Virtual reality (VR) has been a part of the public consciousness for many years now. As sophisticated a technology as it is, the concept is not new. In fact, the first reference to what is commonly known as VR was in the 1932 book Brave New World where writer Aldus Huxley described ‘the feelies’ as movies that reach your senses with sight, sound, and touch [1]. The idea continued to develop with iterations of this novel science fiction technology in television shows like Star Trek which featured ‘the holodeck’[2] or Doctor Who which broadcast in 1972 an episode which featured a computer-generated reality dubbed ‘The Matrix’ [3]. VR in the real world as we picture it today has been around since the 90s and has continuously developed to provide …show more content…
There are a few roadblocks that must be overcome before VR can become standard in education. The first one is physical response of some users. Some people can feel motion sickness, dizziness, or loss of balance when using VR. This is caused by latency in the system, which means that the visual presented in the headset does not update as quickly as the user moves their head. This effect is minimized as VR becomes more sophisticated [5, p.2]. Another roadblock is teacher expertise and attitude. Some teachers may not feel comfortable enough with the technology to perform a lesson using this medium or may feel as though if there was a problem, they would not be able to solve it and may risk losing a lesson to tech support. This roadblock can be alleviated by including VR in the education of educators. With more teachers exposed to the benefits of VR in their own learning, the better the chances that teachers will be comfortable enough to incorporate this medium in their own teaching. Another challenge could be the availability of educational media. This can be improved as demand for educational VR titles increases and focus is put on this medium as a legitimate learning tool. Finally, the last roadblock is cost. This technology requires updated computer systems and equipment that most schools do not currently have, so it will need an initial investment. This is perhaps the strongest roadblock that will need to be overcome. Schools do however need to update and acquire new technology from time to time, so continued research into the benefits of VR in the classroom can help sway decisions to invest in this