I used to think that Virtual Reality was predominantly present in video games and very “high-tech” organizations. Now I think that it is becoming more mainstream where many of the functionalities can be applied to learning and educational environments.
Here’s What…
Virtual Reality seems to be completely separate interactions outside of the “real world”, whereas Augmented Reality seems to be a way to take real-life scenarios and improve or enhance through technology (Wang, Callaghan, Bernhardt, White. & Pena-Riox, 2017).
So What…
After beginning to immerse myself in a research topic I lacked familiarity in, my interpretation is that both VR and AR are becoming more accessible and available to the average person.
Now What…
In the world of education, my prediction is that as online learning communities and institutions grow, more fields of study will be accessible remotely with the help of VR and AR. I can see areas like medicine, firefighting, or many trades benefiting from the improvements in technology that allow for simulations and real-world training environments.
Wang, M., Callaghan, V., Bernhardt, J., White, K., & Pena-Rios, A. (2018). Augmented reality in education and training: Pedagogical approaches and illustrative case studies. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 9(5), 1391-1402. doi:10.1007/s12652-017-0547-8
Hi Katie — thank you for participating in the course. I still feel, yet with a bit more knowledge that VR/AR is a stretch for me to use personally or professionally. With your ‘so what’ discovering that AR and VR are more accessible, where do you think it may fit for you in your educational context or if at all? or how may it stretch you?