Elevate has now become one of the leading investors in EdTech start-ups in Europe. Find out what we are doing to disrupt the classroom.
As everyone will know, the first component of Elevate’s Why is Engagement. To this end, we have spent the last 3 years or so, becoming highly involved in the world of EdTech, seeking out, and making investments in a range of companies that are not only on the cutting edge of educational technology, but who’s technology can be used in the classroom to engage students in concepts that were otherwise boring or irrelevant. Today, Elevate has become one of the largest EdTech investors in Europe with a portfolio of 8 start-ups, which is rapidly increasing. In this section, we will be introducing you all to these companies and how they are changing the classroom, and more widely, the world of education. In this edition, we will start with one of our really exciting companies in the field of Virtual and Augmented Reality – Wonda VR.
Meet Wonda VR (https://www.wondavr.com/)
One of things that we have spent the last few years at HQ exploring is the issue of student disengagement. Research conducted in Australian schools shows that 60% of Australian high school students are disengaged at any point of the year, and these statistics play out across most countries and educational systems. The reasons for this are varied, and complex, however, one of the factors that we have identified is that some content can be very hard to associate with on both a cognitive and emotional level. Understanding the ways chemicals interact with each other may be dangerous or impossible in the classroom, but through the use of VR students can easily and realistically simulate these experiments, and deep dive into the reasons for the interaction, facilitating understanding, and long term memory retention. Similarly, as anyone who has been to Pompei will know, it is one thing to read about what life was like in Pompei, but it is a completely different thing to walk through it and marvel at the sights and sounds and become emotionally lost in the ruins. As we know from Memory Mnemonics, this type of emotional anchor, is the basis for long-term memory.
These are just 2 basic ways that VR or AR can revolutionise the way we teach. That’s where Wonda come in. Wonda have developed an editor program that allows teachers and students to put together their own VR enabled content. Much like imovie allows any novice to put together their own shareable and decent quality video, Wonda’s platform does the same for VR. Pearson are the largest client for Wonda today, using their player to develop content for their textbooks with the vision that any digital textbook (at school or university for that matter), won’t have static photos any longer, but real-immerse experiences. Studying biology and want to understand where the organs are within a shark? Watch an immerse dissection to understand. Learning German and want to understand how to order bread in a bakery? Don’t just read words on a page or look at a photo of a baker. Instead put on a VR head-set and find yourself in the bakery and watch others have the conversation, before having it yourself!
Wonda is also currently being used by teachers at the pinnacle of education at places like Harvard, where it is transforming the way students learn English through advanced Maths.
Why are Elevate involved in Wanda?
I am a gigantic believer in the power of VR in education, and we have made the investment to connect ourselves with some of the leading thinkers and practitioners in the space so that we can start bringing this knowledge and capability into Elevate. Imagine Elevate’s coaching program delivered through AR? Imaging doing presenter training in a real, simulated classroom through VR? We are now starting our experiments with VR and are excited to see where it takes us.
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