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Education has seen some remarkable shifts over recent years. In this new landscape, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) hold great promise to expand learning and understanding. Though these technologies have the potential to reshape the future of education by helping students grasp complex concepts through enhanced visualization, immersive learning, and professional training, full adoption of AR and VR in educational settings faces considerable challenges. This blog explores both the possibilities for AR and VR to transform education and the challenges to implementation.
The many ways that technology has entered classrooms the past couple decades make me think about how different my educational experience might have been had these technologies been accessible. I'll admit that one of the most challenging subjects I studied in undergraduate school was engineering design. I often found it difficult to visualize exactly how different representations of an object—a "top view," "front view," and "plan"—meshed to create complex three-dimensional structures.
In this instance, AR technology could have helped me overcome my limited spatial perception, while VR could have benefited me in other areas. Let’s begin by looking at the differences between AR and VR and see how each can boost a student’s understanding of complex concepts and improve educational inclusivity.
AR and VR are brought up in one breath because they both play with physical reality in different ways. While AR layers digital reality components over a picture of a physical image, VR immerses the user in a completely reimagined world modeled on recognizable real-world components.
Using AR, for example, a student is able to turn three-dimensional design objects around to see exactly how different parts come together. VR subtracts the physical world and instead immerses users in another one, typically through the use of a headset. VR creates entire models of the physical world that users can interact with and learn from.
As AR and VR technology advances, one thing is certain: these technologies can expand the bounds of traditional blackboard teaching. Their use cases overlap significantly but are quite distinct. A few potential use cases for AR and VR in education include the following.
Using AR can enable students to explore the true three-dimensional nature of objects through different perspectives and gain a more thorough understanding of the material. Imagine exploring what a pyramid looks like from an aerial perspective to a side view. AR facilitates such overlays over regular two-dimensional pictures so students can better picture the hidden complexities of everyday objects. Medical students, for example, can use AR to look under layers of the human body and see how the various parts of the musculoskeletal system connect.
While a teacher can demonstrate an intricate lab technique once or twice in class, using AR or VR helps the students revisit and perfect the lesson (just like surgical students are learning how to perform complex procedures). Students who must miss school can catch up on instruction using AR and VR to complement in-class lessons.
There’s a difference between learning about the Arctic tundra in a geography textbook and visiting it through virtual reality. VR and AR lessons can make for more immersive learning, which in turn helps students engage with the material more deeply. Such pedagogical methods also enable students with different learning styles to absorb the material better.
Beyond the classroom, AR and VR can help workers update their skills by walking through a fixed set of tutorials. A new recruit on a production plant floor can sharpen their skills with lessons that use AR overlays taken from manuals and laying them over real-time pictures of the machine to see how different components work together.
VR and AR can help tailor lesson plans for students with special needs. VR tools can help students with autism, for example, by teaching skills in a less stimulating environment.
While AR and VR are promising technologies for classroom or professional development, implementation can tend to hit stumbling blocks. Most often, these include the following.
Educators might not have the required training to work with AR and VR technologies and develop tangible learning materials. They must learn its intricacies to fully understand how to use them as effective classroom tools. Integration into curricula is also a potential challenge. While AR and VR might enhance learning, they can do so only when they complement suitable material. Understanding which teaching topics could use the technology—and how—will take time for educators who are typically already facing time constraints. In the long term, thorough integration of AR and VR will require professional development and training.
VR headsets and AR technology on individual tablets and related infrastructure increase costs, posing a challenge for struggling school districts. While the price of headsets is expected to decrease over time, the up-front cost can still be a significant stumbling block. Expenses related to these technologies might, in turn, exacerbate inequities in education, with only larger-budget school districts able to afford the necessary equipment.
It's not just enough to buy headsets or tablets to implement AR and VR technology in education. Schools and institutions need complementary software, computers, and content-creation tools to execute related lessons effectively. They will also require robust connectivity services.
These challenges in implementing AR and VR are not insurmountable. As the use cases of these technologies in education keep expanding, expect them to become more visible in classrooms and training institutions. From teaching complex materials to virtual field trips, students and educators can benefit from these technologies' rich experiences—and maybe even make engineering design concepts easier to grasp.
Poornima Apte is an engineer turned writer with B2B specialties in robotics, AI, cybersecurity, smart technologies and digital transformation. Find her on Twitter @booksnfreshair.