Since June, I’ve been speaking with a range of ClassVR users from around the world to discover how they’ve been using virtual reality in their lessons and more importantly, what they plan to do to make a difference to the learning experience.
Virtual Reality Experiences vs Educational Visits
St Joseph’s Cathedral Primary School, based in Swansea, was the first primary school of sanctuary in the area. Open to young asylum seekers and refugees, 48% of St Joseph’s student population had English as a second language, which led an investigation into virtual reality and how it compares to real-life educational visits.
As is likely the case for most educators, 50% of the staff at St Joseph’s “vaguely” knew what virtual reality was as a concept but most were not sure where it fits in education. Once training was complete for ClassVR, the staff quickly realised how it could be utilised within their normal lessons and with a range of topics.
For example, when learning about The Romans the Y4 class were able to utilise existing ClassVR resources as a ‘stimulus experience’ within the teaching topic. Using the Ancient Rome, volcanoes and Solar System playlist, students were able to explore and witness a volcanic eruption virtually, learn about Roman Gods and Goddesses and then create news reports regarding Pompeii.
The feedback from students was tremendous!
One student said: 'When we were doing the news report about Pompeii, we watched a VR video of Mount Vesuvius erupting and we could see the devastation as we were reading our script when we were doing our news report.'