The girls tell us about their Virtual Reality experience
More news from the Virtual Reality workshop held as part of Anti-Bullying week. Ana, Lower IVA reports:
“On Friday 10th November, St Augustine’s Priory introduced an Anti-Bullying Virtual Reality workshop to Form III – Upper IV. Before it began we were given a taster on virtual reality and how it works. As soon as our goggles were on we were in a completely different world. It seemed as if you were there, it made you wince, dodge and duck if anything came near. You could turn around in a full circle and the virtual world would still be there! We then talked about the different types of bullying; cyberbullying, physical and verbal bullying. Then the clip began.
The anti-bullying scene was very different to the taster. It felt more realistic, something that would actually happen. There were a few characters, such as Jasper (who was the bully) and Liam (who was the victim.) Jasper was spreading rumours that Liam was in a charity shop buying underwear with his Mum. We then identified it was a type of verbal bullying. Carl tried to stand up against Jasper, but Jasper soon made Carl back down. Jasper then threw a ball at Liam, which was thrown hard and asked Liam to pass it back. What if Liam hadn’t caught that ball? We identified this as physical bullying. Two girls stood up for Liam, but then Savannah threatened them, so they quickly backed down. Neil then recorded Jasper questioning Liam about whether he was buying underwear with his mum at a charity shop, and Liam admitted it. Neil then posted this all over Facebook, making it open for the public to see. Liam received comments, all negative. We also discussed that this could be seen as cyberbullying. A teacher walked by asking if everything was alright, but Liam said nothing. We then learnt the backstory of each character and we understood why Jasper might have been the bully, and we then had the opportunity to ask the characters questions and receive answers! It was an unforgettable experience”.
Sennen, Upper IV Alpha commented, “This week my class learnt about anti-bullying using virtual reality. This was a new experience for some of us so it was quite exciting. Being taught this way about anti-bullying was really informative because the virtual reality made it feel as if we were in the room when the bullying was taking place so you could feel more empathy towards the characters. We discussed how we felt about the scenario as a class and also asked the characters from the video questions to try and uncover what was going on. It was interesting to hear different people’s points of view and we even discussed how the bully was feeling and why he might be doing it. It was also a useful experience as we could see what bullying looked like in real life so we could recognise it and know how to act on it. Overall, it was a great experience and I definitely learnt something new from it”.
Mattie, Form IIIA, tells us about her experience, “The Anti-bullying week Virtual Reality session was so much fun and it really showed us how people feel when they are bullied. It made us feel like we had to do something to help, but we couldn’t because we were not actually there, which makes you feel really sad and guilty because you can’t actually help them in that situation they are in. I also enjoyed it because we found out about the characters’ past and why they are getting bullied or why they are bullying other people. I think overall the Virtual Reality session was an amazing experience so I would like to say thank you to the lady and the company who came in to do the session”.
Ariana, Form IIIA, also writes, “On Friday 10th November all girls from Form III had the chance to get involved in an Anti-Bulling workshop. At the start we had an introduction video, so that people who had not experienced Virtual Reality before could get used to it. In this video there was a variety of different yet amazing features. For example, at one point we felt like we were flying over a mountain, when really we were just sitting down in a classroom! Then after all of the excitement of the first video we moved on to watch the main anti-bullying video and we talked about what we should do if we see any sort of bullying. As a whole I really enjoyed the whole session and I also learned quite a lot”.
Categories: Senior Whole School