6 Exploring virtual reality for teacher training, materials development and stud
6 Exploring virtual reality for teacher training, materials development and student engagement
Paul Driver; Nicola Walshe; Siân Shaw; and Suzanne Hughes
Introduction
Though it might be said that virtual reality has now ‘arrived’, in the popular sense, its evolution can be traced back through time as a constant struggle to create more visually immersive experiences. From the panoramic paintings of the nineteenth century and early experiments in stereoscopic photography, the history of immersive media has been a steady march towards the goal of creating convincing simulacra that commandeer our perceptual systems, persuading us that what we are seeing is real. Virtual reality (VR) embodies the current stage in the evolution of this process.
VR has made a remarkable recovery from the premature technology, disappointing results and over-hyped promises of its previous incarnations. The global VR market is expected to reach 49.7 billion US dollars by 2023, a dramatic rise from 3.13 billion in 2017 (Orbis Research, 2018), and VR appears to be on the brink of widespread public acceptance. However, although VR technology has advanced considerably, the heavy, uncomfortable and often expensive headsets required for an immersive experience (Laurell et al., 2019), are likely to delay widespread adoption in the short term. Currently, VR seems best suited for specialised use cases, with education and training being two primary examples.
VR is being increasingly deployed in educational settings, especially in the Higher Education sector. Its use is now well established across the fields of science, engineering and medicine. Early barriers to adoption, such as the prohibitively high cost of the technology, are rapidly diminishing, and VR, is now becoming a viable tool to support teaching and learning. However, as an emerging technology that has only recently begun to gain popular traction, the study of the potential benefits of VR is still in its infancy.
The aim of this chapter is to contribute to the understanding of the potential of VR in teacher training and nurse education by providing examples, outlining theoretical considerations, and forging a methodological and technical path to guide others undertaking similar work. In addition, the authors apply VR to tackle immediate barriers to learning and teaching. In nursing, these barriers are a shortage of placements and the limited access trainee nurses have to skills labs for hands-on training. In teacher education, the primary challenge is the need to develop trainee teachers’ ability to reflect on their practice and raise their awareness of the in-situ pedagogical decision-making demonstrated by skilled and experienced teachers. As a highly immersive technology, VR can make a positive contribution towards overcoming these issues. However, more empirical data is required to avoid the pitfalls of technological determinism and inform more nuanced, context-specific applications.
What is ‘Virtual Reality’?
Virtual