Classroom VR

[Liam]

Hi, we're looking at the possibility of some VR for our Mat.

My worry is that it becomes one of those purchases that comes out at any showcase events and gathers dust for the rest of the year.

 

I know some schools have them, so what are your experiences. Any advice you can give us? Suppliers etc and how it's benefitted the curriculum.

 

Thanks as always

 

Liam

[mikeprice]

What are they hoping to gain from the investment??

 

and how are they dealing with class behaviour control when the kids are all (supposed) to have headsets on?

 

and what about H&S when kids have a VR world in front of them but the real world under their feet??

 

 

I'm not doubting it - it is just that a company I had some dealings with some years ago was looking into it and took the opportunity to pick my brains as a techy teacher - these were the problemn we came up with

After, of course, content and content generation

 

I shall watch this thread with interest!

[JoeRogue]

We have a set of 24 which only really get used by one department. The teacher that uses them is creates some great lessons and even takes the 360 degree camera away with her to create content.

 

Our junior school has used them on the odd occasion but not as much as we originally thought.

 

We got out kit from https://www.classvr.com/, who out of the group of people that came in were by far the best and have offered the best support. Not only do they provide the kit and software the manage the headsets, once you sign up you join a big community who share lots of resources you can use at your school.

 

Happy to give more info if needed.

[dhicks]

I know some schools have them, so what are your experiences. Any advice you can give us? Suppliers etc and how it's benefitted the curriculum.

 

I had a look at some of the systems available for the schools market, plus I've been along to a couple of film/graphics industry showcases where people have been demonstrating various 3D environments and 360-degree videos. It doesn't strike me as practical to have a whole-class set of VR headsets used regularly in a classroom, I can see that being a lot for the average classroom teacher to manage. What I thought might work best is a single VR headset in a classroom tethered to the teacher's workstation, with the display mirrored to the front-of-class display. Then, as a starter to a lesson, one child per session could get to look around a VR environment, sharing that view with the rest of the class. That would still take some good classroom management from the teacher, but it should be do-able.

 

For educational content for the above, I'm not sure if viewing content via a headset really makes much difference than viewing on a laptop or tablet - Google Street View, for instance, is a very useful tool but works fine on a PC / tablet.

[mikeprice]

I would think it could work best in small groups

 

possibly having a class split into small groups and cycling round different activities/experiments.

This would make it far easier to control the kids and keep them safe

[slugshead]

We've got an HTC vive in our art department. The art teacher loves it and the students have really enjoyed the experience of creating 3D imagery using Googles tilt brush and Virtual graffiti using King spray.

 

I was hoping to get our DT department interested in the idea since they already have the AutoCAD suites and VR is supported.

 

We put a rule in of maximum 3 people in the room at a time due to crowding etc

 

Cons: Need a meaty computer

Edited June 29, 2021 by slugshead

[mikeprice]

I saw an enhanced reality thing demonstrated on a video

 

Basically all the kids were sat round in a circle in the sports hall - all wearing VR headset but seeing the sports hall as normal

 

then a huge whale breached right up through the floor - water spraying everywhere

 

an amazing thing to see!

 

 

WHen we had an immersive room at work I converted the whole thing into an Egyptian tomb - the kids had to solve puzzles and find treasure (all virtual) in order to move to the next cave

 

probably the best thing did in that room - would have worked better and Enhanced Reality - imagine converting the school grounds into an Egyptian relics treasure hunt using something like Pokemon Go in VR!!!