Enhancing Education With Immersive XR Technology
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Introduction
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in education helps teachers educate, motivate, and increase classroom interaction for students of all ages and abilities by making learning more accessible, memorable, practical, and engaging. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in Education can provide a fun, engaging, and interactive learning experience for students and teachers alike!
How Educators Can Use AR & VR in Education
The objective of education is to help people learn, understand, and remember things. In this digital era, modern gadgets can be a major source of distractions. Hence, innovating new ways to make lessons interactive and improving student engagement has become increasingly difficult. However, utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) can make education fun, interactive, and engaging. Extended reality (XR for short) – which encompasses augmented reality and virtual reality – has the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and learn.
AR & VR can reduce the burden on teachers by helping students learn faster and retain knowledge longer, as well as boosting student engagement and helping students to easily understand complex concepts. It is challenging within a conventional classroom setting to present 3D images and models. It is a proven fact our brains process images faster than text - a recent study shows 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and humans process images 60,000 times faster than text - and pictures help us better comprehend information. AR & VR teaching facilitates visual learning that helps boost student engagement with and retention of the material, as well as helps them understand complex concepts quicker and easier.
Teach Complex Concepts
Visual and Active Learning
Amplified Student Engagement
Better Teacher-Student Collaboration
Contextualized Learning
Multi-Sensory Experiences
Benefits of AR & VR in Education
Using augmented and virtual reality in classrooms often helps educators overcome common, discipline-based restrictions. With programs that provide truly unique, 360-degree views and content libraries that support deeper learning, the benefits of augmented and virtual reality in education include new options for keeping students engaged and even increasing their social and emotional connections to curricular topics.
Student Engagement
Student engagement has always been one of the major challenges for schools and teachers. Hence, learning management systems powered with AR and VR help teachers by increasing student engagement through engaging and immersive content.
Teach Complex Concepts Easier
Teaching complex concepts using traditional tools such as textbooks can be a challenging task. In addition, it can be difficult for students to understand complex subjects by only reading or listening to lectures. AR & VR helps teachers explain complex topics easier by offering powerful 3D visuals that empower students to explore different realities and challenges their perception.
Active Learning
Using the hands and body to interact with 3D objects and environments stimulates natural learning pathways, allowing students to intuitively explore and absorb knowledge. AR & VR moves educational material past the abstract and into the physical, allowing students to perform practical tasks to deepen their learning. AR & VR allows students to actually practice surgery, build bridges, and travel to different parts of the globe or universe.
Contextualized Learning
One of the most important benefits of AR and VR for schools is helping students learn through contextualized learning. With AR & VR technologies, teachers can bring the statues of ancient Greece to the classroom and further contextualize the learning by letting students view the same.
Using AR & VR in Education
AR and VR provide new tools for learning that can enhance student experiences. They can also bring concepts to life with stunning visual displays. When the physical and digital worlds intersect, students gain vivid context that supports instruction.
It is very well understood that experiential learning is much more effective than the other methods of learning. AR and VR are the technologies that promote kinesthetic learning by providing teachers with a highly engaging, interesting, and comprehensive immersive learning experience that can be controlled and managed within the classroom. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and learn by making learning interactive and fun.
Student engagement plays a very important role for schools and teachers. It is one of the factors that decide other facets such as understanding of concepts and knowledge retention among students. With the help of Augmented Reality (AR), teachers can get quick attention of learners which further improves student engagement.
Virtual Reality (VR) is yet another technology that can transform the traditional methods of classroom teaching. The technology helps students to understand the toughest of abstract topics through immersive learning. Imagine how interesting it would be to take a tour inside the human brain or to travel in space amidst the beautiful constellations! All this is possible with VR.
Traditional education systems have been implementing the same learning models for decades. Today, teachers are standing in front of their students just like they did a hundred years ago. However, this is going to change with the emergence of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR).
According to a recent survey, almost 70% of parents already think that AR can drastically improve education systems. Teachers also believe that new technologies can modify and enhance the learning experience as we know it today.
Using AR & VR, students will be able to experience learning in a completely new way. They can organize virtual field trips, visit historical places, conduct experiments, and test a wide range of devices. VR and AR technologies add gamification elements to classical education, making the whole process more appealing and engaging. At the same time, learning becomes more inclusive, accessible, and affordable.
Examples of Augmented Reality in Education
Augmented reality combines both the real and virtual world, real-time interactions, and software with the ability to register both real and virtual objects in 3D. Thus, AR is useful in education in various ways.
How Can Educators Use AR in School/Classroom
Students’ engagement and motivation play a major role in successful learning. Thus, choosing the right engagement and motivation strategies help improve the learning process for students. However, it is impossible for teachers to choose strategies that work for every student. According to a study, most teachers stated they use AR in science and math to look at science-looking at body systems, space exploration, and math-problem solving. Many teachers also found AR useful for ‘examining structures we can’t get to’ or ‘places we can’t go’. Once again, this gives students the opportunity to learn through experiences.
Therefore, teachers can use XR Guru to help teach students difficult science and math concepts as the app offers detailed visualization and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects. It will allow students to see space so clearly as if they were there. XR Guru helps students learn by doing rather than by reading, increasing the student’s overall performance. With XR Guru, teachers are also able to teach concepts interactively as teachers can create their own unique course content.
How Can Students Use AR in School/Classroom
Students can use AR in the classroom in several ways. For example, a group of 14 8th graders from a private school in Boston used AR on iPads in their robotic class to debug their robot more easily. Using AR caused catalyst discussions around sensor readings that led to code fixes, and ‘reduced the barrier’ to enter for some students. Yet, AR may increase the barrier for some students due to usability issues.
Additionally, students can use AR in class to help improve their soft skills. With students growing up in a technology-based world, people are not interacting as much in person. AR and VR can help improve those real-life situations by practicing in a scenario. For example, AR can help students practice their public speaking skills in front of a crowd right before their big presentation. With XR Guru, students can learn through experience and gain knowledge through “doing” rather than reading about how to be good at public speaking.
Examples of Virtual Reality in Education
VR is a computer simulation that creates a three-dimensional, virtual space that can interact with the human sensory systems by providing the user with various visual, auditory, and even tactile stimuli. As a technology that creates a simulated interactive environment, virtual reality (VR) is therefore emerging to be an important tool for educators to modernize all forms of planning, conducting, monitoring, and analyzing the educational process to improve student efficiency learning.
How Can Educators Use VR in School/Classroom
The days of learning being restricted solely to reading textbooks and listening to lectures are numbered. Research shows that textbooks don’t generally improve student achievement and traditional stand-and-deliver lectures lead to higher student failure rates than active learning methods. And while there are plenty of active learning techniques to choose from, more and more educators are seeing VR’s true potential. According to a recent survey of teachers and students, 90% of educators believe VR may help increase student learning. Perhaps more importantly, the survey also found that 97% of students would attend a class or course with VR, which could significantly decrease dropout rates.
At the K12 level (kindergarten to 12th grade in the US), virtual field trips are among the most common ways educators use VR. For example, in 2019, the Schaumburg School District 54 in Illinois utilized virtual reality kits in each of its 28 schools to bring students on virtual field trips to the moon, World War I battlefields, and the Great Hall at Ellis Island.
Other uses of VR in K-12 education include language immersion and virtual lab simulation. Language immersion allows students to connect with people all over the world. On the other hand, virtual lab simulation gives STEM students the option of experimenting in million-dollar labs or mixing different chemicals in a virtual chemistry class without fear of blowing anything up in real life.
One of the first uses of VR in higher education was to train students’ soft skills. VR is being used by universities around the world to improve communication skills essential for employment after graduation. These skills require realistic practice, which is impossible to achieve on a consistent basis with traditional online learning methods.
One of the most obvious benefits of VR is transforming lectures into immersive learning experiences, enabling lecturers to truly bring their subject to life. Civil engineering students can use VR to design buildings, history students can explore Roman ruins, physics students can explore the universe. The possibilities for immersive education are near endless.
How Can Students Use VR in School/Classroom
Virtual field trips have become one of the most popular applications of VR technology for learning. Many schools have begun using VR to transport students to faraway and inaccessible parts of the planet. With VR, students can access learning resources and guided tours such as the frozen arctic or a manufacturing plant.
The idea of ‘virtual labs’ is gaining traction as institutions try to expand their reach and cut costs. Virtual labs enhance student understanding and provide a different kind of hands-on training. Virtual labs can be stripped-down in 2D with simple toggles and controls, or 3D simulations that provide a more immersive experience. Some provide students with objective and step-by-step instructions, guiding them through the technical steps for carrying out complex procedures.
Group work is an absolute necessity in the classroom. It helps students exchange information, build a common understanding and explore new ideas with peers. Virtual reality group work tools allow students to collaborate, meet, discuss, present, and make collective decisions while connected with others.
How XR Guru Helps Educators Use AR & VR in the Classroom
XR Guru helps educators to use AR and VR in the classroom to enhance education with immersive Extended Reality (XR) technology. XR Guru helps educators to assign content and track student progress, to teach complex concepts in an engaging way using curated XR content, to integrate engaging XR content into their curriculum as supplemental content, and to increase student confidence, attention, and engagement in the classroom using immersive XR technology.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
- It is a proven fact our brains process images faster than text - a recent study shows 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and humans process images 60,000 times faster than text - and pictures help us better comprehend information. 90% of Communication to the Brain is Visual | Slidesho
- According to a recent survey, almost 70% of parents already think that AR can drastically improve education systems. Teachers also believe that new technologies can modify and enhance the learning experience as we know it today. Key Augmented Reality Statistics You Need To Know - AR Post
- Research shows that textbooks don’t generally improve student achievement and traditional stand-and-deliver lectures lead to higher student failure rates than active learning methods. Textbooks Alone Don't Boost Test Scores, Study Says (edweek.org)
- According to a recent survey of teachers and students, 90% of educators believe VR may help increase student learning. Perhaps more importantly, the survey also found that 97% of students would attend a class or course with VR, which could significantly decrease dropout rates Lectures aren't just boring, they're Ineffective, too, study finds | Science | AAAS