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Survey: Augmented and Virtual Reality Yet to Establish Foothold in K–12

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Despite plenty of media attention and hype, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are technologies still on the outskirts in American classrooms, according to a recent survey by the nonprofit organization Project Tomorrow.

Only five percent of teachers said they are using AR or VR in their classrooms, Project Tomorrow found in its annual Speak Up survey of more than 510,000 K–12 students, parents and educators. This was the same no matter what the size or type of school district, or years of teacher experience.

Higher percentages of high school computer science/technology (11 percent) and science teachers (9 percent) were using AR or VR, according to the survey.

Only 9 percent of students in grades 6 through 8 and 8 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 said they have experienced AR or VR in a classroom setting.

Middle school students seem to be the most excited about AR and VR in the school setting. Among students in grades 6 through 8, 33 percent said they would like to see augmented reality apps in their ultimate school, and 47 percent of those kids said they would like to see virtual reality experiences and hardware in their ultimate school.

However, teachers, principals and parents were more skeptical. Only 12 percent of parents and principals said they want to see AR apps in their ultimate school, while 13 percent of teachers said the same. Seventeen percent of parents said they want to see VR experiences and hardware in their ultimate school, while 23 percent of teachers and 29 percent of principals said they wanted to see VR in the classroom.

Teachers cite three key elements to better integrate digital content, tools and resources into instruction:

  • Classroom set of devices (56 percent);
  • Consistent technical support for classroom usage (56 percent); and
  • Professional development on effective instructional practices with that digital content (48 percent).

The Speak Up Survey was conducted between October 2016 and January 2016. For more findings, see the infographic below or visit tomorrow.org.

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About the Author

Richard Chang is associate editor of THE Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].

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