National Writing Day: How Immersive Learning Experiences Build Confidence and Competence in Writing

Guest Blog by Simon Luxford-Moore

Simon Luxford-Moore is an educator with a keen interest in the role immersive technology can play in supporting teaching and learning. In this guest blog, he shares classroom examples of how virtual reality and AI can provide richer starting points for writing, helping to build confidence and competence, reduce barriers and provide new possibilities for learners.

Why National Writing Day Matters for Learners

On National Writing Day, we celebrate the power of creativity, communication and self-expression, and we also reflect on how we can make writing more accessible and enjoyable for every learner. The challenge in many classrooms is not that children have nothing to say but that they do not always have the confidence, vocabulary or shared experience needed to get started. For some learners, writing is not simply a literacy task but a cognitive and emotional challenge. They may be trying to manage spelling, handwriting, sentence structure, idea generation and the pressure of producing something “good” in their teacher’s eyes, all at once. When we ask children to write without giving them enough to draw upon, we can unintentionally create barriers before the task has even begun. That is where immersive learning through virtual reality (VR) and AI for education can make meaningful differences. Used thoughtfully, these tools can help create richer starting points, reduce barriers and open up new possibilities for writing.

The Importance of Experience in Developing Young Writers

One of the most important factors in successful writing is experience. When an author can bring real-life experiences and their inherent emotions into their writing, then the ability to read that text and “be there” in the story is much easier. Assuming the reader can empathise and make their own connections, of course. When learners have a concrete experience to draw upon, they are not inventing language in a vacuum. They are selecting from details they have seen, heard, noticed or discussed, which makes vocabulary retrieval easier and writing more authentic. Some children can quickly generate ideas and visualise a scene, while others need much more support before they are ready to write. This is one of the clear advantages of AI for education. It can help teachers design prompts, scaffold discussion and build accessible pathways into a task. At the same time, AI tools for educators can support educational content creation by preparing vivid lesson materials, modelling vocabulary and offering adaptable resources for different ages and needs. The goal is not to replace the teacher but to augment their innovative thinking and give every child a stronger foundation from which to write.

Using VR to Enhance Language and Oracy in Early Years

I have seen this first-hand in a Primary 1/Reception class using VR as a stimulus for writing. Children worked in pairs, with only one partner wearing a headset and entering the immersive environment. Their challenge was to describe the setting to their partner without revealing where they were. What became apparent very quickly was the language they began to use. Students who had previously relied on simple descriptions started reaching for emotional and sensory vocabulary with more expressive detail. They were no longer just saying what they could see; they were trying to explain how the place felt, what made it exciting, unusual or even a little scary. The paired talk was especially important because it gave them time to rehearse language aloud before any writing began. They listened closely, asked follow-up questions and refined their descriptions in response to one another. The experience gave them a real reason to talk, listen, imagine and shape their language before writing. Opportunities for developing oracy skills are few and far between in many schools at the moment. With this lesson, instead of beginning with a blank page, they began with wonder, curiosity and conversation. And they had fun!]

Building Empathy and Historical Understanding Through Immersive VR

A similar pattern emerged with a Primary 7 class studying the divide between rich and poor in Victorian Britain. The children had been struggling to engage deeply with the topic, so they explored an atmospheric VR scene set in the streets of Victorian London. Walking through the environment helped them notice details they had not fully grasped through discussion alone: the texture of the cobbled streets, the cramped conditions, the mood of the setting and the contrast between hardship and privilege. They could observe how narrow spaces, dim light and worn surroundings contributed to a sense of discomfort and inequality. Even the grey, foggy skies seemed to help give them a stronger emotional and descriptive connection to the period, which then shaped the quality of their reflective journal writing.

Rather than producing generic historical responses, they began to write with greater empathy and precision, choosing details that showed a clearer awareness of place, atmosphere and social difference. Their work became more thoughtful, more precise and more evocative because the writing was rooted in an experience – albeit virtual – which they had shared. Each piece had the same stimulus but was very unique in its outcome.

Confidence, Competence and the PedTech Mindset

For me, that is the real message of National Writing Day. Writing flourishes when learners have something meaningful to say and a supportive route into saying it. I often talk about the importance of confidence and competence, because in my opinion meaningful learning depends on both. Confidence helps learners take the first step, share an idea and believe that they have something worth saying. Competence gives them the skills, vocabulary, control and understanding needed to communicate effectively and improve over time. Rich experiences, purposeful discussion and thoughtful scaffolding help build both. Immersive experiences can provide that shared starting point, while AI for education tools, such as EduverseAI, part of Eduverse+,  can help teachers shape the prompts, scaffolds and resources that make writing more inclusive. The impact, however, does not come from the technology alone. It comes from the pedagogy around it: the careful questioning, the purposeful discussion, the shared reflection and the teacher’s professional judgement about when a tool adds value and when it does not. When used responsibly, these are not simply new tools; they are ways of widening access to creativity and reducing the barriers often created by educators without realising it.

Recent guidance from the UK Department for Education stresses that generative AI should be used safely, effectively and with attention to privacy, accuracy and professional oversight, which reinforces the importance of keeping the teacher firmly at the centre of the learning design. If, as an educator, you ever begin a writing lesson with the words, “Now, imagine you are…” then ask yourself whether the children have any life experiences which they can retrieve and use in this task. If not, then you may have inadvertently created the first barrier. If we want more children to see themselves as writers, we need to keep creating the conditions in which language can grow naturally from experience. Approach the EdTech with a PedTech mindset.