TY - JOUR AU - Waity, Julia AU - Durham, Samantha PY - 2020/05/14 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Using Virtual Reality to Learn about Place JF - TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology JA - TRAILS VL - IS - SE - DO - UR - https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/using-virtual-reality-to-learn-about-place SP - AB - While being able to read data correctly is a vital skill, many sociology classes rely heavily on charts, graphs and tables that can be overwhelming and disengaging for students. One way to overcome this is for students to see firsthand the concept that they are learning about. Because it is not always possible for students to physically travel to the place that they are learning about, virtual reality can provide a simulation of these places. The virtual reality activity described here was used in a 200 level poverty studies course to teach students about geographic variations in poverty. It can easily be adapted to other sociology courses where geographic concepts are taught, such as globalization. Through this experiential learning activity, students can view poverty "firsthand" with the use of virtual reality technology. Students work in small groups to explore areas of the world that experience high rates of poverty via Google Earth. As students engage in the activity, they take notes on their ideas and findings for each location they view. Once all of the students have completed the activity, the class ends with a group discussion of what they learned about geographic variations in poverty. This activity challenges students to use information learned in previous weeks of class to analyze places facing poverty around the world. ER -