Written by - Vijaykumar Thakkar (Foton VR)
Is AR/VR the future of education ?
1). What are the positive impacts of VR on the current curriculum?
Students enjoy learning in VR classroom because it spices up the ordinary classroom environment.......with XR they can get teleported from their classrooms to locations around the world.
Virtual reality enhances the quality of teaching.
Our students love the experiential learning and visual delight.
By using VR technology in our school, the method of teaching has improved incredibly and the level of imagination and understanding of students has increased exponentially. We feel that students are waiting for their next VR classroom session to learn with VR technology and they are eager to see something new as well as experience a new place and learn in a realistic virtual environment.
we also feel that the memory power has improved in students they understand the concept in depth.
Overall, By adopting FotonVR classroom with educational content, We found that the imagination, creativity, memory power, level of understanding of complex topics and interest toward hard and boring subjects like science were increased.
2). How do you feel that it is worthy pedagogy in education?
In today’s generation, we feel that all students are trying to get good marks without understanding the topic properly. They have just memorized it. This may cause hindrance in their lives when they go seeking jobs or want to start their own business, Even in higher education, they are stuck due to lack of understanding. VR is the technology that gives a deep level of knowledge with a real-time environment.
With VR classroom you can experience a virtual tour of the moon, a tour of the center of the earth, A Spacewalk, the jungle, inside an atom or human body and many more similar experiences, VR Gives you the feeling of actually being physically present.
I feel that VR is an amazing innovation for getting some tremendous experience of the real-world and connect it with education, It will definitely bring a new era of thought in increasing learning capability as well as understand it briefly.
Using this technology, average students will learn speedily and it would encourage weak students to study as it decreases the pressure of a classroom.
3). How does it increase the excitement of students to learn science?
Everyone likes to watch new movies, visit new places and play games, VR is a novelty as of now. Pressureless studies make them feel adventurous.
As stated earlier, It increases interest due to gamifying and fun-based activities and learning content. We found that each student is eager to learn new chapter with VR technology. We found positive changes in learning science subjects in students.
4) How does it elevate the engagement of students with the teacher?
All our teachers are positive about this new technology. With the help of VR, teachers can explain briefly about the topic as the visualization helps the students to understand the topic better. The teachers save time as they don’t have to draw an awkward diagram on the whiteboard.
Also for giving better knowledge, now they can spare time to improve their skills as well as their knowledge about the connected topic. VR helps improve the skills of being a better teacher. In short VR technology is very useful for teachers and students both.
5) How can it be playing a major role in the grasping ability of the students?
Seeing is believing, and for young children, it is very much true. When students see the experiments of science they believe and understand it. Chemistry is a subject that confuses the student because we cannot perform many practicals in the classroom, but it can be performed in the Virtual chemistry lab of the FotonVR classroom. Science is the subject of experiments and understanding, so Virtual lab helps us perform all science experiments in VR classroom. Students already have a good grasp of the activities they do.
6) What are the major differences between ordinary teaching methods & VR immersive method?
In ordinary teaching methods, students may lose their concentration but in VR immersive method they can completely focus on the topic.
In ordinary teaching methods, students have to think about the situation of a topic, but in VR they can see the situation and so they can be saved from misunderstanding the concept or situation.
In ordinary teaching methods, it is difficult to allow for improving creative thinking because of the lack of time and tools but VR immersive method, there can be an improvement in creative thinking indirectly by improving imagination power.
In regular classrooms, the student may lose interest in the subject but VR is a fun way of learning so it increases the interest in the subject, and we have felt this. Students eagerly want to know more about the topic and they ask more questions and get satisfactory answers from the teachers.
In ordinary learning, students just can see figures and images but can’t feel exactly where they are and how they are working but through VR immersive learning students can reach the exact place where the processes are happening and experience the whole scenario happening in front of them.
7) What is the list of improvements in the quality of education by VR technology?
We are having all the topics of science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) covered in FotonVR classroom, that is well arranged according to our school syllabus and the level of content is also tuned with the age of the pupil, but other subjects like History, Social Science, Geology or Geography also can be taught using the same hardware and software, so we expect more subjects. Quality of the content is fine, but there is still room for improvement when it comes to the look and feel.
8) What is your view, as a principal, on adapting the VR technology?
As a principal for me, it is all about the use of smart technology to improve the teaching-learning process.
For teachers, the most difficult part is how to simplify any learning topic, so that every student can understand the topic well. By seeing and using FotonVR technology, teachers find that the difficulty is solved by this technology.
Using this technology, Teachers are now able to serve the best knowledge to their students.
Teachers observed that their knowledge-sharing experience and engagement with students has improved with students and students are enjoying learning new topics with VR technology. As a principal, it gives me great satisfaction when my teachers and students are happy.
About School
Smt. Manjula Ben Ganpatbhai Patel Sainik School (MGPSS) established in 1999 has to its credit, the honor of being called the first Sainik School for Girls in Gujarat state It provides education to female students from Std Vii to Std XII (Science Stream). The school is unique since it insists on the acquisition of certain essential values like self-reliance and self-confidence for living a respectable life for girls. MGPSS envisions an education system that is based on inspiration and innovation that kindles the dormant talents of female students. It is based on the philosophy of "strong woman, strong society”. MGPS strives to instill strong leadership qualities, a sense of teamwork, fair play and a wish to excel along with an equal concern for the less fortunate.
Focused academic pursuits along with a wide range of extra-curricular and co-curricular activities blend with the best values, It Provides a balanced approach of academics, athletics, artistic and social opportunities, thereby encouraging girls to lift their aspirations to the highest level of their capabilities and interests.