Growing up, since I was the oldest of four and being a girl, I did not have much interest in virtual worlds or video games. I have never visited or participated in a virtual world. As I grew up and went to college, somehow my intensity against virtual worlds especially in video games increased. I saw boys come to college with good intentions and then drop out a semester later because all they did was spend time in their virtual worlds and neglect all school work. Just the word “avatar” gives me a bad feeling in my stomach. For my own life, I prefer reality world instead of a fake virtual world. Except that would be false because I love to read and I love to get lost in the imaginary worlds of Narnia and the phantom tollbooth. So what is it about virtual realities that I don’t like? One aspect is the addiction that can come with it. While I do spend time on facebook and while I do enjoy reading, I feel like virtual realities can sometimes take over a person’s life to where they get too addicted to it and they start to forget the real world. I don’t ever want that to happen to myself so I stay away from virtual realities. It’s also that just generally as a person I prefer to be outside in nature instead of always at my computer. When I was homeschooled in high school, I did a semester of online classes and I would get head ache’s all the time from staring at the computer screen all day. I know that not everyone is like me and prefers nature of computers, I still have a bias against virtual realities. I used to say that I would never date a guy who played video games… my boyfriend now plays video games and I’m slowly getting over my judgment of them and seeing that it’s a general preference for different people and that people engage in virtual realities because they enjoy them just as I enjoy riding my bike or reading a book.
Educationally, I really liked how the book explained practical uses for virtual reality. As I have stated in previous blogs, I feel that it is really important for teachers to discuss virtual safety and ethical and moral uses of anything online. Student probably don’t get this kind of teaching anywhere else and especially if our world is moving toward a more technological society, it is important for students to be able to learn this now instead of later on in their life when it is too late.
I could also see virtual realities as a good tool for ESL students to learn English. Especially in the elementary level, the games and sites would be fun and less harmful to students than to high school level virtual reality. If a student is learning English, high school students may stumble in bad situations such as chatting with a person and getting taken advantage of where as elementary students would only be in worlds where they play games, read stories, and navagate through a virtual world.
While I don’t particularly see myself using virtual reality in my own classroom, it will be interesting to see what direction virtual realities will take in the next few years.
There is no need to plan on using them right now. In the future I think you may find virtual reality to teach historical periods, empathy with those who have different backgrounds and in different areas, etc., that one cannot find elsewhere. But all this is a bit down the road, perhaps.
ReplyDeleteThanks for continuing to be open to the possibilities. Thanks!