THE VR@SCHOOL PROJECT: REDEFINING THE TEACHING/LEARNING PROCESS

Abstract

The article is a study of the VR@School (Erasmus+ programme), developed within a partnership of schools, education and ICT institutions from Italy, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania. The VR project introduces a new concept in educational technology: virtual and augmented reality, which will create a complete different classroom. The VR@School project is a groundbreaking project offering a student-teacher friendly interface, practical resources and guidelines, embedded educational resources and simple-to-use VR lessons designed to help raise students’ engagement and increase their knowledge retention. The article introduces the project’s objectives, outputs and activities. It also gives insights into the materials created which enable teachers to integrate new methodologies that highlight inquiry, problem-solving and student participation in constructing knowledge. It also presents the main findings of the survey carried out on a group of students and teachers from Iasi, Romania, who participated in the project’s research, which highlighted the benefits of incorporating virtual reality into the education system by promoting the creation of Virtual Reality (VR) and education laboratories in schools. The VR lessons for science and transversal topics will have considerable impact on students’ development such as: motivation to study, job orientation, foreign language learning, inclusive education or prevention of school dropout.