Picture this: A 10-year-old student puts on VR goggles and suddenly finds themselves swimming alongside a marine biologist in the depths of their local harbor. “Are you ready, kids? Come on, we’re going to dive down. Hold your breath with me,” the educator’s voice guides them as they descend into an underwater world most will never see in real life.
This moment truly illustrates something we’d been grappling with as educators: how do you help students connect with something as vast and inaccessible as the deep ocean?
The Challenge: Making the Invisible, Visible
Most students will never experience it firsthand, yet ocean literacy has never been more critical for our planet’s future. Traditional methodsâvideos, textbooks, even aquarium visits â can leave students feeling disconnected from the living ocean systems that sustain our planet. A key challenge we have tried to address in the Ocean Connections project was: how can we help students experience something they might never physically encounter? How can we help connect them with the Ocean?
Our “Ocean Connections” research project used a novel “material-dialogic learning” approach. This wasn’t about replacing real experiences with virtual onesâit was about using technology as a bridge to deepen engagement with actual marine environments. The project used virtual reality and other digital technologies combined with creative pedagogical approaches, using observations and interviews to understand learning about the Ocean when these ideas were put into practice in England, Spain and Denmark. We found that the virtual reality extended and widened the possibilities of the âdialogic spaceâ the learners could engage through, with physical, embodied experiences a crucial part, alongside the virtual.
The Fish Nursery Project
The Danish âNursing Grounds for Fishâ project for 10-11 year olds perfectly exemplified the impact of the approach. The students identified a real problem in the local harbour: insufficient shelter for small fish. Working with local aquarium educators and harbour authorities, students designed and built physical underwater “insect hotels” from metal, rocks, and shells. They measured water salinity, dissected fish, and created scientific paintings. Then came the VR: once they installed their nurseries underwater, 360-degree cameras captured the developing habitats. Through VR, students could virtually “visit” their creations over time, watching fish inhabit their structures and leaving observations for classmates.
One student left a virtual note in the collaborative VR space: “Why are the small fish staying close to the rocks we put here?” Another responded with ideas. This created ongoing conversations involving students, teachers, and the marine environment itself as an active participant.
In the Ocean Connections project, physical responses in the VR spaces were immediateâstudents ducked at virtual fish – but more importantly, they became creators rather than consumers, designing virtual rooms to teach younger students about ocean environments. As one of our Spanish colleagues observed, students told her: “With the virtual reality glasses you can put these rooms in and you can teach the other kids how to interact with the environment.” Students weren’t just learning about the oceanâthey were becoming ocean educators themselves.
Addressing Concerns: Real Connection in a Digital Age
Teachers initially expressed concerns that resonate with many educators and parents: Would VR create barriers between students and nature?
What we discovered was more nuanced. While teachers could no longer see exactly what each student experienced in VR, they found new opportunities for student empowerment. As one colleague put it, “You have to be able to cope with not being the expert.” Students were often more knowledgeable about the technology than the teachers, which opened space for them to take ownership of their learning.
Crucially, VR was always embedded in broader, hands-on projects. Students weren’t replacing real-world experiencesâthey were using technology to extend their engagement with actual marine environments and community challenges.
What made the Ocean Connections work effective?
Our research suggests that effective environmental education is about relationshipsâbetween students and content, but between each other, their communities, and marine life itself. The “material-dialogic” framework we use treats physical and virtual worlds as interconnected spaces where understanding emerges through interaction. When the students build fish nurseries, explore them virtually, discuss observations, and create artistic responses, they’re engaged in a complex web of relationships that mirrors how real environmental understanding develops.
Looking Ahead
As climate change makes environmental education increasingly urgent, this project shows some hope. Students didn’t just learn marine biology factsâthey developed emotional connections to ocean ecosystems and gained experience as environmental advocates. The future of environmental education won’t be about choosing between digital and natural experiences, but about weaving them together. In observing students hold their breath alongside virtual dive guides, build real homes for fish, and teach younger children through virtual creations, we see them modelling the engaged, creative environmental citizenship our planet desperately needs.
The ocean, we’ve learned, can be closer than we thinkâwe just need new ways to dive in.