Virtual Reality has been one of my technology interests for a few years now. The costs of the equipment are finally starting to be realistic and I maintain a pool of 4 Oculus Go headsets and also a new Oculus Quest for the college. While I believe the technology has great potential for training and of course entertainment and gaming, finding meaningful ways to bring it into an educational setting is sometimes a challenge.
This article on some of the downsides of VR recently popped into my news feed. I have demoed VR many times now, in STEM Cafe’s at BCC, helping a colleague of mine to teach a 90 minute VR class to STEM students over the summer, and having local High School students “walk the plank” in Richie’s Plank Experience. Some of the downsides the article has mentioned I have seen first hand. Some folks do report feeling motion sickness when inside VR. As the article explains I have struggled finding educational content to show in the classroom.
Beat Saber is something I have been using for exercise, playing about 20-30 minutes a day and burning about 300 calories at a time according to my Fitbit. As good of a workout as it is, it’s not exactly educational. I can imagine a awesome chemistry app where the user could move around electrons and protons to make their own atoms — but I do not have the talent or time to create something like that. I’ve seen some great documentaries in VR, such as Travelling While Black, however sitting someone down and having them watch a VR film is the exact issue the article above complains about, it’s not a particularly innovative or creative use of VR, it’s just watching a different sort of movie.
As I have been using VR for exercise, I have also take it to the stationary bike with a product called VirZOOM. Again, it’s not exactly academic, however I have been working with the BCC Athletic center to gauge their interest in possibly having a unit down at the gym. The VR exercise bike is good, however my legs are only up for 3-4 rides a week tops which is when the Beat Saber exercises become useful.
Perhaps the upcoming Oculus Link which promises to allow users to explore content on the Steam store over the inexpensive unit will open things up. I don’t even mind having to tether the headset to a PC, however I suppose that might be more of a challenge in practice — we will see! At the very least it will bring more content to the Quest at a better price point, whether it will bring any useful apps for education is something we will also have to wait and see!