The lift doors closed, and I ascended to the 45th floor. When they opened again, it was not to the ubiquitous corridor, but to a plank extending out from the building. It was a test: did I have the nerve to walk out there? I was experiencing acute anxiety and the inevitable vertigo associated with looking down from a skyscraper. I froze – I could not leave the safety of the lift. I was simply terrified. I had failed. So I removed the headset.
The Power of VR
It was at this point that I realised the power of Virtual Reality. Part of my brain knew that I was in the safety of a classroom room in the Sixth form block at my school and that the plank, in reality, was an expanse of carpet extending in front of me. Despite knowing that I was in no immediate danger, I was terrified. My senses had been hijacked by Virtual Reality and some primal sense of survival deep inside me had kicked in and try as I might I could not overcome it. The ‘Plank Experience’ has been part of our IB Diploma Psychology unit on fear and anxiety for a couple of years now. It is an extraordinary way of approaching the topic. It is one of many examples of how Virtual Reality is transforming the classroom experience of pupils.Trips in VR
At a very basic level, Virtual Reality gives almost limitless scope for teachers to take pupils on trips anywhere in the world without leaving the grounds. A class can visit China and experience what it is like to walk up and down the crumbling steps of the Great Wall, they can take a stroll along Wall Street, gasp at the view from the top of the Burj Khalifa, or even dive the Great Barrier Reef. In the past six months, Year 7 went to Africa, Year 3 have been to the Pyramids, Year 4 visited the Vikings, Year 5 went to Ancient Greece and Year 1 even travelled into Space. All these ‘school trips’ are available in the classroom within a matter of minutes – a further bonus is that there’s no disruption to the curriculum, no additional paperwork, no buses to order, and the hi-vis jackets can stay in the cupboard.
Over the past twenty years, we have seen videos, DVDs, classroom projectors, interactive whiteboards, 3D projectors and computer games recruited to improve the learning experience of pupils. So, is Virtual Reality just the latest in that long line of new technologies which teachers harnessed in the service of education? Is it just another gimmick to grab the attention of a new generation? It is understandable that teachers and school leaders are sceptical.
Research-backed Pedagogy
We know that each invention that is deployed in schools requires the development of an effective pedagogy which enables teachers to get the most out of the new technology. This, in turn, poses several important questions about the value and effectiveness of the new technology in promoting learning, understanding, empathy and in improving learning outcomes. With the luxury of hindsight, too many schools deployed new technologies without really knowing what they were doing or why they were doing it. History teaches us that effective implementation is facilitated by twin drivers of collaboration and research. With this in mind, the Independent Schools Council Digital Strategy Group launched an action research project last spring. The study was managed by Ian Phillips, Assistant Headteacher at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School (@IanHabs) and involved teachers and pupils from seven schools completing questionnaires and interviews on the impact of the introduction of Virtual Reality into the classroom.
The results of the study were published in November as Growth Headset: Exploring the use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality in Schools written by Dr James Mannion (@RethinkingJames). The most common theme to emerge from the research was that Virtual Reality technology can be used to facilitate learning in two ways: first, through visualisation and seeing in 3-D; and, secondly, by providing an interactive and more immersive learning environment which makes topics more memorable compared to textbooks. Whilst some teachers in the study expressed concerns about the logistics of using Virtual Reality in the classroom, the majority of students and teachers were able to share examples of where they felt using Virtual Reality had had a positive impact on learning, or where it is likely to have a positive impact on learning in the future. Thus, the Growth Headset report provides some initial insight into how Virtual Reality might be deployed in schools and seeks to answer some of the important questions about the place that this technology might play in schools over the coming years.
The verdict
The use of Virtual Reality in the classroom is still in its infancy but there are already signs that this is a much more powerful technology than its more passive predecessors. The lessons from the pioneers is that VR is not just another way of conveying information, but there is something distinctively powerful about the fact that the viewer is in control. This makes the experience active and so immersive that they evoke an emotional as well as a rational response.
Virtual Reality allows the teacher to put a young person into the shoes of another person. Early adopters are divided over whether or not Virtual Reality is what Chris Milk in his TED Talk describes as the ‘ultimate empathy machine’ . Some believe that Virtual Reality has huge potential to foster greater awareness of what it is like to be a refugee or live with a disability; and that its contribution to the educational armoury will be as an effective tool for teaching empathy, a trait so often lacking in teenagers. However, some respondents in the ISC Research project expressed scepticism, as can be seen in the following exchange:
I’ve heard a lot of positive things about the creation of empathy, and I am very sceptical about that… [they say] it's a wonderful experience to be able to teach students to be empathetic like what's it like to live in a slum. And I feel that they just can't be right because it's a bit like giving someone a seat and saying “this is what it's like to not be able to use your legs”, or “this is what it feels like to not be able to hear”. The students will never be able to know that because that's something that's really personal and I think that we dumb down the experience by suggesting that in any way we can replicate it. It might give an insight, but it doesn't create empathy in and of itself.
Best Practice
Going forward, we need to develop policies and protocols to disseminate best practice. For example, at JESS, we have found (the hard way) that primary children are best using Virtual Reality headsets sitting down and that that they hold the viewer to their eyes, rather than being strapped on, so that they can disengage from the experience more easily. Furthermore, as my lift experience illustrates, Virtual Reality is a very powerful tool which can elicit a whole range of emotional responses from the participants and thus needs to be used with care. Teachers need to be sensitive and alert to the potential that the experience of ‘going over the top’ from a First World War trench might be so real that it is traumatic. Lessons need to be planned so that there is time to allow children to talk about their experiences and to ‘decompress’ before heading off to their next lesson.
One of the determining factors in whether or not Virtual Reality has an impact on wider schooling will be the extent to which industry can supply a broad range of high-quality content that starts with the curriculum rather than teachers having to appropriate apps for use in the classroom. As with so many new technologies, educational priorities must drive the technological ones. Without this, it is likely that the adoption of Virtual Reality in schools remains the preserve of a few schools with dedicated enthusiasts.
- The ISC Digital Strategy report can be downloaded from http://iscdigital.co.uk/growth-headset-the-report/
- Videos of most of the VR projects at JESS, Dubai, can be found on the JESS Digital YouTube Channel
This article was published in Tes on 29/01/2019 as Virtual reality: not the edu-fad it is made out to be?
