee, Global Teacher Prize top 10 finalist
- Jakki Bailey, The University of Texas at Austin (Virtual participant)
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