Activities and Results for Individuals Engaging in Creative Lessons Using Virtual Reality Headsets
摘要
This chapter gives a general definition for a virtual reality (VR) headset, which can be used for VR video games, simulations, teaching purposes, and more. This headset is a head-mounted display that creates a reality-based virtual environment. It includes software that allows individuals to interact with real or imaginary computer-simulated environments. These three-dimensional experiences include both visual and auditory components. Our work presents and describes enjoyable educational activities, and the successful results of their creative lessons that were carried out by the authors and students while wearing VR headsets. For example, one person used the Oculus VR headset to experience parachuting from an airplane. He had an exciting adventure momentarily flying like a bird. Once the parachute opened, the individual observed the scenic landscape and quickly descended to the surface of the Earth with the aid of gravity. This VR activity could be used to provide exciting flight experiences, and creative lessons about flight, planes, sky jumping, birds, gravity, aeronautical engineering, and more. Some other thrilling lessons in this chapter involve the use of VR headsets to visit outer space, tour Jurassic Park, and have an exciting ride on a rollercoaster. Also included are college students in an introductory course about building virtual worlds for game design. They wore VR helmets to study virtual worlds (the background for video games) and to view and play video games to get ideas for creating their own video games (which include a story, characters, goals, and challenges). In addition, this chapter presents an activity where 20 fifth and sixth grade students used VR headsets to learn about ocean life in motion. They saw detailed, colorful, realistic images of life in the sea and felt they could almost touch the whales and sharks surrounding them. All the young participants (100%) said that learning with a VR headset is better than looking at 2-dimensional photos in a book.