ICE Live 2026: Wrap-Around Education

Charli Howe, ADINJC General Council

Introduction

During his seminar at ICE Live 2026, Dr Rolison highlighted three key purposes that effective wrap-around education must serve:

1. Prepare the learner
2. Guide the experience
3. Translate experience into action

Each stage plays a crucial role in turning immersion into insight.

Preparing the Learner: Setting the Conditions for Learning

Preparation happens before the headset goes on, and it is just as important as the VR content itself.

The goal here is to ensure that learners:

• Are watching for learning, not entertainment
• Are emotionally and cognitively ready
• Do not misinterpret what they are about to see

This aligns with educational psychology: learners need a clear mental framework to correctly process new information.

Effective preparation might include:

Setting the scene

• Placing the learner in a realistic context they recognise e.g. “This is a situation that happens every summer in the UK.”
• This immediately signals relevance

Challenging existing beliefs

• A quick poll such as ‘Would you swim in a quarry or lake on a hot day?” is powerful.
• If the upcoming VR experience contradicts their current opinion, learners need time to reflect and mentally adjust during the experience.

Framing the objective clearly

• For example: “Your job in this experience isn’t to be brave, it’s to notice what happens when someone enters cold, unsafe water.”
• This directs attention and reduces misinterpretation

Guiding the Experience: Learning in the Moment

During the VR experience itself, learners can still be gently guided without breaking immersion.

This helps them notice key moments and understand why they matter.

Common tools include:

• On-screen prompts
• Environmental cues
• Audio narration or subtle guidance

These prompts act like signposts and direct attention to learning opportunities, rather than allowing learners to drift into passive viewing or emotional overload.

A Practical Example: Water Safety VR for Young People

One example shared was a water safety VR experience designed for teens and young adults.

The scenario follows a group of young people at a quarry, shown through a 360-degree perspective.

As the group debates entering the water, learners observe:

• The social pressure to join in
• The deceptively calm appearance of the water
• The reality of cold-water shock
• The hidden dangers associated with quarries

The experience can be delivered via a VR headset or through social media platforms that support 360-degree video, making it accessible beyond formal classroom settings.

Key learning objectives include:

• Making unsafe water entry unappealing
• Understanding cold-water shock
• Learning and remembering Float to Live

But these objectives only land properly when surrounded by strong wrap-around education.

After the Experience

Once the headset comes off, the learning process is far from over.

In fact, this is where the most important work begins.

The emotional impact of VR needs to be processed, analysed, and translated into real-world understanding.

Immediate Emotional Check

Start by acknowledging emotion:

• “What shocked you the most?”
• “What made you uncomfortable?”

This helps regulate emotional responses and prevents learners from dismissing the experience as “too extreme”, a common psychological defence mechanism.

Learning Debrief

Next, connect reflection directly to the learning objectives:

• “Why did floating work better than swimming?”
• “What actually caused the danger?”

This consolidates knowledge and corrects misunderstandings.

Reality Transfer

Finally, anchor learning to real life:

• “Where might this happen near you?”
• “What local places feel safe but actually aren’t?”

This step is critical.

When learners visualise risks in their own environment, they move from passive understanding to problem-solving.

This leads to deeper, longer-lasting learning.

The Power of Polls and Social Learning

Polls, both face-to-face and online, are a simple but highly effective tool.

• In-person polls spark discussion and help groups recognise shared risks in their local areas.
• Social media polls and pinned comments allow facilitators to address misunderstandings publicly and link responses back to learning objectives.

This keeps the learning conversation alive beyond the initial experience, especially when followed up with additional posts or reminders.

Another effective technique is social recognition, such as asking:
“Who in your friendship group would be the first to jump in?”

This helps learners see risk not just as an individual choice, but as a social dynamic.

Simple Action Rehearsal: Installing Safer Scripts

One of the most powerful wrap-around techniques is action rehearsal. For example, asking learners to complete the sentence:

• “If someone went under, I would…”

This mentally rehearses safer behaviours, making it more likely they’ll be recalled under stress.

Wrap-Around Education Across Other VR Topics

The same wrap-around approach has been successfully applied to road safety VR following identical principles:

• Preparation
• Guided experience
• Structured reflection and reality transfer

Across all topics, the message is clear: VR does not teach by itself.

Without facilitation, learners often cope with shock by dismissing it, minimising the risk, or distancing themselves emotionally.

Wrap-around education prevents this by helping learners process, reflect, and act.