4 Ways to Get the Most out of VR in the Classroom
The breadth and variety of virtual reality tools’ applications make it difficult for educators to intuit the most meaningful ways to deploy them in the classroom.
Emerging edtech is playing a pivotal role in schools’ ongoing shift toward student-centered learning. The appeal of virtual reality (VR) in this effort is evident: by providing vivid, tactile experiences instead of unending streams of text, teachers can create lasting impressions of learning materials and improve students’ retention of the curriculum.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of VR technology is the diversity of ways it can be deployed in the classroom. Schools around the world are finding innovative applications for VR; tools that explore the effects of climate change; virtual environments in which to safely conduct experiments with volatile components like sulfuric acid; and platforms that detect signs of student boredom and suggest shifts in teaching approach. These applications are already generating results, with educators noting that students leave more incisive answers on worksheets after they’ve been exposed to VR-based lessons.
That said, the open-ended nature of VR technology creates a steep learning curve for teachers, who must find ways of adapting these tools to both their curricula and the needs of their specific students. With these challenges in mind, here are four best practices to adhere to when attempting to get the most out of VR in the classroom.
1. Establish Clear Objectives
There’s no better way to ensure an educational initiative flounders than failing to establish key benchmarks by which it can be measured. VR is an awe-inspiring technology, to be sure, but educators can’t let its glitz and glamor be the only value it provides. Instead, teachers need to have specific, measurable objectives in mind each time they use VR in classroom.
To pinpoint these goals, educators should consider which of their problems are the best candidates for a VR solution. Is there a concept or lesson that students are struggling with that could be illustrated through a VR experience? Are there certain grade levels or classes that would particularly benefit from experiential learning? Target real problems and measure your progress to ensure you’re maximizing the return on your edtech investment.
2. Achieve Top-to-Bottom Alignment
Education is a multi-tiered process that requires a shared understanding between superintendents, administrators, teachers, and students. Any inter-tier miscommunication about VR’s role in the classroom can lead to a great deal of frustration, so it’s worth taking the time to get every stakeholder on the same page of your district’s VR implementation plan.
This includes keeping students in the loop about how VR is intended to further their learning, and schools shouldn’t hesitate to ask students directly about the issues they’d like to see tackled with VR. Further, curriculum teams should be briefed so they can keep the technology’s specific benefits — and future potential — in mind when designing lessons and setting district-wide goals. Finally, your VR rollout will need full buy-in from your IT staff, as it’s their job to ensure that teachers have access to all the devices and bandwidth they need to effectively execute on your implementation plan.
3. Do the Proper IT Planning
This final point of alignment is especially critical, as increasing VR usage will undoubtedly put pressure on your school’s networks. Some experts estimate that a single minute of VR content can take up as much as 500 gigabytes of bandwidth when compressed.
As a start, expanding wireless networks and introducing virtualized environments to increase storage capacity can be extremely helpful in ensuring that your IT support team isn’t constantly scrambling to keep your VR initiatives online and performing as designed.
4. Choose the Right IT Partner
Of course, most districts have limited IT resources, the demand for which is only going to grow exponentially as VR and other bandwidth-intensive technologies are introduced into the classroom. Any tech initiative needs both strong support to guide teachers through each step of implementation and good leadership steering the project at the district level, and many tech support teams simply don’t have the staff or resources to do both simultaneously.
That’s where Epiphany comes in. Our contact center services provide teachers around-the-clock access to a team of experienced IT professionals who can answer all their questions about VR — and any other technology they’re struggling to deploy in the classroom. This empowers your support team to focus on driving large-scale change throughout the district.
Bringing virtual reality to classrooms in your district will take all hands on deck, and we’ve got the extra resources you need to ensure your rollout happens without a hitch.
