AI, VR, all the acronyms that will impact your future classrooms
Innovation has always been a part of education, but lately there’s no escaping the reality that tech tools like AI and VR will become the norm in the classroom. Both technologies promise to change the way we teach and the way our students learn, but as with anything new in education, they both come with opportunities and challenges.
Outside of the classroom, AI is often celebrated for its potential to cut the time it takes to research or perform a task in half. In the classroom, it has the potential to personalise learning and ease the administrative burden placed on teachers. Imagine each of your students having tasks tailored to their ability level, with the system adapting as they progress. No one would fall behind, no one would get bored. Now, imagine the school bell rings at 3:30. Your kids pack their bags or head to their lockers. Instead of heading into your office to gather tests you need to mark at home, everything can be done for you, freeing up your time. Marking, scheduling, even creating tests or lesson resources could all be managed by AI. All of a sudden, you’ve got time to focus on connecting with your students. Perhaps, you might even find you have time for hobbies outside of work. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it?
I don’t mean to be rude, but I must now pull you out of that beautiful daydream because of course, it’s not all smooth sailing. Experts warn that AI raises some pretty big concerns around privacy, with student data being collected, stored, and used in ways that aren’t always transparent. There’s also the issue of cost. Schools with strong budgets may be able to introduce tools like this with relative ease, but for underfunded schools, particularly those in remote areas, it could further widen the gap in resources and outcomes that we often see between rural and city schools.
While AI is quite responsive and is evolving, it can’t replicate human perception. When it comes to personalising lessons and tasks to each student, AI can’t mimic the encouragement, empathy, or relationship building skills that happen in a classroom organically. Teachers know better than anyone that students learn best when they feel seen, heard, supported, and understood. AI can’t do that for us. There’s also a broader equity concern, that without careful investment and planning, AI could exacerbate the digital divide, giving well-resourced schools a significant advantage and leaving others even further behind.
While AI tends to be about streamlining and efficiency, VR is about immersion. Much to the average person’s surprise, it’s actually starting to create real waves in our classrooms, and upon reflection, it’s not hard to see why. With VR, students can be transported to places and have augmented reality experiences that would otherwise be impossible. A Year 7 science class might be able to explore the Great Barrier Reef right from their classroom in remote Uralla. A Year 9 history class could wander the streets of ancient Rome. Meanwhile, a Year 12 geography class could safely monitor the eruption of a volcano in Ecuador before hopping over the equator line. If you’re in Melbourne, I had the best experience learning about Ancient Greece in the Hellenic Museum. I’d highly recommend taking your students there. Suddenly, abstract concepts like these become tangible, and lessons that might have been confined to the 2D pages of a textbook are now transformed into moments of awe. In fact, teachers who use VR often report that their students retain information better after these immersive experiences, which makes sense. When you live an experience, you’re more likely to be impacted by it and retain the memory. VR also allows for safe practice of things that could impossible in a classroom. Think of dangerous chemistry experiments, flying a plane, or even, as we discovered is possible at the National Education Summit, performing heart surgery. VR gives students these experiences without the risks.
It can also play a role in supporting diverse learners. For students with autism, ADHD, or anxiety, VR can create a sensory friendly environment that is tailored to their needs, offering a controlled and gentle way of engaging with content. Beyond that, VR is increasingly being used to build empathy. When students are placed in someone else’s shoes (virtually speaking, that is), they get to experience what life might be like for people in different parts of the world. It can spark real emotional growth that a worksheet might not be able to do.
As with anything new to the tech world, VR also has its own set of challenges. The most obvious one is cost. Headsets, software, and computers aren’t cheap, which again risks leaving some schools behind. Technical issues can be a headache, and I’m sure we’ve all seen some pretty funny but incident report inducing videos of kids accidentally running into walls or hitting someone because their brains can’t tell the difference between reality and the world they’re immersed in on their headset. On top of that, not all students will enjoy the experience. Motion sickness and eye strain are real factors that can affect the experience. Teachers will need time and training to practically and safely implement VR into their schools, otherwise it risks becoming a costly add on rather than a genuine learning tool. Plus, even though VR content is growing, it doesn’t come close to the breadth of information available the old school way, through textbooks, videos, and online resources. Schools might even find that they are limited in what they can actually deliver with it.
So, where does that leave us? Well, both VR and AI offer exciting opportunities to enhance teaching and learning in Australian classrooms. AI has the potential to lighten your workload and provide tailored learning to students who might need it, while VR can create exciting learning opportunities that all students find engaging. Neither, however, is fool-proof, and careful consideration around ethics, privacy, and equity will be the best way to go about implementing these tools safely into your classroom.
The future, while uncertain, can also be exciting. No one knows where technology is heading, let alone how it will impact our classrooms, but to err on the side of positivity, how wonderful would it be to never have to take your work home with you on the weekend thanks to a computer program who will do the heavy lifting for you without complaint?