Could your reality use a change?
Never mind, I got you.
Like so many unanswered questions, the answer lies at the library.
So, what are we talking about, here?
Middle School librarian, Janine Johnson discusses her experience with introducing students to virtual reality in Jumping into the World of Virtual and Augmented Reality.
First, definitions:
(Augmented Reality) AR layers something digital over what we see in our real world. (Virtual Reality) VR is completely digital and could be a real 360-degree image or video that was recorded or a digital world that is digitally created. VR is completely immersive, meaning the viewer can look up, down, and all around to experience the image or video. MR modifies the experience relative to the user’s surroundings, taking into account such things as lighting, obstacles, hand gestures, etc.Now, back to some awesome students and their librarian:
Johnson notes that students exposed to the technology were then self-motivated to use what they learned on other projects. It's really kind of incredible to note that students were moved to make compassionate choices, like implementing VR for fictional characters to visit locations in the world that they might not be able to afford to visit. I think it's quite interesting to find this moment where students express their own humanity with technology that we normally think as cold and unfeeling:
...of their own volition,
social studies learners have chosen
to include 360-degree immersive
experiences rather than two dimensional illustrations as part
of projects. These students have
also begun to create 360-degree
content of their own. In a recent
group presentation, a seventh grade student pointed out how the
group included “VR stores” in their
model cities “so that those who can’t
afford to travel somewhere get the
chance to go there." Through their experiences with VR, learners are
making empathetic connections to
the larger world.
Which kind of makes sense. I have a real resistance when it comes to what I am about to write next, but is VR how to teach empathy? I like to think that empathy doesn't need teaching, but what if it were never modeled by adults, would the child then struggle to express empathy? These are big questions for a Thursday night, but I do think it's interesting that the screens that have replaced people (at times) in our lives may also aid us in rediscovering what makes us human.
Works Cited
Johnson, Janine. “Jumping into the world of Augmented Reality.” Knowledge quest 47.4 (2019): 22–.
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