hey everybody i'm really glad that you're here in this video i'm going
to talk about a technology that i think has a lot of potential for learning and teaching
virtual reality here you can see i have a couple of headsets i have the oculus quest 2 and i have
an hp reverb g2 now they're a little bit different in terms of what they do but in this video
i'm going to talk about five different ways that we can use virtual reality in education
and i'm also going to show you a bonus tip at the end of the video on how we can actually create
content within these virtual worlds let's take a look at each of these devices first
and then we'll start looking at the five tips and the bonus tip for this video now the first device
is the oculus quest 2. this is a fantastic device which is a standalone device it doesn't need to
connect up to a computer in order to work you can actually connect it up to the internet download
content directly to the device and it can act independently from a computer and then i have
the hp reverb g2 this device connects to your computer and then runs through your computer
in order to create that mixed reality and that virtual reality environment now both of them are
great but for this video i'm going to concentrate a little bit more on the oculus quest 2 and a lot
of the videos and the screenshots that i show you will be from the oculus environment but be aware
that the same type of content exists for both types of headsets now basically the way these
devices work is that we put them on our head we have stereoscopic viewports that gives us
a 360 degree or a very immersive three-dimensional experience and it is quite a stunning experience
i'm limited here on youtube i can just give you this flat experience but i'll show you as
best i can exactly how these would work within an educational environment and then we can interact
with that environment by using a couple of controllers and this allows us to do things like
point and click and move around that environment so we not only have sensors on the headset itself
which allows me to know where i'm looking in space but we also have hands that we can bring into that
environment or whatever the case may be when we look at any type of educational transfer we can
look at static or passive type of experiences and then we can look at a more active or immersive
type of experience so a passive experience would be for example this youtube video
it is somewhat passive i'm not asking you to do anything i'm not asking you to interact with it
if i wanted to create interaction i could say something like hit the like button
subscribe and share with colleagues that would be interactive and a good interaction at that but for
the most part it's a pretty passive experience now when it comes to a virtual environment
we can absorb information we can participate and take things in passively look around but even
the act of looking around creates an immersive experience which creates activity so even though i
might be say watching a video or something within the virtual environment the fact that i can move
my head around and explore that environment actually creates a more immersive and a
active type of participation so let's have a look at five ways that i believe virtual reality will
be useful in education and learning first we have documentaries now we've all seen documentaries in
the classroom before it's a great way to start a conversation about science or a social issue
we have the students watch a documentary and then after watching that documentary they are
able to discuss it in groups or we're able to give them an assignment on it in some way we're
able to interact with what we've just seen well the virtual world goes way beyond that we're in
an immersive documentary and there are many many different subject areas that are available already
in things like the oculus store for example there are documentaries on science there's documentaries
on social issues there's documentaries on nature there's a huge library that's already starting
to be developed that we're going to be able to take advantage of and those documentaries
actually create that immersive participatory experience before we discuss it in a group or
before we write a paper on it so for example let's say i'm watching a nature documentary on elephants
it's one thing to see and screen with some shots of an elephant it's another thing to be in that
immersive documentary where the elephants are walking around me you get the sense that you're
actually there with those elephants and i've seen a number of documentaries on social issues for
example i saw a documentary on famine in somalia and it was absolutely chilling how emotionally
powerful it was to be sitting in a medical clinic with children that were starving it was horrible
and it really had an impact on me individually because i felt more immersed in that environment
and that's something that we can share with the students as well they can experience it
more immersively so that they come out of it not just with a structured knowledge of something that
exists but within emotional knowledge as well so documentaries are a great feature and there are
tons and tons available on the oculus and on other vr platforms an example of how virtual reality
in the classroom can be used to help create an awareness of real world social issues we can look
at something like marine habitat students could use their headset to have an immersive experience
where they're in the marine environment where they're looking at marine mammals where they're
looking at that ecosystem and then they could ask themselves the question what's happening in
the real world to those environments well in the case of the marine environment it's being polluted
there is a lot of garbage being dumped into the oceans and riverways leading to those oceans
and organizations like team seas are seeking to remove trash from those environments team seas is
on a mission to raise 30 million dollars in order to remove 30 million pounds of trash maybe this
is an opportunity for students to do fundraising to participate in that solution to the real world
problem of garbage and trash in the oceans and the riverways visit teamsees.org check out what's
happening there and look at some of the work that they're doing to try to protect those environments
in the real world even though we enjoy them in the virtual world we have to deal with them in
the real world so it's a great way for us to make that connection between the two now the second way
that we can use virtual reality in the classroom is by traveling the world we can go and take
tours of different cities that are available on the on the oculus we can go and we can watch uh
natural places of the world such as iceland or greenland or visit antarctica visit the south pole
in fact within one 10-minute period i went to the north pole and i went to the south pole
all through the vr headset it was fascinating now there is also interactive travel so as an example
we have google maps or street view where we can go in and see a 360 version of street view and we can
choose any location on earth and then travel to that location i shouldn't say any location it will
be limited to what google's actually filmed at this point but there are thousands and thousands
of possibilities of where we can travel to imagine this in a classroom where you're discussing some
country somewhere in the world you can actually have students visit the streets of that country
to look around them to see what's around them at that point in time it's a fascinating thing
and it's a very powerful way to travel the world without having to actually travel the world now
i would also say it's better to travel the world but this is a great way to begin that experience
now a third way to introduce virtual reality in the classroom is through art and creativity
there are many artists and creative professionals that are creating unique content for the virtual
three-dimensional worlds we're able to go in we're able to travel through their art pieces whether
it's a traditional artist through an exhibit or whether it's an artist that's doing something
new in the virtual space it can really open up students creativity and give them a sense of the
world of art and experiencing that art in a very visceral way a fourth way to use virtual reality
in the classroom is through events and people the social aspect we're able to participate and
interact with others in a social environment now in a classroom environment we could invite
somebody into our classroom in a virtual sense so we can have a virtual space where we collaborate
now this is often referred to as the metaverse or an area where we can go in a good example of
that might be horizons platform or the facebook metaverse these are all places that we can go
and interact with others now we can of course have social personal social interactions in the in the
metaverse but we can also have more structured events that occur so for example a lecture or
a conference or symposiums where we can go and participate and have other people speaking to us
through a virtual avatar but still in a meaningful way where we are actually engaged with them even
though we may be geographically separate and we're not just engaged with them for example in a team's
meeting or a zoom call we're engaged with them in that interactive immersive environment that
creates more of a sense of connection a fifth way that we can use virtual reality in the classroom
is fitness and well-being now one of the things that we know is that the connection between mind
and body is very very strong so actually working with things like fitness activities or body
movement or meditation or mindfulness can really help students in all aspects of their studies
and all aspects of their life and there are some really good fitness apps and some really good
meditation apps that are available on the virtual reality devices that we have today which can help
students experience that without having to go to a class without having to travel outside of that
environment they are able to go in and experience what some of these activities might look like and
actually get meaningful results from them being in an immersive environment where they can just relax
or being in an environment where they can move their bodies is going to be something that helps
them with all of their studies now what about creating for the virtual environment there's
really two different types of creation that i see within virtual reality right now the one is
where i go into the virtual environment and i use tools within that environment to create something
a good example of an in-console development tool set would be something like the horizons platform
where we can go in and we can create our own virtual world and then invite other participants
to come and experience it that's all done within the virtual reality console and if i want to bring
the real world into the virtual world then i'm going to need some sort of device to capture 360
video this here is a little gopro max and the gopro max has two wide angle lenses one on each
side of the device that captures a 360 image as it occurs this can be very useful because it involves
less post production i don't have to stitch together a whole bunch of camera images i don't
have to have a whole bunch of cameras and this is one of the 360 cameras that's available today
this is uh quite a good one i like the gopro max and what we can do is we can create say a hike and
then we can share that with other people so that they can also participate on that adventure with
us so we can create inside the virtual reality headset by creating virtual world or we can take
360 cameras and we can bring the real world into a virtual space where we can then augment it and
interact with it in new ways so in this video you have seen how we can use virtual reality as part
of a learning and teaching journey and i hope it's something that you consider exploring the price of
these headsets has come down dramatically i'm also very interested in augmented reality which
would involve something like a holo lens that's a device that i have to wait until the price drops
a little bit before i'll bring it into my own teaching but for now these are very inexpensive
devices i can add a lot well not very inexpensive but they're somewhat inexpensive devices maybe for
a school could buy a couple of the oculus devices and then share them around the classroom and you
can design lesson plans where students interact in the virtual world come out of that virtual world
and interact in the real world so that there's a bit of a back and forth there they're very
powerful devices they have a lot of potential and that potential is starting to be realized
today thanks for watching subscribe and share this with other colleagues that might be interested