Virtual reality as a learning tool is just around the corner at Arizona State University. ASU and Dreamscape Immersive will be rolling out the Dreamscape Learn pod.

Lisa Flesher, chief of Realm 4 Project Acceleration, EdPlus at ASU, explains. “With our first product of Dreamscape Learn, we are going to launch our biology labs. Students will go in to this immersive experience. They’ll be putting on their headsets. They’re in a full body tracking haptic experience.”

“They will go through a zoo and be interacting with creatures and figuring out why someone is sick. And this is a new immersive hands-on really engaging way to learn curriculum that is applicable and can be just different than reading a textbook or watching a video,” adds Flesher.

“Experiencing it virtually is better than a traditional textbook because it’s engaging a different part of your brain when you’re in there. And when you’re the scientist and when you’re doing the discovery, it commits to memory in such a different way to engage with you in a way that you are going to remember, not just for the semester, but for long-term beyond your degree,” notes Flesher.

Flesher notes that the Dreamscape Learn pod has potential beyond ASU. “Our goal is to be able to scale this. So, launch it with our campus students, launch it to our online students, and then to figure out how we can partner with other universities and with K-12.”

Click here to learn more about EdPlus at ASU.

WorkingNation—a collaborating partner of the ASU+GSV Summit—sat down with Flesher in San Diego as part of our #WorkingNationOverheard social media series.

Hear from more innovators in education and tech in the public, private, and nonprofit spheres attending the ASU+GSV Summit 2021 here.

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