"I Can See It!": Math Understanding Through Virtual Reality

Technology, used effectively, can dramatically affect student learning. Yet many teachers and administrators have difficulties keeping up with the continually evolving field of educational technology and ways new technologies can be used, as we've seen in our roles as a teacher and a professor teaching pre-service teachers. So it's helpful to explore in detail how educators are successfully integrating cutting-edge technologies to improve students' learning experiences, specifically in mathematics classrooms.

Virtual reality is one technology some schools—including Gavin H. Cochran Elementary School in Louisville, Kentucky, where Shannon teaches—use to support student learning in various math topics. For many students who struggle with spatial imagination, for instance, immersion in virtual reality provides opportunities to improve their spatial abilities (Kaufmann, 2011). We describe here how teachers at Cochran use VR to help students meaningfully investigate volume and other math concepts.

Revolutionary Potential