Virtual Reality - the future of education?

Dhruv Washishth FRSA is the Co-Founder & CEO of Paradigm Shift. Here is his take on why Virtual Reality is a great use case for the Education industry:

The Virtual Reality space is heating up and it is said to be a force which can revolutionise the way we learn!  Dhruv and his company have been featured by media outlets like Yahoo News, Deccan Chronicle and e27. 

Virtual Reality is a new computational platform in its

broadest sense. With devices like Facebook’s Oculus and HTC Vive one can do anything from playing games to learning new things and even have almost real life like travel experiences. The industry is still in it’s infancy, there is a huge scope for growth and has varied applications in many verticals!

Strictly speaking about the education industry, VR can be a very potent tool, if used well. Currently the biggest draw is the novelty and “wow” factor a person usually experiences when she/he encounters VR for the first time, but for VR to prove it’s mettle, effectiveness in explaining complex topics will be the key & it may be suited to some subjects more than others.

So, why then is there this hype regarding VR’s usage in this industry? What are the main advantages compared to other mediums?

Here are a few pointers:

• Active rather than passive experience
• Immersive experience means no distractions (It is immersive because you wear a headset and view an experience which feels like you have been transported to the very location of the scene) Eg : Students in a classroom in the US experience visiting the Burj Khalifa in Dubai VIDEO 
• Immediate engagement: useful in today’s world of limited attention spans.
• Exploration and hands on approach aids with learning and retention.
• Helps with understanding complex subjects/theories/concepts
• Suited to all types of learning styles.

 Today’s digital first student population has been playing with mobile phones right from the time they started walking and talking, they are a lot more in tune with being comfortable with technology.They will not grow up fearing tech will take away their jobs, they will have the foresight and natural tendency to adapt to a tech first world and teaching in VR is just a natural extension of this brave new world.

To read more about Paradigm Shift and Dhruv, you can click here. You can get in touch with Dhruv via Email: dhruv@paradigmshiftvr.com, connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.