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Right now, I am sitting within a clouded nebula. There are stars twinkling around me, and light from a distant sun streaming through the clouds. Beneath me, there is simply the vast expanse of space. There is nothing separating me from a perceived drop into oblivion. And in front of me – is my computer screen.
I write this while sitting within a virtual world, created for me by the developers of Virtual Desktop for the Oculus Quest 2, and marvel at how far our technological capabilities have gone. Though the days of 2D screens are very much still with us, tasting the world of virtual reality makes it easy to see that the dreams of generations of science fiction writers are coming true in laboratories and research departments as we speak.
Virtual Reality technology has been sweeping the world these past few years. Ever since it became clear that this technology was not simply viable, but groundbreaking, companies have been jumping on the chance to prove that their VR tech is the best available.
Breaking ground on the new frontier of Virtual Reality has not been a cheap process, and even now the prices of the most popular VR headset, the Oculus Quest, have increased dramatically, with the MSRP increasing by $100 USD as of August 1st.
Now that this pandora’s box of technology has opened, there is no stopping the continued surge of virtual reality products that will be gracing the advertising spaces of our browsers and YouTube videos. With the PlayStation VR2 and the secrecy-ridden Project Cambria, Meta’s new headset rumored to be fully announced at Connect 2022, the Virtual Reality world continues to grow and shift, and we are just at the beginning of tapping the well of opportunity this technology holds.
A New Virtual World
In addition to my role as a writer and my love of games, I am also a teacher by trade. I teach middle schoolers how to read and write most of the year long, and spend my hours grading papers and giving feedback.
My first full year of professional teaching was 2020, and, as you may know, the year of 2020 changed the perception of schooling for many families, towns, and cities worldwide. Suddenly, students all across the world had to attend school virtually, and teachers had to prepare lessons in ways many of us had never been trained to do. Because of this, our educational system suffered, resulting in a year that, for some students, was disastrous to their continued learning.
As the world has returned to normal, and we have been cleaning up the messes that were made by the educational world as a whole being unprepared for the catastrophe of large-scale at-home learning, our views on virtual instruction have shifted dramatically.
For one thing, many teachers now have hands-on experience at learning and developing lessons that are suitable for virtual learning. Most teachers I know would never want to go back to virtual teaching, but if something sent us back into that world, we would be much more prepared.
Teaching in Virtual Reality
Putting on the Oculus Quest 2 for the first time was a mind-blowing experience. The potential of the technology soared across my vision – the system is capable of doing so much without connecting itself to a more powerful system, such as a PC or console. But the potential I (and many others) saw was not limited to the system’s capability to revolutionize video gaming, but also its capability to teach and allow for an interactive learning experience.
One of the main reasons this was something that immediately became clear to me was due to the circumstances of obtaining my device. My father, Jeffery Van Ness, works for a tutoring company that provided each of its staff members with their own Oculus Quest 2. The goal? To offer tutoring services both in-person, traditional virtual, and in virtual reality using Horizon Workrooms. Since then, they have received multiple clients who have taken advantage of the virtual reality tutoring experience, with excellent results.
“VR gives students an interactive experience for online tutoring. The students are often more engaged than the standard Zoom, Meet, or Teams solutions”
says Jeffery.
“The VR classroom/office spaces have tools such as whiteboards, screen sharing, and file sharing to enhance the remote learning environment.”
I tried out my father’s Oculus, and loved the experience so much that my family pitched in to snag me one, and I have been using it frequently ever since. The Oculus allows you to take trips to places you’ve never seen, to do more than just interact with history on screen, but to live history and watch it play out before your eyes. You can experience artistic works without leaving your seats, tour museums, and experience the natural wonder and beauty of our world all before your eyes, as if you were really there.
Even within moments of putting on the headset, it was easy to tell that this device could be used as an incredible tool for education, both for independent learning, and for teaching.
But is it practical?
This is the question one must ask when looking at using something new in the classroom. It is easy to see fresh, innovative technology, and immediately say “Yes, we should definitely be using this in our school!”, before considering the practicality of actually using this device in the classroom.
The answer to this right now is twofold. Is this device practical for one-on-one or small-group virtual education? Absolutely. Is this device practical for in-the-classroom usage? I would say that the technology has a bit more of a path to pave before it is ready for this application.
One-on-one/small group
VR has been incredibly successful for both tutoring and teaching alike. If all the participants have a headset and are able to use it, the VR experience can allow for students to join with a teacher and both learn effectively and explore with guidance. There are a few meeting rooms available, and though the world of virtual reality instruction is not yet perfect, it is off to an excellent start.
One of the major benefits of virtual reality instruction is the ability to meet in a setting that feels personal even though the people are in separate rooms. Playing a game in VR with a friend gives you an experience that makes it feel like you are sharing a space, and Horizon Workrooms and other apps in the same style are no different. The individual may be represented with an avatar, but the human connection goes much deeper than a face on a screen. It allows for quality education even over great distances, allowing teachers to connect with students even if they are in other countries.
That being said, the technology still has some ground to cover before it can be considered the perfect virtual educational tool. As my father has been tutoring students in various content areas using the Horizon Workrooms software, he has noted that
“not all subjects lend themselves to VR as well as others. It seems to work very well for math, but the students can struggle with extensive reading passages.”
Because of the factor of immersion, everything in the tutoring session must be done while wearing the headset, which is a major limitation when it comes to certain content areas, especially, as noted, reading – for many students, reading a physical book or article is much easier than reading a digital copy of the same product or document.
Full Classroom
Though some schools have purchased headsets and are attempting to integrate them into the classroom, this educator believes that in today’s world, face-to-face is still superior to virtual experiences.
Can the VR technology be used to enhance a student’s learning? Technically the answer to this is yes. A teacher could use VR to bring the student to places where pictures cannot do justice. However, there are technical and practical hoops to jump through in order to make this possible, and with the current state of technology, unexpected problems are likely to crop up, taking bites out of valuable class time.
Another major problem with utilizing VR in the classroom is that those who are sensitive to motion sickness may be incapable of using the device, making the experience exclusive to those capable of being within the virtual world. A good friend of mine became ill for over an hour after simply putting on the headset the first time, and reducing motion sickness has been a major struggle for many VR companies.
Even I have to put down the headset after around an hour of use, or I am guaranteed to get a headache. This is still a significant limitation of the technology, and I expect it to be so for some time.
Even in the tutoring environment, it cannot replace in-person instruction.
“Even though VR gives the feeling of ‘space’ and interaction on a level not possible with flat video conferencing it is a poor substitute for in-person tutoring,”
says Jeffery Van Ness.
“I don’t think anything can be the connection of face to face contact. The in-person environment is also more flexible when it comes to adjusting the lesson on the fly.”
Looking Ahead
Will VR someday be usable in a classroom environment? I have no doubt that as this technology advances, it will be possible for districts to obtain affordable, classroom-oriented virtual reality technology that is useable to enhance student learning.
The potential of the technology has now been seen and noticed by gamers, educators, and content creators around the world. It is an industry for the educational world to keep a close eye on, and someday, when the time is right, it is possible that a VR headset will be standard equipment in educational institutions for students across the globe!
