E6: Learning to Train Educators with VR Goggles
What will VR training look like for educators and will it work?
Teacher: Good morning everyone, let’s get started
Student: This sucks!
Teacher: Excuse me? (grimacing, eyes narrow)
Student: You heard me (student slaps her desk)
Teacher: Please take your stuff and go to the office.
Student: See, I knew you don’t care about me!
Fade to black & cue music…
If you are an educator, you may have seen video vignettes like this one in a training or workshop you attended. You may also know it is really hard to capture authentic student-teacher interactions in a school. Instead of gaining deeper insights into their teaching practice, I’ve seen educators frown when asked what they would do to address a “student” yelling at them in a fictitious scenario like this one.
Virtual reality (VR) based training is seeking to close this credibility gap by improving how professional development is delivered and experienced by educators. Companies like Shiftbias based in Eugene, Oregon, are rapidly designing interactive, immersive environments where teachers wearing VR goggles experience taunts, disruptions, and even ambulance sirens rushing by outside a virtual classroom.
Equal Reality advertises a VR Experience “Flow” which allows teachers to literally inhabit someone else’s body for a few minutes. For those of us who have delivered or attended training in schools, this all sounds pretty cool, but can VR deliver once we take the goggles off and go back to a live classroom?
You are Tamara
In a promo video on the Equal Reality website, an avatar called Sarah invited me to enter the body of “Tamara”, an African American woman who appeared to be in her mid-40s. As soft, hypnotic music played in the background, I was asked to look at myself in a mirror. “You are now Tamara,” said my guide Sarah, “take a moment, stretch your arms and get used to your new body.” Moments later, I am led by Sarah into a virtual workplace where co-workers approach me/Tamara with inclusive and non-inclusive language and gestures. Full disclosure: I do not own a set of VR goggles to access the full sensory experience. But the company’s video made me wonder if I would really understand Tamara’s perspective or reflect differently on my interactions with people through this immersive experience.
Educators don’t need to wait for the next tantrum or blow-up, now they can experience it from seven different angles.
In educational settings, VR can enable teachers to temporarily become their students. VR technology can render students from different socio-economic backgrounds, genders, or races. Educators don’t need to wait for the next tantrum or blow-up, now they can experience it from seven different angles. VR programmers can create classrooms to mimic stereotyping or be subject to micro-aggression. It is now possible in these virtual workplaces for teachers to explore blind spots or biases they may ordinarily hide from colleagues or administrators during class observations. These are just some of the benefits VR training advocates and marketing teams are reporting about their products.
As virtual reality-based training gain steam in the gaming industry, corporate board rooms, and police academies, is there any evidence this emerging technology can improve teacher professional development?
Can an impulsive nine-year-old avatar help teachers really tweak their class management chops or help them develop a mindfulness routine before sending a student packing to the office?
Is this technology a viable or affordable option for your neighborhood school or district?
VR 101
So, there’s a lot to learn about VR-based training. I’m far from an expert. My knowledge of this topic mainly comes from the movie Tron (1982).
In 146 words…VR is being used for scenario-based learning, technical skill development, multi-step tasks, onboarding new staff, and simulations. There are two ways VR is typically configured. Type 1 is for a stationary setting (e.g., seated at your desk) where your viewpoint is fixed, but you can interact and observe others. Type 2 you can move around virtual environments and manipulate objects in your surroundings.
It’s not cheap to implement (a big consideration for school districts) with a price tag of $50-150K (yes, that’s thousands) to customize something for your school or district. The VR headsets alone can cost $500-1,200, but there are low-cost alternatives using cardboard cutouts ($1.99), smartphones, or subscription-based services available. And, it’s good to remember you are still staring at a screen which can cause headaches, nausea, or eye strain, especially if you are prone to motion sickness.
VR & Professional Development in schools?
Overall, VR training for student learning has outpaced applications for teacher professional learning. Much of what I came across were EdTech companies training teachers on how to use VR with students for virtual field trips or science labs. For example, RobotLAB boasts a virtual reality suite that allows teachers to take students on over 700 virtual field trips without leaving the classroom. A weekend in Paris or Tokyo with 30 kindergartners, any takers?
For teacher training, I only found a few case examples. Aurora Public Schools in Colorado is used VR to coach and onboard new teachers. 3 The district’s teachers were invited to interact with “digital” students controlled by a human support person. Aurora’s staff reported the technology helped its newer teachers to develop strategies to use in a real classroom when students become distracted. As demonstrated during the pandemic, virtual learning has some perks, like flexibility and the ability to differentiate content based on learners; needs or prior knowledge.
For districts or schools lacking access to high-quality training, VR may be a solution. For example, the Ministry of Education in Myanmar piloted a VR teacher training program to help teachers across 31 schools improve outcomes for their female students. Trainers used VR headsets to deliver lessons in an animated classroom environment where teachers received coaching on classroom management.
Can VR enhance outcomes for teacher training?
VR may improve training by improving our understanding of how teachers respond to students. For example, VR technology was used to manipulate levels of hustle and bustle (i.e., # of disruptions) novice teachers experienced in their classrooms. Interestingly, results showed teachers were less likely to notice or respond to disruptions when there were more virtual distractions present.
The theory used to explain this result was “cognitive overload”, or in plain English, “please God these students are driving me nuts, is it lunchtime yet?” But this study highlighted the benefits of using VR to identify and equip teachers with strategies to manage complex school environments.
It help me see how VR could be used to understand how teachers develop critical skills such as situational awareness and mindfulness to improve interactions with students.
VR was employed to understand teachers’ physiological responses to students with complex behaviors. In another study (see reference list below), teachers were hooked up to heart rate monitors to gauge how their central nervous systems responded when witnessing students engaging in substance abuse. Teachers observed simulations of students exchanging substances (e.g., pot) or appearing drug-affected. A key finding from this study was that exposure to the VR simulations increased participants’ heart rates and measurably affected their mood states. This could suggest that VR could render a more visceral emotional experience than other training approaches.
As the parent of younger children, I have soft spot for kindergarten teachers. In one study, 72 kindergarten teachers were surveyed (using a validated questionnaire) about their understanding of children’s feelings and needs. Half the teachers slipped on VR helmets (I love this visual) the other half of the teachers received equivalent computer-based training. Both groups received ongoing coaching focused on children’s behaviors and motivations. Results indicated the VR group scored higher on items related to understanding and empathy. Interesting finding and hope to see more studies like this one that can be replicated in other populations.
The gap between research & practice
SO….there are a lot of limitations to evaluating the effects of VR training for educator training.
All of the examples I shared were “lab” studies (i.e., took place outside of real classrooms). It’s hard to know whether to attribute positive effects to the use of VR technology or the hundreds of other things (i.e., confounding variables) that could influence teachers’ interactions with students.
In some ways, it’s easier to imagine how VR training could help a nurse to administer a blood draw or for a pilot to rehearse a perfect landing. Teaching is highly contextual and is not easily simulated. Yet, it does seem VR training can render more realistic and interactive learning environments with no risks to students. And, the cameras can capture a lot of data at once. For example, one research team offered teachers a 360-degree view of their classroom performance. In this case, teachers could literally see themselves and their students from all angles to identify areas for improvement or reflection.
As this new learning technology evolves, hopefully, researchers can learn more about how VR can be used to improve student-teacher interactions where it matters most - in classrooms.
A final word, for now…
As VR technology grows in popularity, it will be interesting to see how K-12 schools apply this technology to enhance teacher professional development. Today, the high cost of the technology seems like a barrier to scale-up (e.g., equipment, training, and customization are not cheap) and it is not clear to me how teachers planted at their desks interacting with mischievous student avatars will help them build skills or empathy.
However, it does seem like VR could unlock doors down the road for practitioners and researchers to explore phenomena or behaviors that occur infrequently (e.g., substance abuse) or frequently (disruptions, microaggressions) in schools to enhance the training and coaching delivered. VR also may allow us to customize scenarios and situations that can better represent the complex environments our teachers navigate every day.
…it is not clear to me how teachers planted at their desks interacting with mischievous student avatars will help teachers build skills or empathy.
Here’s a client’s testimonial posted on a VR company’s website, “people think, yeah I guess it’s probably engaging (VR), then they get into it and they are sweating blood in about 30 seconds. So, don’t underestimate the kind of suspension of disbelief that happens with (VR) immersion.”
This may the case, but until I see more evidence that VR can measurably shift teachers’ behaviors and interactions with students, I’ll wait to jump on this virtual bandwagon.