VR in the classroom...?

[Koldov]

My Business Manager came to me yesterday and we were chatting about a school he had recently visited and all the SHINY things they had...

 

Apart from a suite of Macs, a 3D printer and a holographic projector (apparently!) they had a class set of VR headsets (which the teacher could also view on her projector).

 

Obviously he was very impressed (but neglected to get any details) and wondered if we could do it if he 'found' the money in the budget...

 

So, although I haven't the first clue about how all this would be set-up, could anyone who has done this give me rough (all-in) ballpark figures for getting this installed and what hardware it needs to run (server, Wi-Fi, projector etc).

 

I had to remind him that we still have projectors that are slowly failing and whiteboards that are well over 10 years old that run over VGA cables (which all need replacing)... but you know.... SHINY....

[localzuk]

Define "VR". Classroom VR is basically a hyped up panoramic photo viewer in my experience. The processing power needed to run a class set of actual VR headsets would be ridiculous.

[pooley]

We have ClassVR units supplied by Avantis. http://www.classvr.com/

 

I think they are around £2000 for a set of 8 with a yearly £250 subscription for content and control. Units are standalone and content is delivered wirelessly to the device via a web portal.

Edited September 13, 2019 by pooley

[Joanne]

sounds like class VR to me. You use a web portal to push out the images onto the headsets. £2k for a set of 8 and then £250 a year for access to their content.

 

http://www.classvr.com/

 

We share a set with 3 other schools. Made it much more affordable.

[dhicks]

Apart from a suite of Macs, a 3D printer and a holographic projector (apparently!) they had a class set of VR headsets (which the teacher could also view on her projector).

 

Depending on how the teachers envisage using VR, I'd go for a single headset tethered to the classroom PC, with the VR view mirrored on the projector at the front of the room. Use it as an introductory / plenery to the lesson - pick one pupil, they get to navigate around a VR environment for a bit while discussing with other pupils. The pupil can be sat down - should be a bit easier to manage than half a dozen pupils with headsets on around the room.

[Forasizo]

Many moons ago we'd had a company lend us an Oculus Rift... (this was before VR was polished enough for production) and back then finding a machine with the right 'oomph' to run the VR effectively was enough to price us out even if we had a free headset.

 

The ClassVR product seems more tailored to education (as mentioned, not exactly mega interactive) but... would never see the justification of that against replacing dying hardware such as AV.

[mikeprice]

I spent a while talking about this to a company that installed a immersive room for us - they were looking atVR in schools as a way forward

 

in a school with a lot of 'challenging' kids - giving them all a VR headset where they can't see the others - errr - really??? - what do you think the 'usual suspects' are going to do????

 

it seems great in theory

 

but

 

and then

 

I think the thing missing (i.e. I haven't seen it ) is a way of a teacher to generate resources in 3D and VR that actually use the 3D and VR properly but it can be done in a teacher's time frame

i.e. not done by a specialist in a few days after several design meetings

 

so - a bit like dragging a few images into a PowerPoint - but in 3D and using VR for something proper

 

 

 

the immersive room we had was a good indicator - all 3 walls and the floor was interactive - images, movies, hotspots, buttons, green rooms - loads of stuff

 

 

stuff theteachers came up with - basically just a PowerPoint on the front wall

and I had to do it because the software was 'too difficult to learn'

 

 

and look at PowerPoint - when was the last time you saw a teacher create a PowerPoint for the kids to use that had hotspots or action buttons

and yet this has been around for decades

 

so - VR - unlikely to be anything more than a shiny thing that costs a lot - and maybe have a few bought applications that teach one lesson a year in 1 subject

[Joanne]

so - VR - unlikely to be anything more than a shiny thing that costs a lot - and maybe have a few bought applications that teach one lesson a year in 1 subject

 

This is why we decided to do a share with the headsets. Each school gets them for 2 weeks once a term. Means the kids can have a kick start on a topic. We do things like looking at tombs in Egypt for the ancient Egypt topic. Some kids learn about Austrailia so we have pictures and videos from Austrailia.

 

Used correctly they can be an excellent addition to the curriculum.

 

I would probably have a different opinion if I had bought them on my own though!

[mikeprice]

This is why we decided to do a share with the headsets. Each school gets them for 2 weeks once a term. Means the kids can have a kick start on a topic. We do things like looking at tombs in Egypt for the ancient Egypt topic. Some kids learn about Austrailia so we have pictures and videos from Austrailia.

 

Used correctly they can be an excellent addition to the curriculum.

 

I would probably have a different opinion if I had bought them on my own though!

 

Sounds sensible - who produced the VR content - and how???

[Joanne]

Class VR have all da content using 360 cameras. We have bought a 360 camera as a school cluster and I've taken photos that can be viewed on the headsets and you can share them with the community too.

[mikeprice]

Interesting

 

I think one of the problems would be having the teacher/TA out of the kids view etc - I did suggest to someone that an augmented reality thing would be good - use the VR headsets but having it show what is really in front of the wearer - but with extras on it as well depending on where you are

 

there was an amazing video I saw of a class sitting in a hall in a circle and a full sized whale suddenly jumps out of the water in the middle of the circle and waves splash all over them

 

it could be used to dig for buried egyptian artifacts - look for dinosaur bones - conduct dangerous experiment (using special gloves) etc etc

 

 

would be interesting to work on - if I had a creative bone in my body that is