Wundra recently held several new EdTech brainstorming sessions in January with over 36 STEM educators from the UK, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Japan, Singapore and Canada. We wanted to assess how they are using XR & VR this year and how the subjects they teach are supplemented with AI.
What we’ve concluded again this year is that XR learning really does improve student enagement. In a previous widely cited study, it was found that 93 percent of people using AR devices said it increased their spatial understanding of what they were being taught.
Not every school group around the world can go on a real day-trip to Stonehenge, but with XR, anything is possible.
The teachers were most exited about being able to take students on digital field trips to new museums, labs, galleries, aquariums, architectural sites, historical destinations, etc, without ever leaving a classroom. Not every school can rent a bus for a day-trip to Stonehenge or Machu Picchu.
All the participants agreed again on several takeaways
First, that collaboration was quickly being enhanced. Increasingly faster mobile networks are enabling students and teachers to collaborate in real-time and in a variety of ways. Improved data speeds everywhere are resulting in educational material having to perpetually adapt to student expectations. Second, 5G networks are key to supporting AR and VR applications, educational gaming, and interactive simulations. Third, certain learners face challenges in reaching course goals and this may impact motivation as they lose enthusiasm for particular topics. They sometimes need hands-on, immersive learning methods in order to really comprehend their coursework.
The professionals at the brainstorming mentioned the way that XR can transport people, not just to different times and places but to different scales, allowing those learners to gain intuition about the very large and very small. Immersive perceptions of interactive environments strengthen the sense of spatial presence. This makes even tricky subjects, such as complex geometry, easier to understand.
By implementing XR, teachers can enhance their own creativity and let everyone explore exciting platforms that appeal to the next generation. Lesson plans using virtual environments do provide fun, interactive learning experiences.
Any digitalization strategy must include XR
XR formats are part of any comprehensive digitalization strategy for educational institutions. Synergy with other tech is an opportunity to keep on developing digital teaching formats and to expand the tool kits of parents and educators.
Tech never stops evolving and these markets continue expanding. AI is also driving more innovations in this space that is helping how we learn.