I recently needed a short, engaging prompt to inspire my students to write.
The lesson focused on ‘show not tell’ when describing feelings – i.e. instead of telling the reader how they felt “I was scared”, they show how the characters are feeling “my hands began to tremble and a cold pain shot up my spine”.
I thought, why not use virtual reality and see what effect it had?
Is it difficult to use VR in the classroom?
The answer is no. All you need is a set of cheap VR headsets (my class has 6), paired with smartphones or iPod touches. Here’s how to set up:
I found a great 360 clip on YouTube of a rollercoaster ride; what better way to get the students thinking about feeling words! Just put the phone in the VR headset, load the video and tap on the VR icon:
Watch how amazing VR was at immersing my students in the theme park adventure:
The writing produced was excellent and I am convinced VR increased the quality:
Finally, here’s a handy graphic, showing you some more ways to use virtual reality in your lessons:
Have you used virtual reality to inspire students? How? Let me know by commenting below.
I really want to try this with my class!
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Do it! It’s easier than you think ☺
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I have been using Google Classroom all year and have managed to cut my photocopying by about 90%. All worksheets are uploaded and accessible offline, this includes assessment tasks (exams are still old fashioned). I have combined it with Google Docs so that students can share their work with me and I can edit and give feedback easily. This has also avoided the old ‘I lost it/ I’m sure I put it in my bag’ excuses.
There are instructional videos on YouTube and its soooo easy to use.
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