Could Virtual Reality be Our Reality?
Let me just start off by saying that I wasn’t really expecting a big impact from VR. It seemed interesting, but interesting in the way Smartboards were interesting when I was a student. I was there in the initial smartboard movement from grades 6-8 and in those three years teachers never seemed to figure out how to properly use them. Plus, almost every substitute tried to use a normal whiteboard marker on them and the class would damn near have a heart attack. Maybe you can let me know if they’re still used, but we didn’t have any in high school, so to me they pretty much came and died in those three years. That’s what I kind of thought would happen to VR. Here’s this new tech that might draw some interest from the students, but that teachers would struggle to figure out how to use and would eventually be left behind. After this week’s class I no longer think that’s the case.
The video Haneefat shared, VR and AI in Education: The Future of Learning, made me realize that VR can truly be impactful for students. VR gives students the ability to experience things they otherwise wouldn’t be able to such as what it’s like to be an astronaut on other planets. It allows them to perform experiments that are too dangerous to conduct in person. And the speaker, Kristen Tamm, mentions that research shows VR leads to students being more motivated, more confident, and more engaged in learning. It sounds like an incredible tool and that talk alone has made me consider getting one for myself. Yes, that’s right, I’m not even ten years removed from high school and I’m jealous of the educational experiences some students get today. Goodness does the world move fast or what!?
Then of course I look up the prices and think maybe I’ll wait a little longer. My thought that VR would be an underwhelming piece of technology in the classroom was foolish, and that opinion was easily changed, but now my eyes have been opened to the real issue, access.
As with all tech, some students will have more access to it than others. There are schools that will be able to afford multiple carts filled with headsets that can be booked out when necessary, there will be schools like my classmate Jason’s that might be willing to spend money on one or two devices in order to test out their usefulness, and then there will be schools that just can’t afford to jump into this new educational experience especially without knowing how effective it will really end up being. As Ayodele discussed in her video, the digital divide is still having a huge impact on education.
I do honestly believe that it’s important for us to try and give students opportunities to use these tools of the future, but this requires two big components. First off, the teacher has to have some excitement about using VR. All too often a new learning tool can be brought to students and if the teacher doesn’t care about it, or it’s clear the teacher was instructed to use the tool and there’s no motivation there the lessons will fall flat. I’d even go as far to suggest those lessons would have a lower impact on learning than if the tool wasn’t used at all.
The second issue of course is the digital divide. Let’s play the hypothetical game for a moment. Let’s say VR ends up being a revolutionary tool in the classroom. Students are learning better, asking more questions, and are more engaged on a daily basis. That would be fantastic news, but at the same time it would be horrible news, because in that scenario VR is basically a requirement at that point. It’s difficult enough right now for schools to afford good internet and to afford computers & laptops. Adding VR to this list of necessities will only further the gap in the digital divide. As I mentioned earlier, some schools will pour additional funding into VR headsets so they can get their hands on this game-changing technology, and others will look on with envy and disappointment that due to the high cost they’re unable to give their students a better learning experience.
In my last post I mentioned that most of our topics come with the overwhelming feeling that in their already packed workloads, teacher’s need to do more. This is thankfully one where it’s not forced upon teachers, but instead requires a helping hand from the school board, the community, and the government. If the access is there then sure both the school board and teachers will have to find ways to utilize this tech, but that’s no different than any aspect of digital literacy we’ve been talking about in this class. The real challenge is getting past the issue of access. Until that happens, we’ll continue to be stuck in digital divide purgatory, where some students get to reap the benefits, while others are stuck in old ways of learning.
Having up to date tech is such a problem. In our school, the smart boards are dying faster than we can afford to replace them. They’re a valuable teaching tool, and many have a hard time teaching effectively without them. I also see teachers avoiding assignments because the laptops are painful, and logging into them with 27 4th graders with passwords that have to be 19 characters long with 7 different requirements (I’m only slightly exaggerating) is more work than it’s worth. I hope we can get to a place where tech is easier to use, and maintain.
Educational tech. misnomers – SMART boards. There is nothing smart about them. They are a glorified projector screen. 10 plus years ago SMART Software was looking to introduce AR but my division was not funding the software or hardware. A quick peek at their site (https://ar.smarttech.com/en/interactive-displays) shows that they still are at it and it looks cool. Coolness aside, this brings us to the digital divide.
When looking at the SMART board, a classroom of 20 would benefit from 4 of them, not 1. They were limited by their interactions and although they can support multi-users, having 20 grade 3 students all touching the board, probably doesn’t strengthen learning.
VR, as Jason demoed, really does look awesome. Awesome at home, maybe university, but at the public school level, un-fundable. As I see in my personal life; time to install and update, need a system administrator, and need to wait for that…time, money and access all become sticking points for true success.
As you ended – we are indeed stuck in tech-purgatory: bringing a NES to the fibre-optic LAN party.