VR, AR, and Wearable Technologies in Education: An Introduction

The primary role of an educator is to create an environment, within a given context, that encourages learner engagement to build connections between what is being learned and their personal experiences. Educators may adopt various tools such as textbooks, computers, handheld devices, and or other electronic devices to engage with their learners and encourage active learning. However, the choice of learning innovation is very much dependent on the access to the various technologies and their availability to both educators and their learners. It is also true that world-class education and training is not always available everywhere. There has always been a disparity in the level of quality of education and training across different regions of the world which is why there is a great need for innovative solutions to help reach those deprived areas. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in education aim to positively affect conventional learning processes. VR and AR introduce new engaging methods of teaching and learning that have the potential of being completely location agnostic and they enable educators to simultaneously reach many learners across the globe using a virtual environment and still be as effective as if they were all in the same physical space.