Oculus Go and Education – Part Deux

Yesterday, I wrote about my early impressions unboxing and using the new Oculus Go and considered the potential impact on K-12 education.  Today I had the opportunity to take some students into VR with the Oculus Go.  As part of a science lesson with science teacher, @JudeaTarn, we took students on roller coaster rides.  Originally, we’d planned on using the HTC Vive exclusively, but I thought this was a great opportunity to put the Oculus Go into students’ hands and let them give some feedback.  This also allowed more students to have access to experiences at the same time, allowing time for each student to ride the coaster.  The feedback was 100% positive!  We used the EPIC Roller Coaster app, a moderately realistic experience (this is mobile VR, after all).  After an exciting ride on a rusty mine cart or on a tour of a dinosaur-style theme park, you have a great opportunity to chat about forces and motion.

After providing roughly 20-30 students through three headsets, around 45 minutes to an hour of solid use, each showed about 66% battery remaining.  Schools using these at any scale will want to invest in some power strips to keep them charged!

Again, still giving the Oculus Go a thumbs up for K-12 use.  I should get commission from Oculus/Facebook, too.  I imagine I sold a few future Christmas presents today, too.

-Lucas

Oculus Go – A Practical VR Solution for K-12 Education?

Our Options Prior to the Oculus Go

I’ve been exploring Virtual Reality and its applications for K-12 Learning for many years now.  Inspired by a passion for games and learning alongside visions of exploring the moons of Jupiter or Tut’s tomb as imagined by Earnest Cline in Ready Player One, I’ve been playing in  this space since the Oculus DK1 was available to developers.  Today, I’m supporting three HTC Vives, two Oculus Rifts, and a PSVR in schools across my district.  Each comes with its own strengths and weaknesses.

High-End  VR

The major strength of high-end, computer-driven VR is the level immersion afforded by the experiences and six-degrees-of-freedom (6DOF) VR.  Great experiences are driven by powerful computers and graphics cards and the ability of the system to detect the position of the headset and hands in the rendered three dimensional space.  An obvious drawback for K-12 implementation is the expense associated with the hardware ($399 for the Oculus Rift and $499 for the HTC Vive) and the cost of a computer to support it (easily $1000+).  On top of this, one… -ONE- student can be immersed in the experience at a time.  That’s not to say they’re not worthwhile investments.  A secondary display and a centers-based approach can make them work in the hands of a creative teacher.

Mobile-Based VR

Several schools in my district have explored phone-based VR using a variety of headsets and devices like the iPod Touch.  Here, you’re still looking at a $200+ investment for the iPod Touch (which is a versatile device outside of VR applications) and whatever headsets you choose.  VR isn’t the primary function of any these sorts of devices and experiences vary widely.  Many districts are exploring Google Expeditions sets, too.  Though sold with education in mind, prices can range from over $3000 (for ten students) to over $9000 (for 30 students).

Enter the Oculus Go…

Those were our major options until just a few days ago when Facebook launched the Oculus Go.  Available at $199 for the 32GB option and $249 for the 64GB option, this is a standalone (no phone or computer required) option for virtual reality.  Everything’s built into the headset.  …and I just unboxed one yesterday.  Here are some early pros/cons and thoughts for the future:

Pros:

  • The device is well-packaged and seems solidly designed.
  • It’s at least as comfortable as any other VR headset I’ve used (Vive, Rift, PSVR, GearVR…), though the PSVR might be just a bit more comfortable for me, personally.
  • The visuals are great.  The view is actually just a but better than the Rift.  No obvious screen door effect.  Less “god rays” caused by the lenses.
  • The controller works fine, feels great, and is very responsive.
  • The user interface is beautiful and incredibly intuitive.  Turn it on and you’re in… in seconds.
  • Supports some Bluetooth game controllers.
  • Headphone jack on the side!
  • Eye glasses spacer is included.
  • There are 1000’s of experiences already available.  Many are categorized as educational.
  • The price.

Cons:

  • The battery life is short.  Reports are two, solid hours, so it’ll need to be put back on charge between uses.
  • Three degrees of freedom – This limits some of the capabilities of the VR as only head motion (rotation, not position) is tracked.
  • No Bluetooth headphone support (at this time).
  • Reports are that lenses are prone to scratching and sunlight damage.  This would be something to watch in classroom implementations.
  • No native YouTube app… yet.
  • No enterprise management solution that I’m aware of…. yet.

Early Thought and Questions:

  • From a district-level perspective, whenever I consider the deployment of any device at any sort of scale, I wonder about account and content management.  Can I have multiple devices registered to a single account?  How does content work with multiple devices, especially paid content?
  • Where are the apps/experiences that allow students to CREATE?  There are some out there for modeling and painting and I’ll be testing those out.  Those are the things I’ll be exploring next.  This device really shines as a content consumption device.
  • The tight integration/association will probably give some schools/districts pause, but I believe there are workarounds.
  • There’s a solid selection of VR content in the Oculus Store that would be great in classrooms.  Aside from the obvious 360 degree video, there are several offerings that are clearly designed with education in mind – The Body VR, Titans of Space, etc.

With those points in mind, my early recommendation is to give this a definite thumbs up for small-scale deployments (a few devices at a school) and a “maybe” for anything larger.  I think the Oculus Go is potentially going to bring many more people into VR and that will only drive advancements!   It is certainly a device I’ll be recommending to my schools who want to add VR technology to support student learning.

-Lucas

(Edit – A few more observations.  I’m actually setting up three of these devices.  Though no phone is required, the Oculus App is used to initially set the devices up and get them initially connected to WiFi.  Through the app, I can individually “manage” each device.  After setup, each is paired with the same Facebook account.  Setting up a Facebook account just for this purpose might be a good idea.  I’ve not tested paid apps yet, but once attached to the FB/Oculus account, it seems that the library of “purchased” apps is available on each.)

We All Want To Be Ms. Frizzle

I want to be Ms. Frizzle when I grow up. When I think about the ideal classroom, the Magic School Bus quickly comes to mind. This show (which is getting a reboot soon on Netflix) is what good learning is all about. Seriously! Can you imagine being able to take your students literally anywhere, any time, to do, just about anything? Learning should spark a sense of wonder. The experiences we create and share with our students should be the first spark that spurs them to want to dig deeper and explore more.

Nearly three years ago, I wrote about some early experiences with the Oculus Developer Kit.  I was immediately struck by the possibilities.  Fast-forward to today, I’m excited to share that we’re making it happen!  Through a partnership with foundry10.org, we’ve launched our first VR Space in Surry County Schools at Meadowview Magnet Middle.  Getting started with VR in schools doesn’t require a dedicated space, however, as part of library makeover, we wanted to create a space that kids would beg to be in.  What once was a dusty book storage room has been transformed into a state-of-the-art space where we, like Ms. Frizzle, can take our students anywhere!

Part of the challenge has been educating our teachers and administrators about the technology.  VR is hot stuff these days and there’s a wide-range of gear.  Some schools are starting to explore the possibilities with phone-based VR using tools like Google Expeditions.  This is a great way to bring VR experiences to many students at once, however, the experiences lack the immersive quality of high-end computer-driven VR like you might experience with the Oculus or HTC Vive.

Thanks to foundry10, our space utilizes the Vive.  The Vive takes VR a step further in that it allows for what’s been dubbed room-scale VR.  Simply stated, this means you’re not confined to a chair for your experience, but can actually move about the room while immersed in a VR experience.  Take a step forward in the room and you move forward in the virtual world you’re exploring.  And, don’t worry.  A virtual grid materializes in front of you if you get too close to a wall.  We started with hands-on experiences for our teachers.  Simply having a great first experience seems to spark teachers’ imagination for the possibilities.  Our Lead Digital Learning and Media Innovation Facilitator, Alicia Ray, has been working closely with Meadowview teachers to match the growing variety of VR experiences to the curricula they teach.  From there, teachers are scheduling times to bring their students into the media center (another bonus) to rotate through selected experiences.

There’s an exciting variety of explorations our students are trying, too.  Our social studies students have been exploring the world with Google Earth VR, stepping inside the Roman Coliseum or walking the streets of London.  Our science students can travel through the body’s circulatory system or deeper, still, into individual cells.  Likewise, we can take them scuba diving for an encounter with a Blue Whale in Wevr’s the Blu.  We’ve explored Saturn’s rings in Titans of Space and we’re soon hoping to let students build their own unique worlds with Vivecraft (a VR-ready Minecraft mod) and physics simulator, Modbox!  The exciting thing?  We’re just seeing the beginnings of what’s possible.

Perhaps I’ll be Ms. Frizzle after all.

If you’d like to know more about the resources we’re putting together for high-end VR in schools, check out the VR Page on the SCS Digital Learning Wiki.