Close to reality
Travel away from home
Explore in safe surroundings
Practical situations
Communication exercises
Get closer than text and images
Deepen students' knowledge about how things work, other cultures and ways of life
Examples of VR glasses
wireless with everything built-in, e.g Quest Oculus (available in an older version that is PC-connectable with a wire) with hand controllers
more affordable alternative for a smartphone, such as making your own or buying ready-made cardboard or more advanced equipment with built-in sound
Follow the glasses instructions.
Make our own 360-degree movie by using a 360-degree camera. Create ethical dilemmas. Let students see and reflect on this in VR.
STALU at UiA on VR in teaching:
Experience from the TL in different subjects
History:
Here we have looked at the game Anne Frank's House, where you gain an interactive insight into the environment in which Anne Frank wrote her diaries. The game can function well as a supplement to teaching about Anne Frank and the persecution of Jews during World War II, and can be useful as a starting point for students about games in history teaching.
Religion:
Compared to STALU and Martin Smith-Gahrsen's project, we have previously used VR to explore religious spaces and rituals. Here, you can use both 360-degree photos and videos to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how others practise their faith. Usually, there is a church or mosque near the school that you can visit on an excursion, but other buildings, such as synagogues or Buddhist temples, are often quite far away. Here, VR can therefore serve as a good alternative to allow students to get acquainted with how religious services, ceremonies or holidays are celebrated by other faiths and beliefs.
VR can also be used to immerse yourself in situations that you can discuss the ethics around afterwards. This applies both to students at school, and also to students to get out into a specific profession where you encounter unique ethical dilemmas that you might not encounter otherwise. Here, VR can therefore be a good preparation for working life, whether it is for student teachers or vocational students.
Escape room:
Here, we can use 360-degree photos and videos to create tasks that students have to solve to find a code. Here, you can have a "Find Willy" solution where you have to look for some small hints in a large picture, or you have to count how many times something appears or happens during a video.