India's 10 Best EdTech Companies to Watch, 2021

prayers that all parents, teachers, and even students were
praying for.
Augmented reality and Virtual reality are not difficult terms
to understand. These heavy-sounding theoretical words are
actually very interesting, and once you experience them,
you will be simply addicted to them. AR and VR differ
based on what device we require to experience them and
what we experience by them.
Virtual Reality is a program that you can use with headset
devices. It takes you to a completely virtual world that can
seem and feel completely real. But it can be a fictional
world. Whereas to use AR, you can use your smartphone. It
uses real-world settings. AR has the ability to upgrade the
real and virtual worlds.
It is a solution to so many problems in this pandemic. AR
and VR are proving to be helpful in various industries viz.
health care, corporate, governmental organisations, and
even in education. AR and VR can solve many problems
that our students have been facing while studying. Many
students are scared to ask questions in class or to speak up
when not able to understand what the teacher taught. Some
students understand better when they can imagine or relate
those topics.
And this can also be a solution for a cheap education. And
of course, now you don’t have to pay for that extra tuition
fees as well. Sounds like a dream? Well, it isn’t. By learning
with AR and VR technology, students are literally in that
time and place, witnessing the ongoing events happening in
the virtual world.
It’s a fact that we may forget the names of people, but we
mostly remember the faces, right?
Similarly, students perceive and remember better what they
learn by practical. They observe and follow with their
continuous thought process. Even their attention span is
better and longer in interesting activities, for example, the
topic is the universe, and the lecture is about to be conducted
in the virtual space itself. Now, who would of think
of bunking the class, right?
student would love to attend. The subject can be anything,
like science, history, or be it geography. The app can take
the students to museums, Antarctica, or the oceans of the
virtual world.
AR and VR are being utilized on a whole new level by the
Australian company called FLAIM Systems that is helping
its firefighters by training them in the virtual world.
There they experience all the dangerous zones of fire and
learn how to deal with them without being in a danger zone
in reality. Everything they see and feel is just as real as the
reality to them with AR and VR.
Wouldn’t it be great if all students could enjoy the education
equally, even if they are differently abled? We can
thank AR and VR technology again for designing this
facility with specialized features. Models that enable
students to regulate the device according to their needs.
This technology will help students to deal with ADHD,
depression, and anxieties problems that they experience due
to their studies. By making daily education as interactive as
it should be.
It can also solve the language problem that many students
have. For example, learning English or any subject in
English is hard for many students because they don’t
practice it in their regular life. But in virtual education, one
can not only practice but see how it is being used.
Providing students quality classes that they can enjoy is the
least we can do for them when they are willing to learn so
many subjects altogether. It is not easy for them. After all,
one student has to learn multiple different subjects whereas
there is a separate teacher for almost every subject. By
educating them with AR and VR, we can finally make it so
that students and children genuinely fall in love with
learning.
- Nidhi Arya
Did you know that the very first VR education was
conducted on September 3, 1943? In Berlin Blitz. It was the
true story of the Lancaster Bomber – mission to Berlin. It
was produced by the Immersive VR Education for the BBC.
There is an app called Google Expedition, an education app
that lets teachers conduct enthusiastic classes that any
20 | MM 2021 | www.theknowledgereview.com