Virtual Reality has become very popular in the 2010s, and it is rapidly evolving. From playing a video game to receiving a learning experience, Virtual Reality can be very impactful and an enjoyable experience for students!
This image displays young students using Virtual Reality in class.
The Benefits of VR in Education
I found this article which provides a lot of information on how VR can benefit in education.
Enhancing Student Engagement
Boosting Knowledge Retention
Improving Student Learning Outcomes
Developing Collaboration and Social Skills
Building Empathy
Supporting SEND Learning
Within this article, each topic goes more in depth on how each of these points help students learn.
Final Thoughts
I think Virtual Reality is a great resource for education. Students gain many great skills, not only for the classroom, but skills they will use for the rest of their lives. A point that stuck out to me the most was “Developing Collaboration and Social Skills.” By introducing these skills early on in education, it gives the students more confidence within the school environment and being comfortable starting conversations. Finding out that VR can help students learn those specific and important skills made me more interested because it is very crucial to learn at a young age.
Unfortunately, Virtual Reality headsets tend to be very expensive. It is uncommon to see these in a classroom due to some of the school district’s budgets. Although this is an unlucky occurrence, I hope in the future some districts make this a priority and see how much these devices can help their students learn!
This is my article about WordReader and how it’s changing the way kids read.
The WorldReader has become a best practice for students to learn and advance their reading skills using this piece of technology. It is an international device that expands literacy and promotes reading for children. The Worldreader received an award for being the 2023 Literacy Award in recognition of the work to get children to read and improve their literacy skills. It is a reading experience that improves reading comprehension, social-emotional, and digital reading skills for children between 3-12 years old. Children begin to learn to read and enjoy it when they use WorldReader. Rebecca Chandler, the CEO of WorldReader created this tool because she knows the importance of reading to assist in the development of a child’s brain function and how it will help them grow and learn in the modern world. Combining a fun and vital asset to children in today’s world will change the way future generations learn and retain information.
Augmented Reality, or AR, is a technology that enhances an individual’s experiences in the real world with an added virtual overlay. Unlike Virtual Reality, you are not fully immersing yourself into a virtual world; rather, AR technology imprints a virtual world upon the real world. This is an increasingly popular technology, with such programs as AR Games on the Nintendo 3DS and mobile game Pokémon Go being some of the most popular games to utilize augmented reality. However, AR may have the potential to enhance students’ educational progress as well.
User CybTekk posted a comprehensive thread on X (formerly Twitter) outlining the potential upsides of augmented reality within education. This user argues that AR would allow for the classroom experience to be more immersive, with such examples as “history com[ing] to life” and “virtual labs enhanc[ing] science classes,” and that with AR, students would be able to virtually connect with the rest of the world, and take virtual, augmented reality trips to various places in the world to learn about them, all without having to leave the classroom. Plus, the article mentions how 80% of businesses use AR, and that learning how to use it early may be a valuable tool in the job market of tomorrow.
Unfortunately, there is no mention of current AR tools in use within the educational field currently. However, the potential benefits of using AR for education are not to be overlooked. The idea of allowing students to be immersed into what they are learning, rather than learning at a distance, is an exciting idea for innovation within education. I like the ideas put forth by this user, and hope that the idea and application of using AR within education is one that continues to grow traction, as it very well may be a big part of the future of educational technology.
One of the things kids have a difficult time with when learning to use computers is remembering their login password and how to use a keyboard. This is especially difficult for them when they are also learning the alphabet since they might not know how to quickly find letters or numbers on a keyboard.
It is harder for kids to learn how to type faster when they are not used to using a keyboard and not used to the letters and numbers that are positioned on it.
However I found this article that makes it easier for kids to remember their login password and teaches them how to use a keyboard.
Kids can learn how to login and use a keyboard by the corresponding colors that relates to a number or letter on the row it is in.
Some benefits of using this login color key:
Saves kids time when logging in
Teaches them how to use a keyboard
Gets rid of putting tape on keyboard
Uses color to make it more appealing to kids
I think this is a wonderful idea to make kids more comfortable with using technology and providing them an easier way to learn how to use a keyboard, remember the alphabet and learn how to login all at the same time!
Although ChatGPT is not the first of its kind, it brought a lot of attention to AI. Specifically the education world had all of their eyes locked on it. AI has caused a lot of debates for all kinds of people in many fields. This article dives deeper into the issues and some benefits AI can bring up. Research was done also for this topic and article.
The issue
ChatGPT is very new. It was only released towards the end of 2022 and has only helped spawn other similar applications. It almost immediately brought concern to educators. The very first concern was that cheating was easily accessible to students.
The AI could write university-level essays
Pass “some” exams
The attempts from AI were “largely indistinguishable” from an actual student
This image shows the AI asking for as much information to give a well written essay.
Are students actually using AI?
This article conduced research on Australian academics and Australian university students.
110 people in the study
78 Students
32 Academics
Almost half of the people have not even tried to use any generative AI
From this half, 85% planned on not using this type of technology at their university for this coming school year.
These students who are not using AI really do feel that it would be considered cheating if they were to use and rely on it for their classes.
Cheating is a major topic for students when discussing using AI technology. Academic honesty is a big discussion for professors on the first day of classes in university. If caught cheating it could lead to failing and potentially being kicked out of your school. Since ChatGPT and similar applications are still so fresh, the rules for using it really varies on the professor you have. Right now students feel it is better to not use it all together to avoid any issues with potential cheating.
The study done also had written responses submitted. Another worry that many students shared is the actual information provided from the AI. They are not sure how reliable the content is. Just because a computer application is telling you something, it is important to remember that it can be wrong also.
AI is a tool
New things are always scary. It is important to look at the cons, but recognizing the benefits is just as important. The other half of students and everyone a part of the study that do use AI, made great point in favor of ChatGPT.
Used to help brainstorm ideas
Almost like having a “partner”: the interactive nature of the programs are very useful
leads to more efficient with your time and energy
Manage stress levels for students
The future?
The divide about using AI for assessment is not clear cut. 46% agree in using it, 36% disagree, and 16% are unsure. This is expected as it is so new and still so much to be learned. Not even half of the top 500 universities in the world have a clear statement about the use of ChatGPT at their university.
This topic and debate will only get bigger as the years go on. Not only that, answers will get clearer about the use. It is all about working together and finding what works best for students and how to make sure they are learning. Just copying, pasting, and cheating will not do students any good. They will not learn what they need. Teachers and professors may also benefit from AI use.
As the use of podcasts has become more popular, integrating the listening of a podcast into a class lesson could be extremely beneficial. Some students share that by listening to the audio and following along with the words actually keeps them engages, reducing the amount of zoning out. Additionally, podcasts aid in learning language through listening comprehension, which is a key component to a child “decoding” a conversation.
This article gives educators ideas of how to integrate technology into their classrooms. Technology is constantly evolving, and it is important as educators to keep up with the rapid industry. Many of us have already seen technology taking over classrooms. For example, many teachers use online study games in their classrooms to help their students understand material. Some of these online learning tools include Kahoot and Quizlet, which may sound familiar.
After the pandemic, many teachers have used technology to make learning easier and more efficient. We can see this with certain applications such as GoogleClassroom, BlackBoard, PowerSchool, Canvas, etc. Some may say that technology can be detrimental to students’ learning, but I disagree. Implementing technology into your learning curriculum could be extremely beneficial to your students as they pick up new skills and learn to easily adapt to new changes (tech world is constantly changing and evolving).
Despite some of the hate that using technology in classrooms may get, it makes learning 10x more efficient. Teachers are able to better prepare for their lessons with tools such as PowerPoints, engaging games, videos to show their students, etc. Majority of students use technology in their free time (phones and laptops) so using these things to your advantage could help keep your students be better engaged and enhance their understanding of the material. The culture that older teachers grew up in is vastly different from the culture that students in today’s world are growing up in. It is important for teachers to keep up with the new cultures because it could help them better connect with their students, and teach them in ways that they would be more motivated to learn in. Like everything, using technology to teach has its downsides such as certain applications not working correctly, internet not connecting, students being more susceptible to cheating, but the advantages that technology provides are far greater than these disadvantages. Students today are gaining skills in their youth that most professionals did not gain until later on in their careers/education. Technology in classrooms is just getting started and is just going to continue, so it is best that teachers learn to use it to their advantage as well as come up with strategies to reduce the disadvantages (such as cheating).
People hear video games and automatically think it is a bad thing. Sure, kids can play too much, causing them to lack time spent outside and with others, but what people don’t mention are the benefits they can have on cognitive development.
The study revealed that children that played for at least 21 hours weekly displayed “enhanced cognitive performance”, compared to the children who did not.
The University of Vermont confirmed that their study on 9 year old to 10 year old children had shown that the children who played video games performed better on cognitive tests, than the kids who did not play video games. These tests were on the children’s response inhibition and their working memory. These tests also changed their blood oxygen level- dependent signal during these tasks. They believed this study to be the “largest study to assess the association among video gaming, cognition, and brain function”. Researchers say that, “video gaming may provide a cognitive training experience with measurable neuro-cognitive effects”.
There are many different types of video games, though this study did not look into the specific types of games the subjects were playing. Video games can range from lifestyle and cartoon games to war games, all of which would shape the person playing differently. This study did not examine the effects on mental health that video games can have, just the effects on the subjects cognitive development.
I personally believe that video games can be super fun and beneficial for young learners. Video games require children to react fast and problem-solve. All of which benefit their overall cognitive development. I think letting your child play video games for some time, not too much, can actually do great things for the child and their brain. People often look at the negative effects of video games, but it is about time they start looking towards the positive.
