VIRTUAL REALITY

The definition of virtual reality comes from the definitions for both ‘virtual’ and ‘reality’. The definition of ‘virtual’ is near and reality is what we experience as human beings. So the term ‘virtual reality’ basically means ‘near-reality’.  In other words, virtual reality is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person.

Virtual Reality (VR) is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. Instead of viewing a screen in front of them, users are immersed and able to interact with 3D worlds. By simulating as many senses as possible, such as vision, hearing, touch, even smell, the computer is transformed into a gatekeeper to this artificial world. 

We have been taught at school that we have five senses which are: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. The truth is that humans have many more senses than this, such as a sense of balance. These other sensory inputs, plus some special processing of sensory information by our brains ensures that we have a rich flow of information from the environment to our minds.
Everything that we know about reality comes from our senses. Our experience of reality is simply a combination of sensory information and our brains' sense-making mechanisms for that information. This means if you can convince your senses with made-up information, then your perception of reality will change as well.

HOW CAN WE USE VIRTUAL REALITY IN LANGUAGE CLASSES?

Virtual reality gives the opportunity to do things we might not be able to do in real life at the time we want them to happen. For example, in EFL classes, with the usage of virtual reality you can take students to a different country and make them wander round the streets. While doing this they can practice their speaking by saying the things they see around them.


In our Instructional Technologies lesson we tried virtual reality out and we used such applications called Skydiving Simulator and Roller Coaster. It was definitely a good experience. Especially the Roller Coaster application was great, you can give it a try yourself.