BVPS Teams Up with Virginia Tech to Research Virtual Reality Use in Special Education
Technology in the classroom offers many benefits for students with disabilities. Special education teachers are able to engage their students more comprehensively than ever before due to assistive technologies.
Virtual reality is helping to morph the special education technology landscape even further.
In order to further the use of virtual reality in special education and special needs environments, Bristol Virginia Public Schools has teamed up with Virginia Department of Education's Training and Technical Assistance Center (T/TAC) at Virginia Tech to research more specific virtual reality applications for students with special needs.
As part of this collaboration, BVPS and T/TAC will:
Explore what virtual reality apps can help various disabilities and give students new opportunities.
Observe and research what virtual reality applications work best in real world scenarios across varying special needs.
Potentially develop new applications that are address specific student needs.
Work towards creating a centralized resource for virtual reality applications and their potential uses in public education for not only schools throughout Virginia and other states.
While this is the beginning framework, there might be opportunities to expand as we work together.
Many thanks to Matt Newton for his work and help to get this collaborative partnership going!