It might look like a science fiction movie, but Virtual Reality has made it to Kennedy classrooms, with students exploring the potential uses of this advancing technology. While we’re sure that gaming is near the top of their list, they’ve already discovered VR’s usefulness in the industrial workforce on a visit to Murdoch University, where both Virtual and Augmented Reality headsets are used in teaching. These devices as teaching tools stretched between studies as far afield as biomechanical, where students can learn how to perform vaccinations through virtual injections, to the Department of Defense in creating programs to simulate strategies, to training rural and remote community members how to fuel a helicopter with the engine running.
Fascinated by the possibilities, both in learning and in their future careers, Year 9 Digital Technologies students have been researching the applications of VR for better understanding periodic tables, atomic structures and our solar system. It is hoped that VR headsets might be used for this purpose in the future and grant our Science Department and Research and Study Centre new ways to explore concepts, but at present students will be focusing on using these devices within the Technologies Department.
There are still plenty of applications with Technologies though! For example, students will begin using these headsets as they learn the computer-aided design software Unity, where physics simulations can assist in the development of games and products. Despite the closed form factor of these headsets, this can be a collaborative approach with teaching staff and other students, who will continuously be able to view a student’s work through their ‘casting’ to a nearby computer. This also creates a safe environment for the use of VR.
It is with thanks to advice from Murdoch University and hard work from our fantastic IT Department that we have been able to implement these new devices and have them working seamlessly this Term, in preparation for tomorrow’s classrooms.
