PhD student and John’s Resident Tutor Emerald Grimshaw tells Catalina Ronzon about her investigations into virtual reality and its potential in the classroom.
I thought we could begin by asking you to tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you grow up?
So I’m from London, originally. I was born in Islington, and lived in the same house my whole life until I was 18 and moved up to Durham. I did my undergrad here, which was in psychology, and then my master’s was in developmental psychopathology.
And now you are doing a PhD project which I personally find extremely interesting. Could you please give us an overview of your research, and also tell us what drew you to it?
My research concerns using virtual reality as an educational tool in the classroom. We’re looking at how VR can be used in the context of history lessons. What we’ve done is, we’ve created a virtual version of how the Silk Road was 2000 years ago: we go into primary and secondary schools in the local Durham community, and we give children aged between seven and twelve/thirteen years old a chance to visit the Silk Road experience. The overall hope for the research is to explore the features of virtual reality that make it useful for learning and engagement. I did a British Psychological Society scholarship-internship over one summer, during which we worked with VR. I loved it, and when the opportunity came to do a VR-related PhD project, I really jumped at the opportunity. My supervisor has previously looked at how VR can allow children and adults to feel embodied. “Embodiment” in this context means the experience of feeling like you own and control a virtual body. We asked ourselves, how can we apply that to an educational context, and the wider world? At that point, I thought: “you know what, I’ve loved history since I was very young; and the things that have stuck with me most have had to do with visiting, for example, a recreation of the World War One trenches, or of a house built exactly like would have been in 1945. On this basis, I really thought VR could bring history to life in a special way.
What would you say is your favourite aspect of the project?
Two things. The first one is my supervision meetings. We often go into these amazing discussions and have great brainstorming sessions. And the second is the opportunity to work with local schools and local students. Just to witness the excitement from teachers and children alike with this new technology, especially the students: seeing them all really enjoy the VR experience. After hours of sitting in an office, or designing things in a lab and reading papers, being able to see the actual impact of your study on real people is quite rewarding.
And what is the most challenging part?
Probably something that is also kind of a good thing, which is that there are just so many learning opportunities out there, so many papers. It’s a lot… The difficulty is just trying to go: OK, what should I look at today? There are so many people out there researching all these interesting things, almost unlimited lectures and seminars you could attend… I’m a planner, so I do try to be organised and stay focused on the day-to-day level.
Now for something a bit different… What is your favourite place to retreat to here in Durham, when you want some space for yourself? Where do you go when you want to step away from your work for a bit? If there is somewhere...
I do have an answer to that question: Durham Cathedral. Something I really enjoyed doing during my undergrad was, if I’d had a really busy week, filled with societies, sports and studying, I would take my sketchbook and go into the cathedral at some point during the weekend. It was normally very quiet. You can just go sit there and not be disturbed, and I really like the amount of history in that building: it makes you think: “wow, someone built this almost one thousand years ago.” And then all of the stress you might be feeling that week can be put into perspective. You think “yes, life is crazy right now; and yes, I’m twenty years old and trying to balance all the different things in my life; but actually, there’s so much that has gone before me and so much that will go after”. It sort of centres you, relaxes you; I recommend it.
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