Edutainment in VR: The Best of Both Worlds
Today, people are more aware of virtual reality than ever before. This emerging technology is all over the news and social media. Until now, much of this coverage has been focused on the VR video game industry, which is just one application for virtual reality. At Foundry 45, we build fun experiences with a purpose. We describe these as VR Edutainment.
Edutainment through Gamification?
Gamification is the process of turning concepts into fun learning experiences with games. We use gamification in many of our VR Edutainment products.
VR is immersive: everything you see and hear is part of a digitally designed experience, made for a specific purpose. This new way of training can help people learn by getting rid of extrasensory distractions. It also gives educators the chance to teach in ways that would otherwise be impossible with books.
Imagine…
- Kids learning about astronomy by going to space
- Older workers learning new skills by playing games
- Foreign language learners experiencing new cultures without ever leaving their town
That’s what VR Edutainment can do.
How We Do VR Edutainment
The Weather Company came to us with an interesting problem: they had a great new mobile app, but they had to be sure that everyone on their team knew what it could do.
Many employees learn best when they are having fun, so we decided to use VR Edutainment to accomplish both tasks. While navigating through the new features of the updated app, users had an opportunity to set an alert for an upcoming snow storm.
Later in the experience, that storm alert went off, triggering the start of the gamified section. That’s when users became “forces of nature,” throwing solar balls to melt the blankets of snow covering the world around them. The more snow they dissolved, the more points they scored.
Foundry 45’s unique blend of fun and learning made for an experience that people wanted to play again and again. Our VR Edutainment is changing how The Weather Company and many others teach what’s important to them.
