The Importance of Hands-On Learning

The idea that sensorimotor interaction with one's environment is so important for learning has major implications and opportunities for immersive technologies. Time, space, and resources have limited our opportunities for interaction with particular objects and environments from the beginning of time. Immersive experiences afford us the opportunity to interact with any one, thing, or place from any period of time!

Hands-On Learning/Experiential learning

Hands-on learning, which is more formally known as experiential learning, has been described as "the underpinning philosophy that acts as a thread joining many of the learning theories" (Beard, et al., 2013, p. 13). It teaches a future scientist to be comfortable with dissection. It helps a future mechanic understand the nuances of an engine with not just their eyes and ears but also with actual hands-on training. It gives students the opportunity to self-correct any educational missteps in the moment – with professional guidance at arm’s reach. While notes can be copied down incorrectly, live examples of core concepts are registered in the brain as holistic experiences, giving the student’s mind more “anchors” to tie the memory to. The sound two materials make when they are joined together, the scent of a certain solvent, the vivid color of a particular plant leaf – these all become easy-access sensory “bookmarks” for bringing the memory to the surface when it needs to be reviewed. People simply learn better when they are allowed to roll up their sleeves and experience the subject matter, rather than being distanced from it by a third-hand narrative experience or a dry passage of text (NewSchool of Architecture and Design).

Beard et al. (2013) define experiential learning as "the sense -making process of active engagement between the inner world of the person and the outer world of the environment". They cite the general dissatisfaction with the traditional learning model and state very clearly that it is more desirable for us to learn from direct experience when appropriate (p. 51).

Kolb (1984) explained, "Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience" (p. 38). Lewin, a contemporary of Kolb, described a four-stage feedback process for optimal learning: concrete experience, observations and reflection, formation of abstract concepts and generalizations, and testing implications of concepts in new situations.

A variety of educational theorists and educators themselves would agree that the immersion and contact with the learning experience is crucial to pushing it forward and being integrated as knowledge. From this perspective, one can argue that the stimulus for learning is the experience. This is the core argument in much theoretical work on experiential learning (Beard et al., 2013, p. 4).