Week 6 - Immersive Virtual Reality in Education

The use of virtual reality (VR) is transforming how we teach and engage our students through technology. CoSpaces is a web-based VR tool for creating, sharing, and collaborating on immersive virtual experiences. Secondary mathematics classrooms can benefit from CoSpaces, as discussed in this blog post.

CoSpaces provides students with a great opportunity to visualise mathematics. Math is abstract and challenging; however, using CoSpaces, students can create and explore virtual environments that represent mathematical concepts. Students can create 3D models of geometric shapes such as cubes, pyramids, and spheres with CoSpaces. Mathematics concepts such as fractions, ratios, and the cartesian plane can also be visualised in an engaging, interactive way (Mikropoulos & Natsis, 2011). VR also removes students' fear of failure, as they can learn what doesn't work before finding what does!

CoSpaces facilitate student collaboration and communication. It is common for students in traditional math classrooms to work independently and quietly on assignments and problems. CoSpaces, however, encourages participants to collaborate on virtual projects and share their creations with each other (Dalgarno & Lee, 2010). They can create a virtual cityscape and calculate the dimensions of buildings, roads, and parks together. Collaborative learning can foster inclusivity, teamwork, communication skills, and a sense of community.

Often students find math boring or intimidating, but CoSpaces provides an interactive, visually stimulating virtual environment. Using CoSpaces, students could create a virtual treasure hunt where they must solve math problems to advance. By gamifying math, the possibilities are endless and dependent on the creativity of the student, who can enjoy the subject more and become more motivated.

While exploring CoSpaces for this blog, I found that many of the tutorial videos did not have the same properties available as I was working with. I attempted to make an animated roller-coaster track. My expectations unfortunately far surpassed by expertise. In spite of this, I still believe that practice makes perfect.

My attempt at creating a roller-coaster - from a template (CC Gardner, 2023).

In conclusion, I truly feel that CoSpaces could have an impact on math education in secondary schools. CoSpaces allows students to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of mathematics through visualisation, collaboration, and communication. VR technology will continue to advance, bringing endless possibilities to education through CoSpaces.