VR Goggles enhance student learning

Virtual technology has exploded in functionality over the last 50 years, infiltrating innumerable applications since its earlier popular use in flight simulations for pilots. Its value as an educational tool is immeasurable, especially because of more recent technological advances in graphics, animation and spatial audio. Numerous studies have shown the many benefits of this multisensory learning format.

VR enables active learning, which means students learn by doing rather than passively listening. Clear graphics and smooth animation make it possible for students to engage more actively with lesson content, better retain information and practice learned skills. What’s more, students with mobility limitations can also engage in these “field trips” they might not otherwise be able to in the nonvirtual world, and the multisensory format is more inclusive of students’ varying learning styles. 

In December 2022, 30 sets of VR goggles and related equipment were made available to students in SK to Year 5 classrooms through the Principal’s Innovation Fund. 

Students in Year 1, for example, after reading Rapunzel, used the goggles to “explore” the castle, gardens and tower featured in the story; students in Year 4 navigated the International Space Station landscape. 

“This immersive technology is transforming classroom experiences and is bound to have a significant positive impact on student learning and engagement,” says Primary Technology Integrator Joanna Martin, who is spearheading this Principal’s Innovation Fund project. “And one of the goals in implementing this technology is to empower students to create rather than just consume content.”

With this in mind, Year 3 students have been creating blueprints for either an urban, suburban or rural community and building virtual 3-D models of their communities on their iPads using a program called CoSpaces. They then import their virtual worlds into the VR goggles. Students are even able to code things like cars driving, people walking and lights turning on in buildings. 

Says Martin, “They were able to be fully immersed into their creation and walk around the streets. This gave them a different perspective and allowed them to reflect on their creation and provide each other with feedback as they toured each other’s communities.” 

Some Year 5 students are also incorporating VR goggles into their schoolwork, creating digital games for their Exhibition projects. Games are coded using CoSpaces and Scratch, and played on the VR goggles during Exhibition.