A virtual environment is an environment which is partially or totally based on computer generated sensory inputs. A virtual learning environment is a place where students can interact and have their on space. It is not restricted to primarily distance education though. Students are not only actors but construct new knowledge in virtual learning environments.
The potential that it holds for education is that virtual learnign environments integrate heterogeneous technologies and numerous pedagogical approaches and overlap various physical approaches.
What is specific to virtual environments compared to any information space is that it is populated. The users are inside the information space and see a representation of
themselves and/or others in the space. As soon as students see who else is interested by
which information, the space becomes inherently social.
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3 comments:
Virtual reality is becoming big in video games as well. It is useful in the classroom, since we all feel as though we know each other though we are not physically there in the same room. In video games, we create other personas and become a different person, without anyone else ever knowing who we really are. It can be exciting for some people.
Although the concept seems to be a few years ahead of real life classroom applications, I could already see how it can revolutionize the current paradigm. People are essentially self taught; educators only present and guide, but ultimately learning lies within the self. With this premise in mind, it’s not hard to envision how virtual reality can influence a particularly individualized directed discovery of the mind’s potential, whereby interpretive differences encounter in the teaching process dissolve into a world in which the creator is, simultaneously, the interpreter.
Virtual reality applications are something that I am very intrigued by, however, I have no real experiences with using them. I believe that we will all be familiar with them in a few years, as I can see many opportunites for usage. Of late, I have been considering the possibility of utilizing the virtual gaming environments, such as playing tennis, for excersise!
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