Schools are beginning to integrate digital tools into their classrooms. Immersive Learning
It is certainly thought that the crop of new technologies on offer will revolutionize the classroom in the future, as it offers a more immersive and interactive experience than students are used to at school.
Indeed, technology can reshape a whole generation of students, as their learning experience becomes more exciting and tailor-made to the needs of the individual student.
1. Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented Reality (AR) is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities (human/computer interaction), including visual, auditory, haptic (the ability to grasp something), somatosensory (the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch) and olfactory (the sense of smell).
In other words, AR lets us see the real-life environments right in front of us—or, indeed, imagined worlds; so, it is perceived as being physically present in a non-physical world. The perception is created by surrounding the user of the VR system in images, sound or other stimuli that provide an engrossing total environment. Over the past few years, it has been used in Pokemon Go, Snapchat and QR Codes. Augmented Reality offers schools the opportunity to create immersive learning environments that students can interact with, from performing science experiments to bringing events from the past to life.
2. Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality’s immersive character distinguishes it from Augmented Reality. Indeed, Virtual Reality immerses the user in a 360-degree environment that he perceives as real, and with which he can sometimes even interact. Of all the technology on offer, this is probably the most exciting, although it does have its drawbacks. Until now, the factors of size and cost for acquiring headsets have kept this technology out of reach for many schools and institutions. The technology behind Virtual Reality will certainly help schools move away from outdated methods of teaching that have been around for decades.
