“VR allows students to take a lot of ownership over their learning,” says TOSA/Educational Technology Specialist Jake Ritschel.

He’s talking about an exciting pilot program he’s implementing.

Along with a committee of fellow educators at Dixon Unified School District, in Northern California, Jake is exploring new ways to teach subjects through virtual reality.

The focus is on fitting subjects to students’ interests–and then teaching them skills, through VR, that translate into the physical world.

Jake, who will be speaking at the 2023 Educating for Careers Conference in Sacramento on February 28th, talked about his experiences, some of the new applications teachers are discovering for their classrooms, and the trends he sees as he looks towards implementing VR in the classroom.

• How Jake first realized the power of VR to illustrate concepts;
  

• The application that got him “hooked” on virtual reality;
  

• The story of Dixon Unified’s multidisciplinary VR-in-the-classroom project;
  
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• Some of the applications the educators have found to involve students in different subjects;
  

• Age considerations for when it may, and may not, be safe to put students into VR headsets (note: this post and podcast are for informational purposes only. Please contact a medical professional if you have questions about student VR safety);
  

• Where Jake sees educational VR going, in the future;
  

• Two of Dixon Unified’s current educational virtual-reality projects
  

• One of Jake’s favorite student reactions to one of these programs;
  

• Several VR applications tailored to students with more of an arts interest;
  

• Jake’s advice for anyone who’s intimidated by technology or the idea of implementing virtual reality in the classroom;
  

• The biggest barrier, currently, to widespread use of VR in classrooms, and Jake’s suggestions for circumventing it;
  

• The “bigger picture” takeaways for educators, from what Jake is doing with Dixon Unified.