THE TECHNOLOGY OF VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY IN THE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT OF UNIVERSITY

The main purpose of our research is to investigate the possibilities of using virtual reality (vAcademia), Google Glass and augmented reality services. The main objectives are to study foreign experience usage in education and to try use this experience at Tomsk State University. Nowadays experience of Google Glass usage in education quite modest. There could be distinguished three research strategies: development and description of the case for Google Glasses; development and description of the possible scenarios of interaction between teacher and students using Google Glass; description and analysis of existing practices and approaches to the Google Glass usage in education. We had conducted research of augmented reality in Tomsk State University in two specific ways: as the presentations and workshops for teachers and the classroom for students of the master programs in the course “Culture and imaging technologies” and “Computer technologies in science and education.” Practice of the use of augmented reality is not widely available in the TSU. A common view to the prospectives of augmented reality provided by Google Glass in education among students and faculty was critical or indifferent. Summarizing, we can say that the use of Google Glass in education is difficult for three reasons: teaching staff is not ready to use this technology, as well we had revealed lack of interest in these technologies; benefits given by Google Glass are doubtful and unclear; economic inexpediency. Google Glass is a rather controversial technology to be used in educational practice. Foreign experience of using Google Glass in education can not be characterized as totally positive. Presentation of Google Glass features at Tomsk State University has shown a lack of interest among teachers and skepticism on the part of the student audience. Alternative augmented reality technologies that could be implemented with the help of mobile devices and online services are more promising for use in high school. The main positive features of these technologies is a lower barrier to entry and relatively low requirements from the material resources of the University and students. Students and teachers evaluate the virtual reality system. The degree of satisfaction is the average from the use vAcademia. 80 % of students believe that the system should not be used in learning. At the same time, communication was comfortable and did not cause psychological barriers, because the contact was through digital avatar. The participants of the experiment indicated that the system has sufficient functionality. They could not recommend any specific improvements. Application vAcademia in educational space TSU does not seem appropriate as a mass tool. Gamification give more negative effect and hamper learning. vAcademia concedes in its capabilities classroom communication Moodle, Adobe Connect, Open Edx, which are used in the TSU

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