The possibilities are endless.
That’s what one 8th-grader at Bishop Flaget School in Chillicothe had to say about VR Classroom.
It’s the latest creation from Objective Reality Games, a virtual reality company based in Chillicothe.
“I see a lot of potential in the VR learning,” said Colin Rose, who owns the company with his wife, Sara. “We designed it in a way that it’s compatible with every E-based learning platform. So it’s not like we want to replace what the teachers are used to. We just want to make this an enhancement for the student at home.”
The idea grew out of a need to try something new after the coronavirus pandemic put a damper on the virtual reality business. The Roses started to enlist help to develop a video game. And, out of those discussions, grew the idea of a virtual reality classroom.
“We found out through this whole process that giving the ability to physically separate the student from their home environment to a school environment puts them in more of a mindset for learning,” Colin Rose said.
The students who gave the technology a test run recently at Bishop Flaget School in Chillicothe seem to agree.
“The VR Classroom takes away the distractions,” said 8th-grader Mason Brown. “I feel that it will keep me focused on my work because I find it very easy to get distracted by things like my phone because a teacher can’t see what I’m doing like at home.”
Brown admits he can tend to get distracted by his phone or what may be happening outside his window. VR Classroom would eliminate those distractions because it’s a completely immersive experience. Once students strap on the VR goggles, they enter the virtual world and can’t see what’s around them, whether that be a kitchen table, bedroom desk or their actual school classroom.
“They were in the same room, but if they had been at home, it wouldn’t have been any different because of the way that it brings people together,” Sara Rose said. “So they would have still had that same interaction, even if they were stuck at home where they could have come together online and played Hangman and been able to talk to each other, so they really enjoyed it.”
Beyond the fun, the Bishop Flaget principal sees the benefits of using virtual technology. She foresees being able to use VR Classroom on snow days, for students who may be on extended medical leave at home, or during any potential future pandemic.
“It’s just a great opportunity for engagement, and that was part of what brought us back to school as quickly as we did was that we were concerned for the social-emotional health of our students because you just don’t get the same engagement online as you do in the classroom, at any level,” Principal Laura Corcoran said.
For now, the VR Classroom is still in the early stages of development. The Roses hope to roll it out at the college level when it is finished.
“It’s exciting, it’s great for the kids to see,” Corcoran said. “As a STEM school, for them to be able to be in the middle of a testing and understanding of how the whole process works, and to see, when someone’s building a program, how it doesn’t just come together like that, to see the work that goes into the smallest things, it’s been pretty exciting.”