The Future of Storytelling and Education
How Virtual Reality is Changing Narrative Experiences
Virtual Reality has been in development since the early 1950s, but it has only really become available to the public in the past 10 years. While not in the mainstream, VR technology is improving at a fast pace and applications are becoming more and more accessible. As we look into the future, what can we say is the added value of VR right now and how it can impact our experience in the world as we know it?
The three key components of a VR experience are: virtual world, immersion and interactivity. In VR, the “ virtual world” is able to exist separate from reality. This simulation is invented and defined by the creator. Immersion is achieved with the VR headsets occupying the users’ whole field of vision, paired with the audio integration. Interactivity is another primary element that contributes. In order to grasp the full effect, the environment includes virtual elements we can interact with. Contrary to popular believe, VR is not only a gaming peripheral but can also be used for educational purposes.
Education and learning in VR
Standard American education methods include lectures, textbooks, and testing. It is proven that students have better memory retention through active learning. VR offers detailed visualization and simulations that can be solutions for better learning experience. Especially in our current climate of social distancing we will see education evolve and modernize.
VR offers new game play possibilities and interactions to gamify learning. Actions in some applications are very interactive and require more participation from the viewer. The immersive nature of VR facilitates atmospheric games and simulations. These aspects can create drastically more engaging experiences for learners!
Some examples of immersive and/or gamified learning experiences in Virtual Reality include:
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These current examples have proven to have a huge impact on learners, and we will only see more applications in the coming future as VR technologies hopefully become more accessible to educators and learners. We also see many advantages to this immersive way of learning, especially when we are in the midst of a world where the COVID 19 pandemic has brought to light flaws in our national education system which is inherently also deeply connected to systemic racist society. The movement that we are in now questions the equality in our society, and the traditional ways of learning in classrooms around the country. It is clear that VR will be an effective tool to achieve these demands for change, in changing people’s mindsets, re-educating and modernizing education.
VR storytelling
Compared to other storytelling mediums, creating stories in Virtual Reality provides a new toolbox for storytellers and creatives to make and imagine real immersive experiences. Whether the piece is a game or a documentary, Virtual Reality allows for the storyteller to connect with the viewer, in more ways than we previously imagined, through interactivity and realistic immersion. VR is almost as if we are combining the tactical elements of a physical story book or live show/play, with the digital storytelling elements we can use in digital pictures or videos.
Examples of some Immersive VR experiences that tell stories about culture and identity, specifically a narrative about black lives in America, include: Meeting a Monster, I am a man, Traveling while black, and Injustice.
Meeting a Monster is a short 360 film by VR For Good following the organization Life after Hate’s cofounder Angela King’s path into and out of the violent white supremacy movement. It takes the viewer into Angela’s personal moments in home life and in school and how this shapes her into becoming a hateful person. This forces the audience member to essentially walk in Angela’s shoes, understand how this type of hate is taught and how it can be unlearned — when she goes to prison she encounters multiple black women openly having conversations with her, resulting in her unlearning racism. This 360 film successfully immerses the audience into this story that we do not often encounter or dissect: the common process of learning prejudices and behaviors, while then full having potential of letting go of the hate and ignorance and recognizing ones flaws.
I am a man is an interactive documentary experience using historical footage paired with voice over narrations by real Civil Rights participants, about marginalized people fighting for their rights during the Civil Rights Movement. This piece allows the viewer to experience history in an immersive way to better understand personal struggles of oppressed people in America and create awareness of their struggle.
Traveling While Black is a 360 VR story that provides the viewer context for why it was difficult for black people to travel during the Jim Crow era and right before the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and Civil Rights Movement. Through out the film there are multiple people from that time who talk about the struggles and dangers of being black. The green book was a manual for African Americans of places that would accept them during the period of segregation. Later in the film Tamir Rice’s mom speaks of her experience as a mother tragically losing her son to police brutality, as is a common occurrence for black people in America.They talk about how the modern day “green book” is now just in every black person’s mind, as a set of rules or facts to know maneuvering America in a black body. The transition from past to present challenges the way we experience stories from the past how this idea we teach that racism “went away” is false.
The interactive VR experience, Injustice by filmmaker Jaehee Cho, is based on racially motivated police brutality. In Injustice, the viewer witnesses racial discrimination happening in front of them, which forces them to make moral and ethical decisions right then and there. This is another important example of a piece that immerses the onlooker into the these in-just situations that many marginalized people face and fear on the daily because of racial and cultural stereotypes. Now, during a time with great upheaval of the Black Lives Matter movement, this project highlights the importance for non black people to step back, recognize their own privileges, and point out the racially systemic problem in our government law enforcement.
Empathy and engaging in communities
In today’s world where we face the restrictions of the Covid 19 pandemic highlighting the inequality and systemic racism in our country, VR is a way of overcoming restrictions of activities or travel and can also be a tool to re-educating or overcome ignorance.
Cultural humility contains the tools for the ultimate goal of equity and equality. Achieving cultural humility is based on critical self reflection and recognizing + challenging power imbalances, Cultural interaction, valued diversity and self awareness, being open and listening.The immersive nature and encouraged participation forces the learner to face empathy and engagement. In, Virtual Reality while we can experience beautiful imaginary worlds and games, we also are able to face reality in a perspective, that one would otherwise not be able to see. Quite literally VR allows one to walk into the shoes of the main character.
Becoming Homeless: A Human Experience, seeks to counter this irrational misconception that losing one’s home is due to who you are and the choices you make. This brings the storytelling to the next level that we never thought possible. The viewer can spend days in the life of someone who can no longer afford a home, interact with the environment facing the real struggles of someone in this position. This interactive experience makes the viewer walk in another’s shoes and face the adversity of living with dwindling resources.
It is important to broaden the perspectives that we teach and intake, understand that hiding or white washing history has shown to be very detrimental to our future, in the potential of repeating the same mistakes made in the past. This museum struck me as it is displays the horrible racist history of the United States, it also seeks to paint the picture of the society of the time, showing the products and objects that were used, and that racism can go deeper than human rights, it can be perpetuated in the merchandizing and everyday products or fashion.
While VR may not be the first choice for working with a community and telling someone’s story, it is a way for people to experience a more intimate narrative that can be shared to a broader range of people. Some obstacles may include social anxiety and or inability to travel to community or place of story. VR has shown to be a helpful tool for people with autism because it immerses them in a world where they do not have to worry about the social pressures of acting “normal.” Also, some people may be learning a foreign language in school, instead of only trying practice the language or understand the culture through a textbook, VR can give them the option to virtually travel to the foreign nation without having to book a plane ticket.
It is clear that Virtual Reality has evolved from a gaming peripheral to a new medium for storytelling and social activism. VR is predicted to increase from 6.2 billion U.S. dollars (in 2019) to more than 16 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. In 2015, tech entrepreneur and artist Chris Milk referred to virtual reality as “the empathy machine” for its ability to put people more directly in others’ shoes than any other kind of technology. In 2020, new projects and applications continue to show this upward trend of Virtual Reality leading to more awareness about social issues.
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