We are big fans of VR! Starting this year we have several VR/AR kits we are loaning to our school libraries, complete with lesson plans they can use to connect classes with all kinds of great resources.

Sure, it’s fun to play with these. But virtual and augmented reality is playing an increasingly important role in a lot of other areas. We are going to look at a different use each week, so you can work with your community members to help them learn about the great things possible for them today, and tomorrow.

If you are reading this, you have (hopefully!) had some workplace training. It helps to keep everyone’s skills up to date, and can build satisfaction in a job well done.

But you probably haven’t (YET!) had training using virtual reality devices.

Personally, I’m pretty excited about the possibilities ahead!

Businesses are using VR training in all sorts of areas: firing people well, having an armed robbery, and other stressful situations.

Check out this article, and listen to the audio. (It’s different! I enjoyed it, as the reporter walked through the process of being the victim of an armed robbery!) Read this excerpt, then click on the link to get the whole story.

Virtual Reality Goes To Work, Helping Train Employees

“Virtual reality — long touted as the next big thing in tech — hasn’t taken off as a consumer product, but employers are embracing it as a more efficient and effective tool for on-the-job training.

This year, Walmart is training more than 1 million employees using virtual reality. And moving companies, airlines, food processing and financial firms are all using VR in different ways. In the virtual world, cashiers are taught to show greater empathy, mechanics learn to repair planes and retail workers experience how to deal with armed robbery.

The sensory immersion is key to its effectiveness. Because things look and sound as if they were real, the brain processes virtual reality as though it were a real experience, says Stanford communication professor Jeremy Bailenson, who also founded the school’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab.

“People learn by doing … getting feedback on mistakes, and then repeating and iterating,” he says…..

…Verizon, for example, has been using the technology to train its retail workers in handling armed robberies — a common crime in the wireless industry. Retail workers can reenact being held at gunpoint, and in the process learn proper ways to prioritize safety and minimize physical harm.

…Five years ago, Stanford head football coach David Shaw tested an early prototype of 3D video goggles with his quarterbacks and defensive linemen. Players could look around and feel as though the moves were unfolding in real life.

“This crazy thing happens when guys get in the VR — usually within 10 minutes, most of them start to sweat,” despite the fact that they’re barely moving in real life, Shaw says. “But their brain is seeing these visuals, these different formations and motions and plays and defenses. The more they see them,the quicker they react.”

…Walmart is already testing it as a way to interview job candidates, says the retailer’s head of learning, a man aptly named Andy Trainor.

“With all the data you get from VR, you can see where they look. You can see how they move and how they react,” Trainor says. “You could do an interview in VR and based on the way they answer the questions, you can preselect whether or not they’d be a good fit for that role.””