Summer VR camp pitches bigger role for virtual reality in schools

When Adley Delaney was asked to sum up his experience at a virtual reality (VR) summer camp, he did it in one word.

"Fun!" he said.

VR studio Poptronic recently hosted a four-week camp in Akwesasne that taught participants about the world around them.

They saw what it was like to kayak with penguins, float in space on the International Space Station and experience the immense effects of climate change.

It's all part of what Poptronic co-owner Kelly Bergeron said could be a "game-changer" for education — if she can build enough momentum to bring it to Canadian schools.

VR in learning: a passing fad or something more?

As VR equipment and software become more accessible, the technology is being combined increasingly with educational initiatives.

"We really just wanted to open the door for this possibility and show people that we can use VR to teach really cool concepts that you can't grasp from a paper or a book or just e-learning," Bergeron said.

She pointed to a 2020 study that concluded VR users were more focused and confident, learned faster and were more "emotionally connected to content."

But Apple's VR headset has struggled to hook people outside the gaming market, and schools have grappled with the cost of adding VR to classrooms. It's all created doubts about whether VR will turn out to be useful in education.

"I don't think you will ever find one single answer to the question," said Ali Arya, a computer engineer at Carleton University who researches educational VR.

Educators "use a variety of different methods and approaches and tools," he said, and VR is one that's ideal for certain students in certain subjects.

Associate professor and computer engineer Ali Arya said VR is just "a tool, among many other tools. If you go to a classroom, if you talk to an educator, no educator uses a single prescription to work for all content with all students." (Submitted by Ali Arya)

An 'empathy machine'

Bergeron said she sees the difference the (virtual) hands-on experience makes for students.

"A lot of the time, they don't understand [the material] until they go into the headset," she said. "And then they experience it, and that sense of wonder happens."

Bergeron and Arya agreed that VR is uniquely equipped to teach lessons about complex, nuanced topics, such as climate change. They used the same term to describe VR: an "empathy machine."

After participants in Akwesasne camp watched one ten-minute video about the real-world effects climate change, "the vibe definitely shifted," Bergeron said.

"So I'm like, 'OK, let's talk about what you're feeling and let's figure it out. What do you think we can do better?'" she said. "Understanding that this is happening, we have a choice, that we can make it better. ... We need more content that speaks to that."

A shortage of content

One challenge Bergeron hasn't fully overcome is the lack of educational VR content.

Poptronic's original vision for the camp was focused exclusively on climate change. She and co-owner Chatnie Herne were working with a school in Toronto to research VR content on the topic.

"There are some experiences, but there's just not enough yet," Bergeron said.

VR educational content is hard to find, Arya said, particularly because it's costly and time-consuming to develop.

"And you know how it is in education — there is no money," he said. "There's not enough money for anybody to do anything."

The best solution so far is to forge partnerships between VR researchers like himself and educators, Arya said. He said faculty members can get grants for the work, organizations can collaborate with them and students can serve as volunteers.

"Developing for VR takes a lot of time," said Bella MacCulloch, a student who helps Carleton University's Experiential Learning Hub develop educational experiences catered to instructors' needs.

"Just developing games — like, good games in general — as an educational tool is really hard, because there's a lot of things to take into consideration," she said. Building a virtual chemistry lab would be a lot different than building a simulation to practise a second language, for example.

Still, Bergeron said she hopes her summer camp will one day evolve into a curriculum she can share with schools across the country.

She said she and Herne plan to reach out to schools before the fall to offer them what they have, and they've recently signed a contract to train VR users in Toronto.

"We're using each of those case studies as a way to continue to build our curriculum strategy for school-age kids all the way up to people in the workplace," she said.