Out with the old, in with the new…
Ever since Mark Zuckerberg expressed the desire to evolve the internet as we know it into a new, fully immersive ‘Metaverse’, organisations everywhere have been taking advantage of such an idea. The latest is The Optima Classical Academy in Florida. This charter school has created the first fully online VR school. The school will equip 1300 students with Oculus headsets so that they can take part in virtual lessons online.
Virtual Reality opens a whole new world of possibilities. Instead of seeing what it looks like through viewing images, learners can virtually visit the location and look around with 3DoF headsets. The immersion is cranked up even further with the introduction of 6DoF headsets where movement can be tracked and matched from within a virtual space. It remains to be seen how effective this form of purely online teaching will be.
The school intends to address the need for a fully online virtual classroom. A classroom that would not be affected by restrictions from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A typical school day would be divided into four hours of live tutorials held in the online classroom and another four hours of independent study.
Evolution or devolution?
This idea seems like the next step of what we are already doing here at RedboxVR. Our virtual reality kits are already being used in schools across the globe, despite not being exclusively online. Our kits are instead used in conjunction with offline, traditional teaching techniques. The software that we provide such as ExpeditionsPro enables educators to take their students on virtual field trips. This allows students to learn in a new, more immersive fashion than ever before.
Regardless of your opinion on the matter, its hard to deny how impressive the school is. This could either prove to be a bizarre misstep on the path to the most optimal learning experience or the beginning of a whole new form of schooling. Only time will tell.
