February 1999 — Features
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Virtual Reality In Schools: The Ultimate Educational Technology
The future is here, and it has come faster than anyone thought. In an age marked by the rapid integration of computers in schools, the ultimate technology looms on the horizon - the age of virtual reality in schools. Using virtual reality as an educational tool conjures up visions of a Jetsons-like futuristic scenario, students exploring their schoolwork immersed in virtual reality, gaining a deeper understanding of their subjects. A physics class experiments with a simulated virtual reality lab where they control the properties of objects, and observe them from any angle. In another part of the school, a social studies class uses virtual reality to travel back in time into the Battle of 1812. A Spanish class visits the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, and so on.
Harnessing the awesome power of virtual reality for educational uses will permanently change the nature and course of how children learn. No longer will children sit idly by in classrooms - the opportunity is here to provide them with an unprecedented chance to explore, engage, and visualize schoolwork like never before. The beauty of it is that they will actually want to.
Piloting VR in Public Schools
For the first time, virtual reality has been used in a non-research, public-school environment. During the summer of 1998, summer program students at the Coles Elementary School and the Ph'enix High School in Chicago used virtual reality to supplement their traditional learning. This innovative pilot program was born through a partnership between SUNRISE Virtual Reality, a Chicago-based virtual reality company, and Dr. Eleanor Byrd, director of the New Functional Learning Institute, also based in Chicago. The objective of the pilot program was to discern the optimal ways virtual reality could be integrated into an educational curriculum, and to see how students and teachers alike reacted to the new technology.
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The age-old problem of better involving students in their studies is particularly acute at the Coles and Ph'enix schools, located on the South Side of Chicago. Traditional teaching methods have often not been effective in the goal of seizing these students' attention. Traditional methods often relegate students to a passive role in the classroom. This is contrary to the wisdom that learning is much more effective when it is an active discovery process. Similarly, new teaching methods and technologies must be pioneered to relieve teachers of the growing burden placed upon them by today's classroom and its changing role in society.
Using virtual reality in the summer programs seemed to be an effective response to these pressing educational needs. First and foremost, students, especially at-risk students, must become more involved with their studies. To many students today, school is boring. Relying on textbook reading and lectures can only go so far in learning, while CD-ROM-based educational programs often merely transfer information from a book to a computer screen.
