VR brings experiences into the classroom, promotes learning & career orientation — but success requires strategy, didactics & political will.
Humanity's knowledge, it is said, doubles every five to ten years. This raises the question of whether conventional methods of knowledge transfer can keep pace here and fulfill their educational mission in the long term, or whether an instrument is needed that makes the learning process more efficient. Both in terms of the pace of learning and in terms of the sustainability of learning.
In NRW, this question is now answered loudly in the affirmative — the Ministry of Schools and Education is using virtual reality (VR) as a tool for visualizing learning content on a large scale. The idea: Make complex learning content tangible and also anchor it deeper in the memory through the “experience effect” of virtual learning environments.
In this way, scientific processes, historical events, remote places or a life without language and cultural barriers can be completed in short VR sequences experienced and will then be discussed in class groups. This speeds up the learning process immensely and demonstrably ensures better availability of content.
But is the use of technology, whose comfort zone is in the entertainment sector, really already commonplace in German schools?
What once sounded like a dream of the future is now a triad of interactive learning sequence, discussion in class groups and pedagogical-didactic embedding. Virtual reality is already being used in numerous schools in Germany. The lighthouse project in NRW and smaller projects, for example from the Bavarian region, aim to initially offer VR in the centers for practical school teacher training and in media centers, in order to pave the way into everyday teaching. A successful model, as it turns out. This is because many tens of thousands of SUs were already allowed to regularly transform through virtual learning environments in 2024.
Exploring ancient Rome, witnessing the construction of Egypt's pyramids or indulging in the horrors of the Nazi era — as a tool for visualization, virtual reality offers many starting points in history lessons. It is important to embed these didactically in the curriculum. In this way, virtual learning environments can be an excellent addition. Basically, every era, every building or scenario can have its own digital twin and be experienced in a complementary way in virtual reality.
This technology is playing an increasingly important role, particularly in chemistry or physics lessons. In a virtual laboratory environment, for example, SUs can reproduce experiments as often as they like — without using real hazards or substances. Or how about flying through the human body as blood cells! The possibilities of virtual learning environments also include looking beyond individual strengths and weaknesses as well as the development of abstraction skills, and making learning inclusive and inclusive. In the STEM sector in particular, this can represent significant added value without having to handle real chemicals.
Learning languages, identifying cultural differences and changing perspectives: Requirements of inclusion and integration can also be supported through the use of VR. In this way, AI-based conversations can improve language learning in any number of scenarios and transport cultural events in other countries almost unnoticed. One level down, we talk about empathy and tolerance. As beautiful as cultural differences are, they often also provide fertile ground for violent conflicts. The project Moment! In three VR scenes, she deals with exactly this: creating tolerance and empathy through a change of perspective. These scenes are presented in virtual learning environments in order to benefit from the “experience effect” here as well. Because: From a technical point of view, our brain sees what we see through the VR headset as an experience. This effect is responsible for anchoring the scenery more sustainably and, as a result, also with knowledge and increased empathy and tolerance.
Short virtual internships, which introduce SUs to companies and everyday working life in various industries within a few minutes, are a popular field of application of VR. Increasing efficiency is also the key word here — because: Up to 100 occupations could therefore be completed within one school day via taster days. Applications such as BerufVR make this possible on the basis of very real identification figures who virtually guide the SUs through their company and report on their everyday working life in a very approachable way. This provides a valuable decision-making tool and brings the working world directly into the classroom for a moment.
The benefits of a powerful visualization tool are almost immediately apparent. But is everything now getting better at the push of a button? A sober classification helps — and somewhat alleviates the image of the panacea. Despite the numerous advantages, there are also challenges that schools must overcome when using VR. Costs are an important point, as high-quality VR headsets and associated software are expensive. Many schools rely on funding to implement this technology. The major project NRW addresses this problem by making cost-effective plug & play solutions, such as those of virtual interactive learning, accessible. However, the classification also includes the fact that the NRW lighthouse project is the only one in the Federal Republic of Germany to date, and that any imitators are waiting for them. Technical hurdles also play a role — although the use of the above solutions is designed for intuitive use and is possible without previous experience or affinity, new technologies are often viewed critically and are not accepted to the extent one would hope for. Health aspects must not be ignored, because longer VR sessions can cause nausea or eye strain. It is therefore recommended to limit use to short time windows of up to 20 minutes. Didactic integration is crucial, because VR must not be used as a pure gimmick. It requires meaningful integration into the curriculum so that it achieves sustainable learning effects.
Virtual reality in school lessons has been a more local phenomenon to date. The effort is there in many places, but limited to just a few headsets due to scarce resources. Contrary to what might have been expected, the major NRW project has not yet triggered a domino effect. But the prospects for large-scale use of VR in teaching are promising. Sooner or later, the instrument may no longer fail because of its capabilities, but only because of the political framework. This is shown by a look at countries that are generally seen as pioneers of education — such as South Korea. There, the use of VR in addition to numerous other technologies is already part of everyday school life.
In particular, developments in the area Artificial intelligence could help make VR experiences even more interactive and personalized, and neutralize individual deficiencies more quickly.
Mixed reality, basically the combination of virtual reality and its sister technology augmented reality, could also become more relevant. Because in the end, there is no one holy grail — it is always about a mix of technologies and notably focus on the meaningful embedding of technology by teachers.
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