Virtual Reality: Bringing Education to Life

Abstract

Virtual reality applications have been available for many decades for entertainment and even research and education. However, cost was often prohibitive, and development was time-consuming. With the advent of open-source environments, which are essentially available for free, and virtual artifacts being donated through Creative Commons by artists and developers, educators can now avail themselves of these open-ended, creative, potentially engaging environments. Since the possibilities are truly limitless, it is important to consider areas most available and applicable to educators. Environments can be used as meeting spaces for presentations, poster sessions, and collaborations that could work across geographies. Games and quests can be developed. Simulations and role-playing can be guided toward educational purposes – certainly students know how to use these for entertainment purposes. The built-in mathematics and the computer-aided design (from the very way that objects are created) can support STEM/STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) and computer-aided design (CAD) applications. In addition, most components within these environments can be scripted to create interactivity and enhanced applications, encouraging the learning of programming and coding. Assessment will always be essential to understanding whether designs and activities are educationally productive; these practices can be built into the application design. This chapter highlights ways that these environments can be acquired and initially piloted to develop productive classroom applications within the realms suggested above.