Today’s digital world is filled with gizmos and gadgets, hence a lot of distractions! Finding new ways to make learning more interactive by Learning Management Software, to increase student engagement, and to improve knowledge retention has become difficult than ever. The question here is how can we use these modern technologies as a constructive tool in school education to make learning better than ever? Read through to find the answers.

The purpose of education is to make people learn, understand and remember things and if any of these isn’t covered, then the purpose remains unfulfilled.

The famous American polymath, Benjamin Franklin has very well stated the importance of experiential learning in education, that we tend to remember things we do. Hence, the answer to making education worthwhile is to provide new experiences to students. And the new-age technologies, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality let you do this within the walls of the classroom.

Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience: ‘Learning by Doing’

Edgar Dale, an American educator developed the Cone of Experience during the 1960s. According to the Cone of Experience, or the Learning Pyramid, learners retain more knowledge and information by what they ‘do’, rather than what they ‘read’, ‘hear’, or ‘observe’.

                   We remember 90% of what we do, and only 10% of what we read.

This research further encouraged the idea of ‘learning by doing’ which later came to be known as ‘Experiential Learning’ or ‘Action Learning’.

AR and VR: Changing the World of School Education

It is very well understood that experiential learning is much more effective than the other methods of learning. AR and VR are the technologies that promote kinaesthetic learning by providing schools with a highly engaging, interesting, and comprehensive immersive learning experience that can be controlled and managed within the classroom. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize the world of classroom pedagogy, making learning interactive and fun.

Augmented Reality in School Education

Student engagement plays a very important role for schools and teachers. It is one of the factors that decide other facets such as understanding of concepts and knowledge retention among students. With the help of Augmented Reality, teachers can get quick attention of learners which further improves student engagement.

Teaching and learning with Augmented Reality is very interactive and helps teachers to be actively involved in the process. Students enjoy watching the augmentation of 2D images to 3D interactive models on digital screens. Teachers, on the other hand benefit by focused immersion of students. They can teach as per their ease as they have the control of the devices by creating a flipped classroom.

It won’t be wrong if we call augmented reality the future of education. You don’t even need bulky equipment for its deployment. All you need is a mobile or a tablet and the plain 2-dimensional figures will get transformed into lifelike 3-dimensional models. You can explode the model and view every component and when done, join them all again to take a quick test. Whilst it incorporates experiential learning, you remember whatever you’ve done.

Virtual Reality in School Education

Virtual Reality is yet another ground-breaking technology that can transform the traditional methods of classroom teaching. The technology helps students to understand the toughest of abstract topics through immersive learning. Imagine how interesting it would be to take a tour inside the human brain or to travel in space amidst the beautiful constellations! All this is possible with Virtual Reality.

The technology lets students learn concepts in a distraction-free environment which further improves their concentration levels and helps them in understanding the most difficult topics in a very interesting way. Since students can virtually travel anywhere, they’re no longer bounded by the walls of a classroom.

The whole experience is very engaging and it helps learners retain most of the things learned as it incorporates kinaesthetic learning. After all, when you learn by doing, you remember things better.

Benefits of AR and VR for Schools and Teachers

If you still doubt the potential of augmented reality and virtual reality in school education, then the pointers mentioned below will change the way you think. Take a look.

• Multi-Sensory Experiences: Learning through AR and VR helps teachers to create multi-sensory experiences for students through truly immersive virtual content that incorporates kinaesthetic learning.
• Breaking Boundaries: It has always been difficult for teachers to make students understand abstract topics within the boundaries of a classroom. With the help of AR and VR, teachers can give students the ability to virtually travel to the physically inaccessible places.
• Amplified Student Engagement: Student engagement has always been one of the major challenges for schools and teachers. Hence, learning management systems powered with AR and VR help teachers by increasing student engagement through engaging and immersive content.
• Contextualised Learning: One of the most important benefits of AR and VR for schools is helping students learn through contextualised learning. With these modern-day technologies, teachers can bring the statues of ancient Greece to the classroom and further contextualise the learning by letting students view the same.
• Better Teacher-Student Collaboration: Teacher-student collaboration is yet another challenge for teachers and schools. This can be improved with the help of AR and VR as teachers are actively involved in the process.

Benefits of AR and VR for Students

Just the way Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality benefit schools and teachers, these technologies come with tremendous benefits for students as well. Below are some of the most interesting ones.

• Increased Collaboration and Teamwork: AR and VR not only help in improving teacher-student collaboration, it also helps in improving collaboration among students and nurturing teamwork.
• Better Understanding of Concepts: Augmented reality and virtual reality help students understand abstract topics in a better way which cannot be done with traditional methods of teaching. Students can get a 360-degree view of topics such as the human heart and see how it functions.
• Gamification of Learning: These technologies involve gamification of learning which makes the process fun and interactive. Students of all ages find virtual content very appealing, hence they are well engaged in the learning process.
• Distraction-Free Learning: AR and VR let students’ study in a distraction-free environment which helps in a better understanding of concepts and better memory.
• Kinaesthetic Learning: Since these technologies come with intelligent learning content, students can experience things happening around them. This is known as kinaesthetic learning which comes with benefits of its own, such as boosted long-term memory.

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are not only the technologies of future education but present as well. Hence, if you’re planning to get an EdTech solution for your school, you should opt for the one powered with AR and VR.