2017 was a busy year for Virtual Reality, as consumers truly began to take notice. Tech companies were quick to identify this interest, and began to drive VR innovation across many different industries.

Travel, entertainment, hospitality and healthcare all benefitted from new tools based around VR, and now its the education sectors turn to contract the VR bug!

Here are 5 reasons why VR is perfect for education.

[1] Pupils can travel the world (and beyond) without leaving the classroom

Imagine trekking through the jungles of the Amazon, or across the freezing tundras of Antarctica, or even reaching the top of Mount Everest without leaving the classroom.

VR enables this. Even the most inaccessible regions of planet Earth can be viewed with VR. Take note of Google's growing library of Expeditions, allowing pupils to take field trips to virtually anywhere.

Expeditions are easily enabled by having a mobile or tablet device and a VR viewer (the cheapest option is actually Google's own Google Cardboard).

#SchoolStories are the lifeblood of our 'story-led', creative websites. They are an effective, visual and engaging way for a school to really demonstrate what they do on a day-to-day basis: to "show, not tell" their community what makes the school so special.

So, when one school shares great #SchoolStories that gets seen by millions of people we get pretty excited! 

Alleyn Court Prep's snowball fight

With the #BeastFromTheEast causing some chaos across the UK, many schools were forced to close and see out the snow fall. Alleyn Court, an co-ed preparatory school based in Southend-on-Sea, opted to stay open to celebrate the snow in the best way you possibly can...by holding a pupils vs. teachers snowball fight!

We love awards season at @intSchools! This year, we wanted to join in the fun and give you, our loving community, an opportunity to play along too. It's time for the #intSchoolsWebsiteAwards.

Take a look through some of our creative ‘story-led’  websites below, and vote for your favourite!

How to vote:

1. click the school website image and explore our immersive and engaging ‘campaign-led’ designs
2. choose your favourite and click the VOTE link to submit
3. we will also be running daily polls on Twitter, using #intSchoolsWebsiteAwards. Come and join in the conversation
4. we will reveal winners after the Easter break

According to the World Economic Forum’s 2016 report, The Future of Jobs, it is estimated 5 million jobs will be lost to automation by 2020 (a number that will likely continue to grow). Jobs involved in office work and administration, manufacturing, and even law are likely to be hit the hardest.

With such dynamic shifts in the availability of work, which jobs should we preparing our children for? 

An unknown working future

Much has been argued on the subject of social media, particularly in relation to Millennials, in recent years: 

• is it good or bad?
• is it actually harming young minds?
• is it creating a generation far more removed on a social / relationship basis?

Understanding these impacts is essential if we are to best prepare our younger generations.

We can regard social media as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it enables a platform for users to share amazing stories and to interact with communities on a global scale. But on the other hand, concerns around self-esteem and the growing fear of Social Networking Addiction underlie fears of social media use.

The reality is that whatever the impact of social media, it is here to stay. 

Dopamine and social media

The use of mobile tech and social media has been proven to release dopamine - the "feel good" chemical - in our brains. We receive a text, we get a hit of dopamine. We get a Like on Facebook, we get a hit of dopamine. Someone has commented on our Instagram post, we get a hit of dopamine.

Simon Sinek - author, motivational speaker and marketing consultant - identifies social media as having heavily addictive consequences; particularly on the Millennial generation.

For some of the biggest technological innovations of our history, we can measure success by at the level of users. Hitting the coveted 50 million users mark is a sure sign of triumph, but how quickly are top technologies taking to reach this magic number? 

For the past 4 years, we have collected our thoughts on future trends and emerging technology for the coming year. 

It’s a useful record for schools to look at what to focus on for the year, and what to start thinking about.

Time to dust off our crystal ball, reflect on 2017, and look to the future.

Here we go...

Still going to grow from 2017

[1] Chatbots

2017 saw an emergence of chatbots (AI that conducts conversation). You may not even realise you’re speaking to a chatbot - but these services have been implemented across multiple businesses and industries to help with a variety of means.

We expect chatbots to continue to grow, particularly in the ‘support’ field, where most questions are regular queries that a chatbot can easily answer.

Facebook Messenger is an example platform to build a chatbot. Parents can use it as a ‘help guide’, particularly for usual support queries about using the ‘Parent Portal’, or accessing the school calendar.

Alternatively, you can install one onto your website to help with simple queries and instructions.

For example, a chatbot could be installed on your website to help with admissions enquiries. If a person goes on to the ‘Admissions Process’ page, the service could pop up, introduce itself, and offer guidance and tips for your school’s admissions process - and answer any queries the person has.

[2] Voice

Voice will continue its upward trajectory - as user adoption accelerates. We expect more companies (and schools) to invest in developing voice interfaces. 

This will most likely be on the Alexa platform first, as Amazon controls around 70% of the smart speaker market (eMarketer).

Yet, Apple are coming into the mix in 2018 with their HomePod - and you can never underestimate Apple.

It is sure to be an exciting one to watch.

[3] New video formats

2017 saw a variety of new video formats - from ‘square video with captions’ to ‘circular videos on Snapchat’. 

Video will continue to grow, and the formats will keep evolving to grab attention and drive engagement.

We expect to see more schools using fully immersive 360 video - and to develop their VR content.

[1] Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality [CORRECT]

We said: The technology and behaviour around VR and AR will evolve over the next 12 months, and further.

2017 has seen VR and AR come along in leaps and bounds. It is clear that the applications offered by VR and AR have a long way to go, but in a relatively short amount of time both platforms are readily available to everyday consumers.

• For VR, we have Google Card (incredibly cheap, to be used with a mobile device) and a whole variety of VR headsets, such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and gaming headsets like PlayStation VR. 
• For AR, the introduction of ARKit on the new iPhone models has brought augmented reality into the homes of millions.

VR and AR will undoubtedly remain a trend throughout 2018, expanding into other sectors outside entertainment. Keep an eye on the education industry in particular, as VR and AR become key learning tools both inside and outside the classroom. Google expeditions is already a prime example of this!

Schools using social media is becoming a big deal. The ability to reach large audiences, both within and external to your community, is a core facet of your school's marketing efforts.

Being active on social media is key. However, this can be difficult to maintain with good momentum all year round. To help, we have created a festive, social media orientated event that runs throughout December. We call it #SocialAdvent.

Yes, the #SocialAdvent Challenge is back for 2017! It's bigger and better than ever before! 

For 25 days, we set a different challenge. These challenges will help guide you in new ways to create content or use different areas of social media more effectively. The idea is that you will be able to share content that your community will be interested in.

How to play: