Educational Virtual Reality for youth education

<< Background >>Virtual reality (VR) in education can serve as both a supplement and alternative to traditional methods. Though still novel, VR offers immersive experiences, simulating various scenarios and environments. It supports the teaching of diverse competencies and subjects like ecology, geography, and biology. VR enables exploration of phenomena otherwise inaccessible, fostering deeper understanding. While primarily known for entertainment, VR showed promise in education. Its three-dimensional environment provided more illustrative learning experiences than textbooks. As VR technology evolved, educators recognized its potential to enhance student engagement and learning retention. With young learners familiar with VR from gaming, its integration into education could motivate and facilitate informal learning. However, educators lacked training tailored to VR's educational use, highlighting the need for specialized instruction in this area.<< Objectives >>The project focused on the Virtual Reality as educational tool for non-formal education of young people.Operational objectives of the project:- promotion of VR as educational tool for youth education in the partners states.- implementation of the elements of VR to the educational offer for youth among partner institutions;- increasing knowledge and competences of youth workers from partners institution about VR as educational tool;- transfer of knowledge between less and more experienced institutions in the field of VR in youth education;- establishing permanent cooperation between project partners in order to implement VR in youth educationLong-term aims of the project;- increasing awareness about use of virtual reality as educational tool for youth education;- improving the quality and efficiency of youth education by using new technologies as virtual reality;- increasing young people's interest in informal learning and their motivation to learn via using modern and atractiveeducational tools as virtual reality;- modernizing and increasing the use of new technologies in youth education through in the use of virtual reality.<< Implementation >>Outcome and results of the project:- development of an international set of case studies about VR in youth education based on experiences of partnerscountries;- organisation of the short joint staff training in Turkey for the project partners focused on VR as educational tool;- organizing cascading workshops for youth educators in partner countries (all together 3);- organising promotion seminar on VR as educational tool (1 per country);- creation of the website and instagram profile promoting VR in youth education;- participation in the city technology picnic in Łódź, where a VR presentation was held (September 30, 2023).<< Results >>- We have created a collection of over 50 pages, consisting of 15 case studies, including examples from Poland, Greece and Turkey.- Joint staff training in Turkey for the project partners focused on VR as educational tool. A total of 13 participants took part - 4 from Greece, 3 from Poland and 6 from Turkey (The goal was a minimum of 9 participants).- Each partner organized a series of training sessions for youth workers (the goal was a minimum of 15 participants per country):- 15 participants took part in Greece.- 15 participants took part in Poland.- 23 took part in Turkey.- Demonstration meetings for young people (The goal was a minimum of 40 participants per country): - in Poland - 45 people took part in them.- In Greece 40 participants.- In Turkey 182 participants. Participants completed evaluation questionnaires. - Educational seminars for NGOs on VR as educational tool (The goal was a minimum of 30 participants per country):- 1 meeting in Poland, 42 people took part in a seminar popularizing the project.- 2 meetings in Greece, 31 participants in total.- 2 meeting in Turkey, 35 participants in total.