COMPUTING VR CASE STUDY: VR Worlds (Student Age 9-10)

Laura Woods
Age 9 – 10 Primary School Teacher (UK)

Neree Sale
Age 9 – 10 Primary School Teacher (UK)

“The students explored the virtual world and how it can be used in the classroom. Over a period of six lessons, they built their own virtual worlds using CoSpaces. Some of the key vocabulary we explored in this unit of was Virtual Reality, server, visual coding, z-axis, MP3, cloud, password, virtual world, and story map. Online Safety also formed part of the focus and this enabled the students to understand a bit more about file saving and organisation works.”

PRACTICAL SESSION

Students had one or two headsets on each table. The students began by creating small sections of their own virtual worlds on the desktop application CoSpaces. After students finished each phase of the virtual world, they then scanned the QR code to experience their world and test its functionality; if it had errors, mistakes or could be improved, then they undertook the computational process of debugging – to remove the errors and replace it with fully-functioning code. They also asked one or two other students on their table to view their world and then give feedback on both what they enjoyed and suggestions on how it could be improved.

IMPACT ON LEARNING

Using the Virtual Reality headsets, the children could immerse themselves in the worlds they and their peers created; this enabled them to improve, critique and debug their worlds in a collaborative and constructive manner. One student commented, “We have made VR worlds before, but when we used the headsets it made it real. Seeing it l could see what worked and where I needed to make changes and could improve my world.”