The Future of Education is Immersive Learning

Virtual Reality in Education

Gamification and virtual reality (VR) can make the most mundane of tasks magical. Imagine the applications in education alone! Learning a new language from the classroom can become as quick and engaging as actually physically immersing yourself in a country full of speakers of that language.

English Literature, theatre, and history become astoundingly more accessible in a virtual world. Numbers and equations can be made far more relevant to everyday life through augmented reality (AR) and VR. Creating educational experiences allowing students to perceive how the rules of physics and mathematics work in the real world will see major improvements in STEM education.

Immersive technologies are already being used to bring concepts to life in the classroom. The Skyview app allows you to view the night sky in a whole new light and see the constellations in detail and clearly labelled. There’s the Froggipedia app which guides you virtually through the classic frog dissection biology lesson. Save the frogs!

Microsoft reports a notable 22% improvement in test scores among students using immersive technology in the classroom; and an impressive 35% increase in student engagement and information retention. The RAF has been conducting training in VR for years!

The technology is also benefiting healthcare professionals with patient care through virtual experiences of the internal human body. Surgeons and doctors are already learning through VR, consulting and practising critical procedures using immersive technology.

To demonstrate the abundance of advantages the latest advancements in tech will present in medicine, earlier this year Fujtisu challenged us to create an educational gamified experience. This allows stakeholders and key target audiences to learn about and explore Fujitsu’s healthcare solutions at their own pace.

Affari Media values the inherent worth of education and its benefits to society. A major aspect of what we do is delivering educational assets for our clients. We don’t just strive to innovate ourselves, but also to enable others to innovate. This isn’t an exclusive party!

The Future of Virtual Reality

In 2016, Oculus attempted to encourage designers to create prosocial content and experiences through their ‘VR for Good’ campaign. Among its many benefits, the use of this technology can assist people with social learning difficulties, helping to alleviate the social and educational disparities faced by deaf and neurodivergent people.

In 2019 we collaborated with Fujitsu to help raise awareness to the strengths and challenges of Autism. Fujitsu were supporting the UK’s leading Autism research charity, Autistica, and our campaign promoted their research whilst raising awareness internally across our team and networks. We further provided Ronnie, our former Managing Director’s (Craig Brothers) autistic nephew, an opportunity to explore a new creative and sensory environment through immersive technologies such as VR and interactive video.

Imagine the possibilities – social experiences created as bespoke digital adventures to combat loneliness, and potentially treat depression, social anxiety, PTSD, gender dysphoria, OCD, and a multitude of other psychological conditions. This could change lives. There’s already an app where users can practise conversation or give a speech to a virtual audience (called Virtual Speech). Counselling services may even adapt by becoming more immersive and gamified, thereby stimulating positive emotions, self-esteem, and revelations.

Fostering empathy necessitates the need for more demanding engagement, and if anything developers focus more on creating a seamless and easy experience, as opposed to a nuanced or difficult experience. Installing empathy is not easy – whether you’re nurturing your own or someone else’s (ask any parent!). It is possible, however, to overcome this obstacle with technology. VR may in fact present solutions to the mental health epidemic we’ve seen spiking over the past couple of decades.

In the future, as it develops and becomes more widely available, this technology could also help to moderate levels of deprivation. The majority of people can’t afford trips to London and Paris to visit old buildings and art galleries – the V&A, and the Louvre. Exhibitions and guided walking tours will likely become available from anywhere with fully-immersive VR experiences. This in turn will encourage more widespread cross-cultural appreciation and creative inspiration. 

Affari Media places a high value on education and professional development. We take pride in our portfolio of projects, and the awe-inspiring work of our clients and team.