Pre-service teachers and educators experience classroom scenarios in Virtual Reality
VRTeacher Project wraps up
Pre-service teachers and educators from various institutions in Malta have been trained in classroom scenarios through a virtual reality application developed by the VRTeacher Project, which wrapped up in May 2023. The project sought to address the need for modernisation and digital transformation of teacher education and training and reinforce educators’ digital skills and readiness through a Virtual Reality (VR) training method and tool.
The intellectual outputs of the projects included the development of a VR app to train pre-service teachers and educators and empower them with core skills including empathy, self-esteem, adaptability, and critical thinking. Face-to-face training was delivered in January 2023 with the participation of educators from the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Only a small percentage of participants had previous experience with VR and there was overall agreement that VR may be an effective tool in education – one that however requires a suitable pedagogical foundation for implementation.
The Multiplier Event by 3CL, one of six Erasmus+ project partners, was held in Malta in May 2023. Two separate sessions were held for pre-service teachers and educators at the Faculty of Education, University of Malta.
The VRTeacher project website has created a community of practice on VR in education. All Maltese pre-service teachers and educators are invited to register here. The app is free to download on Android phones and will soon be available for Apple iPhones.
