Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual reality has many different uses. One of the main uses of it is for the purpose of education. Teachers can create lesson plans that use virtual worlds or reality to make things a little more interesting. In the article "The virtual world moves into the classroom", they mention that students can take virtual field trips to different parts of the world; for example, if they're learning about the country of India, not only do they have just their textbooks and images, but they can put on their goggles and actually experience visiting India through this technology. Virtual reality can help enhance students' experience with learning which is a big pro; however, if it's not manipulated correctly, then it could possibly just be distracting, it's up to how the teacher chooses to use it. 

Another use of virtual reality is in the medical field. In the article "Avatar II: The Hospital", they discuss how nurses and medical students take advantage of the Second Life online virtual world. Nurses are able to participate in virtual drills with their nurse avatars and interact with the patient avatars which have already been programmed with conditions and symptoms. These virtual drills end up being a lot cheaper than having a physical drill in the hospital and also allows the hospital to run normally since a physical drill would interfere with normal operations. For medical students, they can role play interviewing patients on Second Life as well as opposed to using a $65,000 mannequin which would have to be shared among students. A downside to this was that, not everyone had great internet service which would cause lagging and make it difficult to use the program properly. 

Virtual worlds foster creativity because there is so much that can be done with them. Teachers come up with interesting ways to tie in virtual reality with what they're teaching students; the students were then also able to create virtual reality projects that other people could use such as teaching basic math and science to students in another country. It can help people that struggle with social interaction become more comfortable by allowing them to talk and interact with people through avatars such as in the Second Life virtual world. I think in the future it's just going to get more advanced and be more beneficial; maybe doctors will actually be able to simulate difficult surgeries and practice them before the actual one. It could also be really bad in the sense if there is a virtual world that is so real to the actual world and provides more pleasure, then people could become addicted to it, kind of like what you see in dystopian societies where there is a disconnect between people and the real world.


References:

Earle, Joe. “The Virtual World Moves into the Classroom.” Reporter Newspapers, 12 Sept. 2018, www.reporternewspapers.net/2018/09/14/the-virtual-world-moves-into-the-classroom/.

Simon, Stephanie. “Avatar II: The Hospital.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 13 Apr. 2010, www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703909804575124470868041204.

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