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.
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).
How can you use VR and AR in the classroom? Virtual Reality engages multiple senses, sight, touch, hearing, and sometimes smell! In the classroom, you are not just observing material but actually being part of it. You can explore the world and visit different locations. There are virtual field trips that you could take your students on to let them explore different areas, you could check out interactive simulators to see how earthquakes affect the land and structures around them. Another example of using virtual reality in the classroom is learning about the anatomy of humans, their organs, and bones and dissecting animals as well. All of these tools give students a greater understanding and a closer look at how things work.
Virtual Reality in the Classroom.
Augmented Reality is digitizing classroom learning. It takes what you have and enhances it. For example, it can take your drawing and make it come to life. It doesn’t require any new materials. It can be accessed with your own computer and materials.
Augmented Reality in the Classroom. A frog dissection.
Now that we know a little about them how can vr and ar contribute to possible successful global collaborations or meet a global goal? When I think about global goals I know that they are big goals but with lots of people all working together collaboratively they can be met. With the use of vr and ar tools we can get even more people involved and aware of what the global goals are. What are the steps to get there? With the help of the Oculus you can download an experience called Pollinator Park. This would relate to SDG 2: Zero Hunger. Pollinator Park shows what our world would look like without pollinators. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “Pollinators help ensure the world eats. Scientists estimate that about 75% of the world’s flowering plants and about 35% of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to produce. While more than 3,500 species of native bees help increase crop yields, pollinators include many more species than just bees. Flowers can be pollinated by both insects and animals – such as bees, wasps, moths, flies, butterflies, birds and even small mammals such as bats. Despite their importance, many pollinators are declining in numbers, posing a threat not only to the world’s ecosystems but to global food security as well.” Showing how this is important can help students want to be involved at home and in school.
Experiences like Pollinator Park are numerous. There are ones that focus on other sustainable global goals as well. I looked for the ones that focused on SDG 2 as that was what I focused on this semester. Another VR experience that stood out to me was Cooking Simulator. Unlike Pollinator Park, this experience is not free. What I did like about this is that it helps you learn how to cook the food that you are growing, teaching the basic cooking mechanics like slicing and learning cooking temperatures which are lifelong skills to have.
As a future educator learning about VR and AR, I’m excited to see how I can use this in my future classroom. In my local school, we don’t have VR tools for students or the budget for them but to get that would be amazing. Hearing that the AR features don’t cost extra and use what you have is exciting and I want to see how I can incorporate that.
Traveling the world can be added into a lot of global goals to improve the learning experience; with the assistance of VR traversing the world becomes easy. Exposure to more parts of the world can dramatically help with education towards SDG 14, Life Below Water. VR and its ability to connect with and tour areas of the world without having to go there physically allows for a more interactive and immersive learning experience.
Thanks to computers and advancements in technology we are able to connect with people through applications like Skype and through this we can talk with experts from around the world and connect with different communities. The ability to connect to others also allows for a greater number of people working towards one goal.
There are resources for educating those on Global Goals and they provide a lot of good information in the forms of videos, PDFs, and classroom activities, however, I think that VR can greatly improve the learning experience of SDG 14 by putting people in the underwater world. By giving this experience we can see different species of marine life, ranging from animals to plants, and go on to learn about their importance. VR gives a more personal experience to learning in my opinion. Instead of students recalling that they looked at a fish, or cephalopod, or the coral reef, in a textbook, they can instead recall the time they were transported to the ocean and got to witness how these organisms lived.
Screen shot SDG educational website.
Youtube 360 Videos are a great way to implement learning about SDG 14 with VR. These videos allow the viewer to take control of what they are looking at. It is an incredible experience to spin around in the depths of the ocean. Thanks to the videographers and cameras used to capture the footage it feels like you are actually down in the waters exploring by yourself. A video I liked was, 360° Underwater National Park by National Geographic; this video explores the ocean, showing the coral and sea turtles around Buck Island, the first American protected marine monument.
Screenshot of Burk Island from the 360° Underwater National Park
Journey Into the Deep Sea – VR, is another video from national geographic that allows for 360° control as you learn about the Coral Reef and its importance to the ocean ecosystem. The video talks about the Coral Bleeching that happened in 2016 and emphasizes how important the Reef is and how protecting the ocean is a global movement.
Screenshot from Journey into the Deep Sea – VR.
Another Video that I liked was Swimming with Giants 360. This video from, the American Museum of Natural History, put you in the middle of the ocean and has a variety of animal swim by as you look around and follow where they go.
360° Sea Plastic is a video from, the Jetlagged – Ocean Films and Adventures, about ocean pollution. In it they talked about the fragile ocean ecosystem and how it was created to be perfectly balanced. Now the production of plastic has increased, causing an equal increase in plastic waste, that unfortunately, ends up in our water and that puts the ecosystem in danger. This video shines a light on the grim reality of the plastic problem and how we need to band together in order to make a difference. I think this video is great for showing a real problem the oceans and water ways face by putting the viewer in areas where the improper disposal of plastic waste is negatively impacting some communities.
Screenshot from 360° Sea Plastic
I found the National Marine Sanctuaries website while looking into VR technology and how it can be applied to teach about Ocean life. When you get to the website your able to select Education under the Learn tab. This leads to even more choices and gives resources to teachers and students. One in particular is a link to 360° virtual reality lessons.
Each of the six 360 video that are offered is around three to four minutes long. There are also 360 pictures that the website offers; these pictures are of different bays and coast and other areas of the ocean. They are not partnered with the lesson plans, but the images are beautiful, give small sentences to inform the viewer about what they are seeing, and worth checking out in my opinion. After watching the video and learning about different areas of the ocean or the animals that inhabit it, the lesson plan can be used. The lesson plan below is paired with a 360 video about sea lions. The lesson features discussions about the environment the animals live in, different plants in the area, and the different adaptations the animals needed to survive in the cold waters.
After learned about the sea lions and how they live in cold water student will participate in an experiment that demonstrates how insulation works. Using two jars on hot water, one will be insulated with materials that students brainstorm about using. After they come up with ideas and run their experiment, they given time to discuss their finding with their group and the class.
The three images above this one was of me navigating the website; all of them were screenshots. This image is the first page of the lesson plan.
The 360° videos offered on YouTube are amazing and I really loved my experience with them. I think they can add a lot to any educational experience by allowing learners to get closer to the topics at hand. The National Geographic YouTube channel has a lot of these 360° videos and the topics are varied. The National Marine Sanctuaries website took the 360 videos a step further by adding their own lesson plans and activities to give students and teachers and deeper understand of what they just watched. In an article from Structural Learning.com, they explain that VR in education offers students immersive environments to practices their skills in scenarios that are controlled. The use of VR also enhances the learning experience by increasing engagement and retention of information; this happens because the student is experiencing what they are learning about instead of hearing about it. The medium of VR and 360 videos also allow learners to be put into all types of situations, allowing for deeper emotional connections with the source material and developing empathy by taking someone else’s perspective. A perfect example of this is when I was watching the 360° Sea Plastic video. Beaches near me are pretty clean but, I was put into an area where they water ways were filled with trash and I was upset by what the plastic trash was doing to the environment. I’m personally looking forward to the watching 360 videos get better and better and seeing how they can be implemented to enhance education.
The Vatican is not only a home for the followers of the Roman Catholic church, it is also home to several historical Italian Renaissance pieces. It is within the frescos and statues of this holy building where artists conceptualized the complex ideals of this time period. Despite its location, these works best represent the interest in humanism founded in the High Renaissance, an understanding and appreciation of the needs and achievements of humans rather than just a divine power. Artists were commissioned to create works and paint on the walls of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, famously including Raphael and Michelangelo. Now these idealized, Greek-inspired forms are open to the public to see, but not everyone will have the opportunity to walk into a room and be consumed by the artist of some of the greatest Renaissance. However, the age of virtual reality and 360 degree cameras have solved this problem! Now with Musei Vaticani you can take a virtual tour of 14/26 museums within the Vatican in a 360 degree interactive tour and whatever you cannot see virtually, you can enjoy in a video from the same place!
Visit the four rooms of Raphael, painted from floor to ceiling in his fresco paintings. Even take a look at one of his most better known pieces, The School of Athens. Get up close, without the risk of chipping the old pigment, and examine how Raphael is able to capture the complexity of the High Renaissance by depicting some of the greatest philosophers, mathematicians, historians, theologists, and writers of his time and the consideration of the living and the spiritual.
Engulf yourself in the ceiling high frescos of the Sistine Chapel. Several works by several artists commissioned by the Popes of the era. The work in the chapel is meant to commemorate significant religious figures and events.You can even view the famous Sistine ceiling painted by Michelangelo where he illustrated 9 stories of the Genesis including TheCreation of Adam.
The New Wing displayed sculptures that were originally taken by Napoleon and in an effort to honor the artists and historical significance of these pieces, the entire wing was decorated with traditional tiles, architecture, and reliefs similar to those of the time period when these works were created. A majority of the statues present in the wing are replicas of Greek statues, who were big inspirations to Italians of the era, and emperors.
These halls are filled with ancient and classical collections of sculptures that were excavated, collected and or donated to the museum in an effort to restore and protect antique works of art of Italy. The halls are embellished with Neoclassical decorations overseen by several artists whose works are already displayed throughout the Vatican, including Michelangelo.
I could not find information on their website or much online about what is within the Salone Sistino, but to my understanding it is or was a library and possibly at one point the Pope’s private study that has been in and out of the public eye for several decades now. The virtual tour oddly did not load properly for me. Let me know if it worked for you in the comments below!
A collection of several items whether their origins are unknown, are from before the Roman era, or are not about religious topics. Essentially, this museum is about anything other than religion that is found to be important enough to conserve,
Pauline Halls is a chapel where the last two painted ever created by Michelangelo stand. The Conversion of Saul and The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, two frescos on opposite walls from each other.
This site is home to several Roman antiques like many of the other museums, but this museum is home to several busts used for funerals and as commissions of royalty, soldiers, and the wealthy.
Unlike other areas of the Vatican, this hall displayers terracotta works and decorations which suggest ancient Egyptian influence by artists from the 1700’s.
This chapel within the Vatican includes frescoes that depict the Stories of the Passion of Chirst commissioned to be painted by Italian artist Alessandro Vaiani and possibly alongside him was his daughter. Also includes paintings where the bases of the walls were made with leather, not as common of a practice at this time.
Again I could not find much information on the works and decorations in this hall, but I assume they are extensions of other rooms within the Vatican and are covered with frescoes by some of the several artists that have laid their hands on the walls of the Vatican.
Another room with Raphael’s touch, this room depicts several statues of Apostles and Saints whose appearances were clearly heavily Greek influenced, as expected. These paintings would be touched up by other artists in the 1500’s.
Overall, I think this is an amazing website and for the most part the virtual tours and videos are great quality and provide basic information about every collection that is viewable. You can even order tickets for guided virtual tools, so if that interests you make sure to click any of the links in this blog to get to the website and start your tour of the Vatican. I hope you will like it as much as I did!
SPOILERS WARNING: If you would like to watch Train to Busan before continuing to read this blog, follow the link HERE to watch on Youtube for free with ads. It is in Korean with English subtitles.
Actor Gong Yoo starring as Seok-wooActress Kim Su-an starring as Su-an
Train to Busan is a South Korean zombie horror film where the main protagonist Seok-woo, portrayed by actor Gong Yoo, is trying to reclaim the trust of his daughter while trying to lead her and survivors to safety during a virus outbreak. The title stems from the fact that Seok-woo and his daughter Su-an are taking a train to the city of Busan for Su-an’s birthday to go see her mother. Those infected with the virus have overrun many major cities and conveniently, the only city that has not been shut down by the military or overrun by zombies is Busan. Throughout their journey, each train and train car they enter continues to get overrun by the infected. They have to continuously fight their way through the trains, losing many survivors along the way and trying to survive until they reach Busan. It is a very intriguing film compared to many American zombie and/or horror films due to its unique conflict and its creative takes in regards to filming. I do not typically watch shows or movies that are not in English, not for any particular reason, it just never occurred to me. Therefore, I will be using Train to Busan and compare and contrast its story, character’s personalities and values, and cultural aspects to that of American films.
As mentioned, this movie takes place is Seoul, South Korea with their final destination being Busan. The map above shows more or less what the route they would have taken looks like when taking the KTX train. They even consider other cities on this map such as Daejeon as possible safe places. The route to Busan is approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes long, and the movie itself is almost two hours long. Unlike many American movies I have seen, especially American horror movies, these types of situations typically occur over the course of days. Gradual outbreaks. For the creators of this film to have the main conflict unfold over the course of only a few hours and having the film be about the length of the normal train ride to Busan, it really adds to the urgency and stressful atmosphere created in the film. That said, while the main setting of this film does take place within a train, they do make stops in train stations and pass through major cities along the way where every time they are surprised by the lack of people and then attacked by masses of the undead. This tells us not only how densely populated these cities are, but also how frequently train is used to travel from one city to the next. In each train they enter, or rather try to enter, they are bombarded by dozens of zombies in each train car and in the beginning of the film when they first get on the train before the outbreak occurs, the train was already packed with passengers and there were others waiting to get on. In America, while trains are available for travel, it is not a common form of travel and our railroad network is mainly used for freight trains. The New York City subway is definitely more likely to be packed similarly to this rather than a regular train even in a densely populated city.
Security is lacking on these trains. In the beginning of the film we see two people sneak onto the train. One is a girl who was just infected and the other is a homeless man. The girl was able to jump on quickly when the train conductor turned around. The homeless man was hiding in the bathroom which the young daughter Su-an comes to see. No one tells her to return to her seat for her safety. She also continues to move through each train car with no supervision. However, I am going to assume this is to push along the plot of the movie and have us further understand just how careless and absent her father is and that this lack of safety is not actually practiced.
The social dynamics and values present in the film are actually not so different from what can be seen in America. The main character, Seok-woo, is a father who works an office job as a funds manager. He just recently separated from his wife and they are splitting time with their daughter Su-an. However, Seok-woo is rather absent in his daughter’s life due to how demanding his job is and that is introduced through the fact that he is unfamiliar with his daughter and her interests and him missing her school events. His mother who lives with him even gives input to the situation, saying that he should focus less on his working and focus more on fixing his marriage for his daughter’s sake. The depiction of these struggling nuclear families are very common in American television as well considering it is something that many who watch can relate to. We see this in popular television such as The Walking Dead, a zombie horror series where Rick Grimes, father of Carl and husband to Lori, is attempting to rekindle the spark with his wife and protect his family and others during a zombie apocalypse. His relationship to his family often suffered due to his work as a sheriff’s deputy. Both Rick Grimes and Seok-woo are faced with the reality of their situations and completely turn around and become strong and better men in order to protect their families, even if it puts their own lives at risk. They become characters that we cheer for because of their determination and courage to protect their families, as many of us would hope we would be able to do in times of crisis.
Throughout the film, women and children are made a priority to get to safety. Besides the young girl Su-an, there is also a teenage girl, a pregnant women, and two older women who are sisters. Throughout each seen, all of these women are shown a lot of care and respect. They are offered seats on the trains and Su-an even offers her seat to one of the older women. Both the older and pregnant woman offer Su-an a hard boiled egg and a Korean snack. When the survivors are being attacked, the women and children are made a priority. The men are either in front of them leading the way or left behind to fight off the undead and push the women and children forward. Of course there were selfish people throughout the film, but that is to be expected in any case. This is a social value that is shared in America as well. Women, children, and the elderly are often made a priority and we see this especially in films. However, I will say, especially in the present day, we are seeing women take on more traditionally male roles in films. Referring back to The Walking Dead, we see a character named Andrea demand to help the men protect the farm they are staying at and be taught how to use guns while the other women worked on providing stability with cooking and cleaning. As the series continued, the women began to take on leadership roles in their newfound communities. I am curious of any of the other movies in the Train to Busan series have women take on more leadership roles. The only time where we really see a woman take charge in the film is right at the end where it is just Seok-woo, Su-an, the pregnant woman and a zombie and the woman pulls the zombie off of Seok-woo in an attempt to help.
As we see in this film and in many others from other cultures where chaos insus, initially everyone is concerned about their own safety. Everyone is watching the news on the television screen on the train or looking at news outlets on their phone, and while the media is telling them not to panic, they are living in fear of what is to come and the images and videos being played are scaring them more. Many of them begin to panic and turn on each other or only lookout for themselves. Even our main protagonists have moments where they are not worried about anyone else. However, many people turn around as the number of survivors dwindle and they begin to work together in this time of crisis. It is not uncommon in any culture to see people from different backgrounds help each other and work together to get to safety.
They also attempt to be funny in times of crisis which not everyone does, but there are many people who are still able to find some light in bad situations. There is a scene where Seok-woo is stuck in the train bathroom with two other men he just finished fighting through the train with and they are picking on each other’s height and jobs. I will say in American horror movies, some degree of humor is almost expected and is very common. A vast majority of Train to Busan was serious, so I was surprised to see some humor thrown in very suddenly, but tactfully.
Besides the obvious cultural differences and similarities seen within the film, what I found to be the most interesting was the portrayal of zombies in this film compared to American media. In American film, television, and books, the undead are often portrayed as very slow, mindless creatures. Some typical stereotypes are they do not run, they are scared or attracted to fire, they are sensitive to nose, and they can only be taken down with a blow to the brain. A bite from an “American zombie” depending on the film can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours and the outbreak occurs over the course of days. The version of zombies depicted in this film run fast, are strong, do not need trauma to the brain to be taken down, and cannot see in the dark. They run almost at the speed of regular humans and can jump over things. They are still slightly mindless, for example they cannot open doors, but they are still so much more powerful. Also as mentioned, the conflict of this film occurs over the course of a few hours with anyone being attacked turning into one of the creatures in a matter of seconds. This film is so fast paced and intense for the viewers to watch. You can feel the stress and anticipation through the screen which is why I think this is one of the better zombie horror films to watch.
