A VR classroom proposal

[ldwebster]

G'day

I'm a teacher of seven years who is keen on implementing new ideas and technologies into the classroom, allowing new methods of teaching curriculum content and getting students to look at the world from different perspectives.

I work in an isolated district school in rural Australia. Due to the nature of the community, we have a large portion of students that have limited world views and social capital.

After watching several videos on HMDs (for personal use), I came to the realization that these had some serious educational potential.

Basically, I am thinking about proposing a classroom that is set up with multiple HMDs (between 25-30 to cater for a full class size) all networked together to allow school field trips without ever leaving the classroom. Of course this would never replace a real field trip, but I can see the educational possibilities of taking the kids on a virtual tour of the world where they feel like they're fully immersed in the environment.

Teaching History would be amazing if it could work with an engine like the Total War one.

We have the rooms for a project like this, but I would need to get an accurate cost before moving forward.

I estimate $9000 for the HMDs themselves (if we went with the Oculus Rift - 300 x 30) which is small change for a government school. I guess the issue I would have would be in the peripherals needed for each HMD. Would Each set need its own PC which then connects to a server?

Also, having 30 people in one room, all with HMDs on, could be a serious OH&S issue unless they are seated at all times. I imagine a setup similar to a theatre. And how would students move in the world? Would something like a Wii nunchuk work?

The idea is still in the formative stage, but if people have ideas on how best to get something like this to work then I'd love to hear it. We have a progressive thinking principal who I imagine would support an initiative like this if it was presented correctly.

Cheers

[blazespinnaker]

The key challenge here is to build something credible.

One off course and curious, but not particularly revelvant. Simple GED or "Online Universities" I don't think will cut it either.

Really, I think the idea would be to create a bootcamp educational program that they sell. Something really super tough to get into, but worth it.

I think the best thing would be a VR game development bootcamp. Bell curve it so only the top 50% that actually see the course through and complete all the assignments to the end pass (drop outs don't count).

The issue you run into though, is that the rift needs waay higher resolution for something like that to work. And this is a fundamental problem with the rift. Until the rift starts selling in the millions it won't have that kind of resolution, because there is no economic need right now to go past retina displays.

[missionv]

Sorry to dig up this old thread but I'm delighted to read it because we're working with schools right now who are building their own virtual realities in Opensim (opensource Second Life). Of course they're more virtual worlds than virtual realities without the Oculus Rift but we're visiting as many of the schools as we can so that the kids can experience what they've built through the Oculus using the wonderful CtrlAltStudio viewer (Oculus enabled viewer for Opensim/SL). We have another students who is the son of an archaeologist who is building an elaborate world of trenches for a World War I historical world.

We're based in Ireland but would love (as would our schools) to hook up with schools internationally who are also using Opensim so that we can share, and teleport to, each other's educational virtual realities.

[thenoize]

My plan was to adapt Stellarium to Oculus when DK2 arrives, and I just found this thread!

Where would one start a project like this? If I have to summon some dev friends, what language/skill should I look for?

Right now, all I have is UE4, a copy of stellarium and a copy of unity 4 (free). Thanks in advance!

[Falke359]

I´m a german teacher and VR enthusiast. Researching possibilities for VR as an educational tool and converting stellarium or doing something similar were the first things that came in mind.

So i´m very interested if someone was already working on that. I imagine being able so select a stellar object with your eyes and getting informations about it would be great.
Especially the enourmous scale would be excellent for learning the constellations, far better than with other media.

Having tried the DK2 for a while now however i think VR would be no solution for longer or extensive use. A virtual classroom can´t replace the real one, except uses for children who can´t attend a "normal" class for whatever reasons.

But using VR as a regular tool like the computer could present great opportunities.
You may find this article interesting:

http://technology.ie/irish-kids-create-virtual-world-explore-using-oculus-rift-video/