Jim Reams 
Virtual Reality is becoming a reality in classrooms across the world, allowing students to learn from immersive experiences that weren’t possible just a few years ago. And students and teachers are excited about it. In fact, “93 percent of teachers say their students would be excited to use virtual reality and 83 percent say that virtual reality might help improve learning outcomes.”
Students can travel virtually with just a smartphone and a cardboard VR headset. At a school in Ohio, Spanish students took a virtual trip to South America to visit Machu Picchu in Peru. They then recorded reports about their journey in Spanish.
At the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Ying Wu College of Computing, students use VR for classes and subjects “that rely heavily on visuals, such as architecture visualization, museum exhibits and physical science simulations.”
edCircuit Analysis
As technology innovations and EdTech offerings continue to shake up how teachers teach and students learn, it’s hard to imagine a technology that has a more potential impact on education at all levels than Virtual Reality.
Personal devices, once widely banned in the classroom until just a few years ago, are becoming more and more ubiquitous with many schools implementing 1:1 and BYOD programs with smartphones and Chromebooks. Teachers can then incorporate digital content into lessons that students can access wherever they have a connection.
But the potential for immersive learning as that content becomes VR content is huge. Some schools are already turning their libraries into true media centers, some of which offer VR workstations and other VR experiences.
Virtual Reality will make immersive learning an exciting new experience for students of all ages, and that could be a game-changer in education.
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