Understanding Virtual Reality

<p>This book provides critical commentary on key issues around virtual reality, using media technology as a tool to challenge perspectives for learning and understanding cultural diversities.</p><p>With a focus on empathy, embodiment and ethics, the book interrogates the use of immersive technologies for formal and informal educational contexts. Taking a critical approach to discourses around emerging technology and learning, the book presents the idea that a new literacy is emerging and an emphasis on media and technology is needed in the context of education to explore and experience cultural diversities. Employing a personal reflexive narrative, the chapters highlight key issues through research and interviews with leading practitioners in the field.</p><p><i>Understanding Virtual Reality</i> will be of great interest to academics and students interested in the effects of immersive realities on the education experience, and to anyone keen on exploring the paradigm shift from entertainment to education.</p> <p><em>List of Contributors; Preface; Acknowledgements</em>; Introduction; <strong>Part I: Introducing Reality</strong>; 1. The Virtual Archives; 2. The Virtual Space; 3. A Multitude of Literacies; <strong>Part II: Understanding VR</strong>; 4. Understanding VR; 5. Virtual Encounters; 6. Understanding VR Audiences; 7. Teaching XR: Digital Inequalities and Education; 8. How to Use Social VR in Higher Education: Case Study of JUXYR Campus in Finland; 9. The Moral Metaverse: Establishing an Ethical Foundation for XR Design; 10. “Unruly Encounters”: Literacies of Error in Immersive Virtual Environments; 11. A Virtual Journey Towards New Literacies; <strong>Part III: An Immersive Literacy</strong>; 12. Presenting New Literacies; 13. Into the Metaverse</p>