Virtual Reality. It’s here… you may not have noticed, but it has officially arrived in force. It has great entertainment value. The question, however, is what is the value of VR in the classroom setting?

I am getting old. I’ve been around since the days when getting a new computer meant going to Radio Shack and getting a TRS-80 computer. I learned to program in Basic at a relatively young age. I remember waiting seemingly hours for a simple game, Dungeons of Daggorath, to load on the tape drive. I’ve seen tech change a bit in my lifetime. And now, it has officially gotten to a whole new level. I remember seeing the first movie that really featured virtual reality in the theater…. Lawnmower Man. Things have changed since then… scenes like Ready Player One don’t seem so far fetched once you get a taste of the good stuff.

The days of playing games and taking in content in 2d are officially becoming a thing of the past. Google Cardboard has been around for a while, and you can take virtual field trips with very little money spent. If all you want to do is view content with very little interaction, this is a low cost way to get in the VR game.

I wanted something more. I wanted something where my students could interact with content. Something where they could really explore. Additionally, I wanted something that would really expose them to the power of what virtual reality has to offer. I wanted them to see that there is a future in creating technology and content that they have never really dreamed of. At the same time, I have a budget… and it is a rather small one at that.

I did some looking around. I could get an HTC Vive for a decent price… the issue was the computer to run it. I didn’t have one, and I certainly didn’t have the budget to build one… so systems like the Vive and the Oculus Rift were out.

The next option was the standalone VR headset. Oculus makes one, the Oculus Go. I wanted something that you didn’t have to stick a phone in and deal with cardboard on your face. I wanted something that looked and felt ‘high tech’. Keep in mind, part of my goal here was to make the kids want to learn more about what makes it tick, and what they could do with it. After looking at several different options, I went with the Oculus Go. It cost $250, but that was for the 64gb model. You can grab the 32gb model for $200. I figured fifty bucks to double my storage was worthwhile.

I will tell you this… I have not been disappointed.

Now… I teach computer science. While the device itself is certainly high tech, there are not a ton of computer science lessons or anything just floating around out there to use. Instead, I use my headset in a different way. I use it to expose kids to new things, to support learning in other classes, and more.

There is a lot of free content available on the Oculus store. You can grab the Epic Roller Coasters app and instantly have kids in awe of just how great this technology is. I went ahead and spent a few bucks and downloaded the Apollo 11 mission. I found that, unfortunately, our students know very little about the Apollo missions, or anything about space travel in general. I find this to be a bit sad, as there is a huge future in that industry. Using the Oculus Go, my students are getting to experience the Apollo 11 mission like there were there. They see Kennedy speak. They experience bits of space flight, they actually see the earth from orbit. They get a bit of history and a lot of desire to learn more.

There are tons of apps in the Oculus store that can be used for education. Some are free, some are not. You can let your students walk among the dinosaurs, explore human anatomy, and see the wonders of the world. Maybe you are an English teacher, reading The Diary of Anne Frank, you can actually allow your students to explore the Anne Frank house in VR… and it is free. Talk about a way to really let your students relate to the content.

Yes, I know some of you are saying you can do that by projecting an image onto the board where you can click and drag to look around. You are correct… you can do that. I will tell you, the experiences are completely different. With VR, you actually feel like you are there… you understand just how cramped people were in the rocket on the way to the moon. You can wander the house, turning and looking. You see everything as if you were actually in the room. It is impressive, to say the least.

The content is out there… with more coming all the time. The Oculus store has a section where you can see all the content they consider to be educational experiences. You can find that section HERE.

The best things about getting VR in my classroom is the fact that it ignites a spark in kids. Kids have a way with coming up with the craziest sounding ideas for content, their imagination doesn’t know limits… they just see what they would like to be able to do with something. Once they get that idea, they never let go. After exposing kids to VR, be sure to ask them how they think it can be used in the future… both, in the classroom, and out there in the ‘real world’, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

The fact of the matter is that virtual reality is here to stay, and will only get better. It is going to be, and very much should be, a part of education. Students will be able to consume content in ways we never thought of. Rather than just seeing the content, they will truly experience it. So, if you are on the fence about grabbing a higher end VR unit… jump off the fence and get one. If you’re in my area, swing by, I’ll let you take mine for a test drive.