Experience virtual reality in the classroom

We talk about it more and more, virtual reality is knocking on the doors of our classes. Report of a workshop on the subject at the last Summit of the iPad and the digital in education.

On May 18 and 19, the major annual meeting formed by the IPad and digital education summit and the International Colloquium on Education.

For the occasion, Benoît Petit (National STORY of the development of the person) and Steve morissette (CS de Sorel-Tracy) presented a project in which also participated Sebastien deschamps (CS of Rivière-du-Nord). All three are ICT educational advisers at RÉCIT.

Does virtual reality have educational potential?

"To grasp its full educational potential, we must imagine contexts that promote the development of skills in students through the consultation and the creation content virtual reality, ”read the slides of their presentation.

An example: 80 % young people of 4^e and 5^e secondary school at École Fernand-Lefebvre (CS de Sorel-Tracy) have a smartphone. It is therefore through the BYOD (AVAN) approach that three groups of about 28 students each were introduced to virtual reality using Cardboards (virtual reality glasses from Google). It was the stage consultation.

Then the students moved on to the step creation of the project. The goal was to have them take a virtual tour of the school: the computer lab, gymnasiums, library, auditorium, student lounge, and others. They had a device in teams of 3 or 4 and could consult the google resources for uploading photos, including, among other things, authorization requests from identifiable persons.

During the workshop, the facilitators also showed other examples of the use of virtual reality, such as this project where Annie turbide, teacher in ERC at Cardinal-Roy high school, and Benoît Petit made recordings, available in Google Street View, places of worship in and around Quebec City.

The document of this presentation, available here, will answer several questions that the neophyte asks himself: where to get Cardboards, how much does it cost, how to have them put together by the pupils, etc.

How does virtual reality add value to education?

Here is what The teacher who wishes to embark his class on a virtual reality adventure must think about it:

• Focus on relevant, interesting, original, useful content for others;
• Go look for elements of the program / learning progression;
• Find different avenues of work and reflection according to the "disciplinary angle" (eg: in the arts, producing a 3D work; in science, making a cardboard; in a social universe, site visit; etc.)

They continued the workshop with questions presented at the 2017 AQUOPS conference: what are the challenges? Obstacles and solutions?

To find out more, I invite you to consult presentation slides. They provide access to other information on all the projects. They are full of advice, resources, demonstrations. In short, they present a set of skills that will answer more questions than you ask yourself.