Virtual Reality in Education: Defining Researchable Issues

Abstract Ever since technologies began offering something to learners and the process of learning, we have been besieged by proponents who claim wonderful advantages for each new technology, praising the superiority of each new form over its precursors. In this environment virtual reality (VR) might be seen as the latest white knight in the arsenal of educational technologies. In this paper, we have sought to reflect on what we want to achieve as educational outcomes and the efficacy of VR for the design of modern learning environments. We have also sought to link current beliefs about learning with the need to experience a world in which the pedagogical assumptions can be embedded into the objects, contexts and relationships from which the user might derive further complex concepts.