Education
Why does it matter?
As educators, engagement is often an utmost priority in many classrooms. Engaging students in the coursework and learning is an essential factor in ensuring student success. Methods, like gamified learning, is a great example of how educators will make use of different strategies as meaningful ways to facilitate student learning.
Through immersive reality technology, students will be able to witness unique experiences that allow them to engage with their senses through the process. The greater stimuli that engages the studnets in their learning experiences, the more likely it will be that they are able to encode this information and build meaningful learning connections. Immersive reality technology will manifest in a variety of ways depending on the subject and grade level.
Math
MR would allow students at the primary level to interact with their math equations and physically manipulate the space around them to get the correct answers. VR could be used to create digital representations of concepts and values such as exponential growth, trigonometry, surface area, volume, and many more. This would allow word problems to become more engaging as students tried to solve them in the VR environments.
Sciences
Students could use VR to interact with elements that would otherwise be too dangerous and complete labs that would otherwise not be possible within the confines of a classroom. Biology could explore dissections of animals without having to have the animals within the classroom, as well as, travel to different ecosystems. Our Solar system could be explored with accurate scale unlike what is possible to represent physically.
Social Studies
Different countries, cultures and civilizations that no longer exist can be explored using VR. This technology would completely reshape how field trips could take place. Spaces within the building could be designated for this, with pre-determined props and structures being used to allow the students to completely immerse themselves in the experiences.
English
Students could use AR to select characters within plays for the correct attire and setting. Visuals could be generated as teachers or students interacted with stories and media.
P.H.E.
MR could be used to give feedback to students on anatomy and physiology as well as allow them to participate in a variety of new activities and competitions.
Technology Education
Since technology education is my teachable subject I believe that the use of VR, AR, and MR would transform our programs. One of the biggest challenges with running a TechEd program is our limited budget. Our students are not capable of getting the adequate repetitions with these machines that they require due to the expense of the materials and machines. Be introducing MR students would be able to get important feedback that would reduce the cost. This would also allow planning phases to be thought out and visualized in greater detail.
Drafting
A course that I have tried to implement VR into was Drafting. With the help of some colleagues much smarter than me we were able to have students design their very own houses and then using a set of VR headset walk through the house that they had just build. In the future I hope to be able to use AR to visuals objects that are manufactured through CAD and 3D prints.