It may consist of a conventional classroom scenario simply moved online in the form of a live, two-way video stream in which a teacher and their students can interact in real time. Though it usually takes place on a computer screen, virtual school can take different forms. This is how virtual is most commonly used in the term virtual school, which refers to an educational program that takes place in a virtual environment. More recently, virtual has come to be used to describe things that aren’t simulations but real things that can be experienced in a remote location in some way, often via a live video feed. The more specific use of virtual often involves computer simulations, as in virtual reality and virtual rendering. The adverb virtually is perhaps most commonly used to describe things in this way. Most generally, virtual is used to describe things as almost identical to but not exactly something else. The various senses of virtual are quite different, but they all involve something that’s not quite the real thing. It comes from the Medieval Latin virtuālis, meaning “effective” (in the sense of having the effect of something without the form or appearance of it). The first records of the word virtual come from around 1400. Close synonyms are nearly, practically, and just about-they all mean virtually the same thing.Įxample: The virtual convention will feature real speeches from virtually every VR expert in the industry. Virtually is perhaps most commonly used in a more general way to mean in effect though not in fact, as in Today, virtually all cell phones are smartphones. The adverb form virtually can be used in the same way, as in I can’t make it into the office, but I’ll be working virtually. The use of virtual in these phrases represents a more recent sense of the word that means something like “remote and via the internet” (especially when accessed via a live video feed). Sometimes, things described as virtual may not involve simulation at all, such as a virtual meeting or a virtual concert. Some things described as virtual may not be quite as immersive as virtual reality, such as a virtual museum tour that you can navigate on a website. The word is used this way in virtual reality, which refers to a fully simulated environment. Virtual also commonly means simulated or extended by computer software. Virtual is most generally used to describe something as being the same as something else in almost every way, except perhaps in name or some other minor, technical sense.įor example, describing a company as a virtual monopoly means it’s pretty much a monopoly but not technically one, perhaps because it has a few minor competitors.
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