Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-58721708
I have found out a very interesting article reflecting one of the numerous application of virtual reality, and technology as a whole, to improve the way we do things and bring value to our lives.
Perhaps we have all heard of VR games, and maybe many have tried playing such. On the other hand, the use of VR in construction is another technological disruption you might have heard of. Yet, I was surprised to see something different this time – how we can use VR in education.
The articles shares that Bangor University, UK, is one of the first universities in the alongside with Harvar to start using VR technology to train radiographers how to use x-ray machines and correctly analyze the findings. The system uses gaming-style 3D graphics along with virtual patients to help students learn quickly and reduce the shortage of operators. Most importantly, by using this new way of learning, nobody will be exposed to radiation that comes with regularly doing the procedure. Furthemore, learning the correct technique is the most challenging part of taking the x-ray scans (meaning that students would require a lot of practice, causing a lot of radiation and potential harm). Hence, the impact of this tool on education is huge. Last but not least, the system recreates an X-ray suite, which usually costs about £250,000 compared to the cost of the software £15,000, indicating also substantial financial benefit for educational institutions to switch to ‘new’ means of teaching.
This shows that even technologies which have been known for quite some time and actually have been invented a few decades ago (the first virtual reality headset was created in 1968 by American computer scientist Ivan Sutherland and his student, Bob Sproull), have still not reached their full potential as proven by the example above. Hence, I would be curious to see what the next application of VR could be and how that would change the world we live in. Maybe you already have some ideas? I would be happy to hear about them below.
Hi Svetoslava,
Thank you for this insightful article! It was quite interesting to know that we have already started unlocking more potential advantages of VR, rather than only for recreational purposes.
Very interesting question! I would say that it would be nice to implement VR function on the medical education institutions. I think the students can learn better on the operations while the teachers explain them and they can follow better. Combining with different tools the students can train operations by using VR and not causing any problems. Additionally, I believe it would be good solution to stop using animals to train medical students for the surgeries. I think VR can be good for our environment as well.
It was definitely interesting topic!