Giving Compass' Take:

· Education Dive explores the impact of virtual reality (VR) technology on children and why experts recommend limiting time with immersive media experiences.

· VR can play a positive role by helping students learn new vocabulary and understand unique experiences.  

· Read more about the use of VR technology in the classroom.

Last school year, Elenisa Vasquez led a pilot initiative in the Laredo (Texas) Independent School District (LISD) to incorporate virtual reality (VR) technology into instruction for elementary and middle school students at two schools.

The program has been viewed as so successful that this year it expanded to include all 20 elementary schools and four middle schools. Each school has a classroom set of 20 RobotLAB VR devices preloaded with the Google Expeditions, Discovery and Cardboard Camera apps.

"My goal was to prove how well it can bolster the curriculum we already have," said Vasquez, a digital learning facilitator for LISD.

Even in kindergarten, students are strapping on headsets and using Expeditions to visit the San Diego Zoo after learning about animals. And in 2nd grade, a virtual trip to Antarctica followed a classroom lesson that included a nonfiction reading about penguins. As they became immersed in the penguins' environment, students used vocabulary words and terms they learned in the lesson, Vasquez said.

"It provided the children the chance to use that vocabulary in context," she said, adding that teachers are seeing improvements in writing as a result of the VR component. "They can write so much more now because they've been there."

Read the full article about the impact of virtual reality usage by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive.