This is an excerpt from an article I wrote about VR in schools.
Few educational trends stimulate the immediate excitement of Extended Reality (XR).
People recall movies like The Matrix, where there is an entire world that exists virtually, or Minority Report, where there are futuristic, gesture-based screens and user interfaces.
Yet, despite the promise of Hollywood, XR (a catch-all term that is often used to describe virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality) has so far failed to make much of an impact in educational settings.
In 2007 the Horizon Report claimed that it was only a matter of a few years until VR would become common in higher education; that was certainly not the case (as Audrey Watters scathingly points out), and the widespread adoption of XR is still waiting to eventuate.
Yet, despite the slow adoption of XR technologies in educational settings, there are some signs that suggest it might be finally becoming a legitimate option for educators.
Read more here (free registration required).