VR in schools or VR as school?
Written by: Kris & Emma Olson
My 10-year-old daughter and I took the dog for a long walk today before the snow came tomorrow. We started talking about school. Although she is doing well and enjoying remote learning, she misses her friends and the social side of school. Even though she and her sister are often on our phones doing some kind of kid’s messenger chat, using pictures of their faces with augmented reality stickers and emojis everywhere, or Facetime to discuss Animal Crossing.
Early in our walk she said, “Dad, I got an Idea! What if we had all the social things from school all in Virtual Reality?!” Now that is a conversation starter!
I did what I do with anyone, and tried to see where this could go, and when you are collaborating with a 10-year-old, boy oh boy it’s a lot of fun!
We started spit balling some ideas she had about using VR to improve the social side of school and how it could be a more immersive experience to simulate things that she’s been missing. After our 45-minute walk, we added enough to the idea and thought this could be fun and (dare I say) a viable opportunity. After getting home, we tried to remember all the things we discussed and quickly jotted them down before we forgot. We also did a quick search for “VR school” and found most of the immediate Google entries were about using VR for an individual school experience, or using VR in an additive way to pre-pandemic schooling. We thought, “Yeah! Let’s share it!”
Environment and Hardware
One big benefit to VR school is making sure the students and teachers are in their own real classroom, in an effort to get them out of the “stuck at home” doldrums and really send them to their actual school the one they love so much. One way to do this could be to take a 3D camera and place it in the middle of the classroom and capture the full environment to add to the VR environment. This space will also have built-in editability where the teacher can customize and change portions of the room during the school year to make sure they bring the full classroom experience to their students.
Since this is a VR solution, we will obviously need students and teachers to have some kind of VR headset and controls. Since VR has been available for a while the cost of technology is starting to come down, the new Oculus Quest 2 is $299 which is about half the price of mid-range laptop. We hope to reduce traditional screen time and increase social time. We think normal instruction will occur within VR, and laptop use would be limited to completing assignments similar to how they might have used them previously in the classroom.
Major Benefits:
There are several benefits and opportunities with VR schooling that can assist with remote learning:
Increased social interaction
Students used to see each other on the bus, on their way into school, in the classroom, at recess, at lunch time, and of course any side of desk chatter they could squeeze in. Now, with Zoom-like meetings, they have limited time to chat before the class starts and little interaction during class. Creating a VR space where students can feel like they are in a classroom increases togetherness and opportunities to talk with one another.
Reduced traditional Screen time.
Using VR for most of the instruction time and using laptops for completing assignments will reduce overall screen time. This comes with a tradeoff to an increase in VR headset time, but we think the positives may outweigh any negatives.
Immersive environment
By immersing kids in a VR school environment that feels like their actual classroom, they can shake off those “stuck at home” blues. They will be whisked away by immersive technology and feel like they really are connecting as a group, and at a more fun and interactive version of their school.
But what can it do?
On our 45-minute walk we created an amazing list of benefits of a VR school for both student and teachers.
Student Stuff.
Here are some examples of things that students might be able to do.
· Kids can create their own VR characters that look like them (think bitmoji or Apple avatars)
· Chat with desk mates between instruction periods when teachers are transitioning between topics
· Look around the room with a 360-degree view of the classroom, and interact with friends by sending an emoji or brief message
· Have a midday 15 minute “Lunch Bunch” chat with 4 friends and catch-up.
· Engage in one-on-one talks with friends or teachers.
· Host a live show & tell with the class appearing on the teacher’s big screen at the front of class (may still need laptop for this).
· Use a VR pencil to draw on the board for class work.
· Classes can take immersive class trips to the aquarium, museum, zoo, or wherever in the world you can imagine without all the tedious bus trips, travel time, and expenses
· Use VR to solve problems though interactive learning would include game-style tactics. For example, instead of doing a math problem on how many apples are left in the basket, you can have the basket in front of you and get hands-on with VR.
· Students can use easy buttons to raise their hands or request a hall pass. (But be careful the teacher can limit the amount of hall passes so you can’t abuse them.)
· If students are feeling stressed or concerned, they can visit the school counselor for a one-on-one talk
· During breaks a countdown clock appears in the corner so you know when you have to return to instruction time.
Teacher Features.
Here are some examples of things that teachers might be able to do.
· Customize the classroom to fit different educational topics or even seasonal needs.
· Create assigned seating within the classroom so you can rotate students to different spaces so that the students can interact with everyone throughout the year.
· Ability to bring focus back to instruction from social time by clicking the summon class button where all chat stops and eyes are back up front.
· With room customization you can create and edit different display areas in the room and move from space to space as you need (front board, wall displays, maps, posters, or whatever you need).
· Use a whiteboard in class can display any assets, images, or presentations that you normally display in your classroom.
· Access a “time out corner” to pause any social interaction time of an individual or group of students.
· Have one-on-one talks with students where only you and the student can hear the question and what is discussed.
We tried to think of as many school-related situations as we could. Our youngest daughter chimed in and said, “What about gym class?!” which she illustrated with a very convincing stumbling skit. She thought that VR would cause students to run into walls. A good point, and exactly why innovative ideas need to be shared. You never know who might add a valuable point we would have never thought of, or the next piece of the puzzle. We always encourage people to share their ideas with others because you can go far if you go there together.
We hope you like our idea about introducing a VR-based school that uses technology to bring the social interaction back to an otherwise cold remote learning environment, and hope you had a little fun imagining it with us. We sure had a great time collaborating and thinking about the concept. I am sure this not the last article from me and Emma as we are always thinking up crazy ideas that could make this new normal more fun and engaging.
