With the surprise of looking at a very real human heart up close, our students experienced this week the wonderful world of virtual reality (VR). This was the first time the school implemented this technology, with hopes of extending its use to many different classes -like biology, physics and math.
The students no doubt will take advantage of having access to the VR devices and software, for it has been shown to have many benefits in education. Making contents more fun creates a different kind of interest in the students, thus increasing their engagement and involvement in the class and the topics. It also provides with visualizations that would otherwise be impossible in school -talk about seeing a human heart!
But not only that, VR can be used for teaching social and emotional skills like empathy and self-regulation, as it allows for the creation of different environments -which definitely rings a bell in an international school such as ours, with so many different cultures intertwined in our classrooms.
Using VR also opens the dialogue of interacting with technology from a young age, allowing for discussions like the importance of human connection and real-life experiences, or how to avoid addiction to technological devices, a conversation that is so important not only for younger generations, but for adults as well.
We’re proud to continue growing, and excited to see all the amazing things that we will be able to learn together with this new technology.