VR in Classrooms

Using Nearpod VR to Build Global Collaboration in Classrooms

 Why Virtual Reality Matters for Global Learning

As our classrooms become more globally interconnected, teachers must be constantly looking for meaningful and interesting ways to help students connect with peers beyond their local space. Virtual Reality (VR) offers one such powerful path by allowing the world into the classroom, enabling students to travel anywhere, collaborate across continents, and understand cross-cultural experiences in authentic, engaging ways.

In this regards, Nearpod VR is one of the most classroom friendly VR tool that is easily accessible today. It integrates effortlessly into lessons and works even without specialized headset. Using phones, tablets, Chromebooks, or simple viewers, students can immerse themselves into environments that stimulates curiosity and create shared learning experiences with global partners.

1. Shared Virtual Field Trips

Nearpod’s library of 360° explorations includes locations across every continent, historic site, ecosystems, cities, cultural landmarks, and more.
Students in different parts of the world can:

• Explore the same virtual location at the same time

• Record observations collaboratively

• Compare cultural views

• Work together to answer Nearpod’s embedded questions and polls

Take for instance, a class in Nigeria and a class in Australia exploring the Amazon rainforest together, sharing real-time ideas about conservation, climate, and local ecosystems. VR becomes this shared “third space” where students meet as global citizens rather than separate classrooms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnc3WQKfk6Q

2. Authentic Co-Teaching Across Borders

Nearpod’s live participation mode allows one teacher to host a session while students no matter where they live join synchronously. Teachers can co-teach imparting their unique own perspective which goes beyond the pen pal style of communication towards real academic progress spanning borders.

3. Building Empathy Through Perspective-Taking

The research here suggests that VR can strengthen empathy by allowing students to experience places and challenges beyond their normal daily lives. Imagine students visiting virtual refugee camps, ocean ecosystems under threat, or UNESCO World Heritage sites to help them understand the importance and significance of these global projects even when the students cannot physically travel.

In conclusion, Virtual Reality isn’t replacing real human connections, it’s just amplifying it in a way where through tools like Nearpod VR, global collaborations can be built which can open doors that help students see their fellow peers around the world as partners, not strangers. With VR being used in schools, it facilitates shared cultural experiences in an interactive and meaningful way.

Sources

Phillips, E., Jarden, A., & Bowles, T. (2024). A study of virtual reality and the empathetic experience in Australian secondary students. The Australian Educational Researcher, 52(1), 159–183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-024-00708-1

Nearpod. (2016, May 19). Nearpod VR [Video]. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnc3WQKfk6Q