If you aren’t experiencing it, you’re not understanding it! Using virtual reality to understand migrants

Abstract

Classes are becoming increasingly multi ethnic and it is often the case that teachers are only trained to handle these new realities via textbooks. Our project involves getting teachers and their pupils to undergo a virtual reality (VR) experience. The experience will narrate the story of a migrant child; it will explain briefly the story of his country in order to give a context and then the path undertaken since he left his home country. The VR experience will take the user through the mishaps and dangers of this voyage. The VR experience will be used to convey a powerful message – that of empathy. It is well known that shared perspectives breed understanding and this is what we’re trying to achieve. So far, we could only do so through audiovisual experiences such as videos, books, etc. However, VR represents a huge leap forward when it comes to experience compassion. Its not longer about walking through someone else’s shoes but rather about living in their world, maybe even reading what goes through their mind. The VR headset can easily become an empathy machine capable of influencing the perception of the users. The unrest in Syria, Libya and other countries, which are maybe too far away from our reality, will have a global, devastating effect if not managed properly. The impact that this technology can have on teachers and their pupils may carry a long lasting effect of such an experience over users.