Imagine being able to take a field trip to anywhere in the world without the leaving the confines of the classroom.

That is what Athens High School students in Kristen Black’s computer science class are able to do with four new Oculus Rift headsets. The virtual reality system allows students to visit places around the world, in the solar system or even inside our own bodies.

All virtually, of course.

“Oculus VR is visually stunning,” said Black. “It promotes an imaginative response from students and that’s what I want to see. Oculus is the strongest and most robust system out there.”

Athens ordered the parts for the computer to run the Oculus and allowed a student, Johnny Benson, to build the computers and configure the Oculus to run.

By mid-October, four computers were built and ready to use. While developer kits have been available for a while, the Oculus was released to consumers in September 2016 and AHS took advantage using a grant to purchase them.

“It took a while for all the computer parts to come in and we could actually assemble everything,” said Benson. “The computer has to be powerful enough to render the games. It’s harder than other video games because it has to render from two different perspectives — left and right eye.”

While Oculus is still in the beginning stages of developing content for its system, there are already dozens of games and educational experiences for students in Black’s computer science classes.

Experiences range from a trip to the Grand Canyon to stepping on the surface of the moon. Oculus VR travel inside the human body offers the opportunity to transform the way we perceive the human anatomy.

“You actually travel through the body. You see the red and white blood cells,” said Black. “You really need to try it to understand the depth of everything.”

Athens High only uses the VR system in computer science for now, but the possibilities are endless with how schools can implement VR into other types of curriculum.

Athens appears to be on the cutting edge of using VR inside the classroom, with few examples to pull from on how exactly to use it as an educational experience.

“We would love to do more and the science teachers have tried it and have looked at doing that,” said Black. “But we’ve had a hard time finding other schools that are doing it.”

 

Extracurricular use

Virtual reality has already found its way into one of Athens extracurricular programs and could soon be used in another. The AHS robotics team used the Oculus Rift to create their first student-developed VR game.

“The robotics team built a 3-D game with the virtual reality program,” said Black. “By doing that, they were able to take it to the competition and show it off.”

While using VR with robotics seems obvious, another area where virtual reality could take off is in sports, where some teams have already put it to use.

Players can wear cameras on their helmets or jerseys, which broadcast a 360-degree experience to review afterwards.

“The video will show exactly what the player sees,” said Black. “The coaches can then go back and look at that. The coaches can put (the VR headset) on and see exactly what the kids are doing.”

 

Other VR options

While Oculus Rift is leading the charge in the high-end market, there are increasingly more accessible and cheaper options to consumers. Anyone with a television has probably seen Samsung’s advertisement for its VR headset, which works with certain models of their cellphones.

Other tech giants are also in the VR market with Google introducing Google Cardboard for just $10 while Sony offers a more expensive PlayStation 4 with VR among its gaming systems.

Currently, a Oculus Rift headset costs $600, which does not include the computer to run the system. It isn’t clear the extent virtual reality will spread to other high school curriculums, but, for now, Athens is happy to test the boundaries of an exciting new way to learn.

“I really don’t see it being that far down the road,” said Black. “They learn so quick. I think it will catch on faster than people think.