Immersive Learning: The Future of Education with Virtual Reality in K12 Schools
With technological advancements resulting in the emergence of digital learning platforms like KITABOO, K12 students have become increasingly tech-savvy, making it very difficult to hold their attention through the mere lecture method of teaching.
To keep them engaged and immersed in learning, new teaching methods that involve both technology and devices need to be adopted. Among many such methods, one important method showing immense potential is virtual reality technology.
Virtual reality technology makes use of headset devices to impart immersive educational experiences through a 360-degree lens. It holds the potential to provide a rich and captivating simulated learning experience. For this very reason, the virtual reality market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.7% and become a 28.70 billion-dollar industry by 2030.
In this blog, we will delve into the applications of virtual reality in education to understand how this technology will shape the future of education.
Table of Contents:
I. Applications of Virtual Reality in Education
- Bring History Lessons to Life
- Make the Complex Subject of Math Easy to Understand
- Make Complex Science Education a Breeze
- Make it Possible to Experience Geography Realistically
- Acquire Fluency in Speaking New Languages
- Facilitate Soft and Social Skills Development
II. The End Note
I. Applications of Virtual Reality in Education
Virtual reality (VR) technology taps into the principle of learning through experience and strives to provide a multisensory learning experience by engaging all the senses, including sound, sight, smell, and touch.
Let’s explore the ways and areas in which virtual reality can be used to transform the educational landscape in the future.
1. Bring History Lessons to Life
History explores the events of the past and what their possible implications can be for the present. But with the way students are taught history, it’s not surprising that they find history lessons to be very boring.
Fortunately, VR can change this by giving a fun twist to the lessons. With VR, students can virtually visit and explore life in ancient Greece, the Giza plateau, Roman ruins, and many more historical events and sites.
By bringing history lessons to life, VR manages to infuse interest and engagement in students.
2. Make the Complex Subject of Math Easy to Understand
Students often find math a difficult subject to grasp. However, VR can change this by helping students visualize the applications of math concepts.
For example, students can understand the concept of division by putting a group of baseballs equally in four buckets.
Further, through VR, they can explore spatial relations between objects, different geometrical shapes, and the transformation of 2D shapes into 3D shapes. They can also manipulate functional graphs and equations.
In this way, by visualizing the applications, VR helps students easily comprehend the complex subject of math.
3. Make Complex Science Education a Breeze
Similar to math education, science subjects can be difficult to grasp. Here also, VR’s ability to represent science concepts visually goes a long way in creating a solid understanding of concepts.
Virtual reality provides a safe environment for students to conduct explosive chemistry experiments and explore human anatomy. For example, in a simulated lab setting, students can safely see the combustible reaction of sodium metal with water.
Students can also explore the functioning of the human heart as it pumps blood, the structure of the human brain, the lifespan of a cell, and many other parts of the human and even animal anatomy.
Through these many interesting ways of virtual exploration, VR makes science education a breeze.
4. Make it Possible to Experience Geography Realistically
Geography can seem like a useless subject when studied only through textbooks and maps. VR, however, can breathe life into the fascinating nature of geography.
Virtual reality can enable students to explore planets, study their surfaces, and look at their surrounding moons. It can also enable students to climb Mount Everest virtually, see the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and observe the volcanic eruptions in the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Using virtual reality in education in this way can make it possible for students to experience better space, climate, land, and water bodies.
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5. Acquire Fluency in Speaking New Languages
Learning new languages takes a lot of effort. A student needs to go through textbooks, listen to foreign music and movies, spend time on language apps, and so on.
Even after putting in a massive amount of effort, there’s no guarantee that the student will be able to speak the language fluently. Virtual reality can change this by helping a student achieve fluency.
Virtual reality headsets can transport students to a virtual world where people speak the languages they desire to learn. In the controlled setting of the virtual world, students can listen to and practice conversations with native speakers.
This will help them develop a grip on new grammatical structures and vocabulary and gradually aid them in becoming fluent speakers of the new languages.
6. Facilitate Soft and Social Skills Development
Education is not limited to studying and understanding subjects. A holistic K12 education involves the development of soft skills and social skills that will help students throughout their lives.
However, due to the sheer number of students enrolled in schools, K12 schools can fail to provide holistic education to many students. To prevent this from happening, employing virtual reality in education is essential.
Virtual reality makes it possible for students to collaborate and interact with other students across the globe, improving their interpersonal skills. It also enables students to engage in role-playing, problem-solving, or game-based activities with their peers, requiring them to use their problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making skills.
Thus, through fun simulated collaborative exercises and assignments, VR helps students develop essential soft and social skills.
II. The End Note
As per research, the tenet of learning through experience employed by VR improves the quality of learning and knowledge retention by up to 90%. Using virtual reality in education also increases the levels of engagement and interest in students, facilitates a better understanding of complex concepts, and fosters better learning outcomes.
Given the multiple capabilities and applications of VR and its potential to improve overall learning experiences, virtual reality is here to stay and transform the world of education for the better.
Considering this, it’s high time to invest in VR technology and incorporate the same in your K12 school. If you want to save precious resources doing so, outsourcing AI-powered VR solutions from KITABOO is an excellent idea.
A top-notch digital publishing and learning platform, KITABOO allows you to create, publish, and distribute digital content among K12 students. With K.AI, you can curate AI-powered, immersive, and engaging learning content. As a firm believer in providing interactive learning experiences, KITABOO is the trusted choice of more than 15 million people from 30 countries.
To learn more about AI-powered learning solutions, get in touch with KITABOO.
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