In the making: Virtual reality to be used in classrooms and medical training

SINGAPORE — Upper primary school students may soon be able to “visit” various places of worship and historical sites in Singapore without leaving their classrooms, when a plan to incorporate virtual reality (VR) in the social studies curriculum takes shape sometime next year.

The Info-comm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is working with Singapore production company Beach House Pictures to develop a VR application that will take students on virtual learning journeys around Singapore with the use of headsets. Teachers can then use tablets to guide students through the experience and zoom in on specific areas, such as the minaret of a mosque.

The initiative is targeted at Primary 4 and 5 students, and specific schools will be identified at a later date, IMDA said. 

The authority is also hoping to use VR in emergency rooms and operating theatres as a training tool for medical students and junior doctors. Digital information and medical images will be integrated to “enhance realism” and to facilitate critical decision-making during the resuscitation of the critically ill, it said.

In these “emergency rooms of the future”, trainees perfect their skills by rehearsing procedures with virtual scalpels on virtual bodies, which is a “realistic yet risk-free” environment, IMDA added. This will also help educators create and modify scenarios more efficiently.

Right now, dummies are used for this aspect of clinical training, which results in resource wastage because they have to be replaced after each surgical procedure.

IMDA said that it has been “in talks” with several restructured hospitals, but declined to name which are the ones receptive to using the technology.

Apart from healthcare and education, traffic safety is another area where the use of VR is being explored. IMDA hopes that using VR may serve as an opportunity to build up manpower capability and develop VR film-maker specialists within the media industry.