Using virtual reality technology inside of the classroom allows learning to expand outside of the four walls of the classroom while promoting curiosity, wonder, and engagement to students. Virtual reality headsets retail from anywhere between $10 to the high hundreds, made out of anything from cardboard to durable high tech intricate designs, depending on what kind of experience you’re seeking. If you’re looking for the cheapest alternative, you can make your own from household materials that’ll be compatible with your smartphone by following this video.
A great free application for smartphone virtual reality to use in the classroom is Google Expeditions. This application allows students to take a trip out of the classroom without leaving the classroom. All you have to do is choose where you want to go on the globe, and the app takes you. From there you’re able to explore on your own through a serious of 360-degree scenes. Additionally, you’re able to bring 3D images to life wherever you are. This could be a really awesome feature for science classes, bringing larger science experiments to life through the use of virtual reality. The exploration feature could be a great addition to history classrooms, revisiting historical sights that may be too far for a field trip. This video provides a tutorial for how to use Google Expeditions as a teacher.
For my freshman seminar at the beginning of my college experience, I took an instructional technology course and we had an entire unit based on virtual reality and augmented reality. Our professor introduced the unit to us by bringing in headsets for us to play with and allowing us to explore games, videos, and other apps on our own. We were then encouraged to download the Ikea shopping app that offers a feature where you can use virtual reality to place furniture in rooms of your own house to see how it looks before purchasing it. Our professor used the Ikea app to demonstrate that virtual reality can be useful in many scenarios.