HTC is appealing to teachers with a new video that demonstrates the potential of the HTC Vive educational software and virtual reality in education.
The video focuses on Immersive VR Education, the consumer electronic company’s push to encourage VR use in the classroom. HTC’s “free-to-use” Engage platform enables teachers to create their own lesson plans and can support more than the average classroom size — up to 30 people in an experience at a time. Instead of passively reading about dinosaurs in a textbook, students can take an active role in their learning with virtual field trips or telepresence apps.
“It is going to help so many people that have difficulties with the current educational modes that we use,” said David McDermott, lead animator for Engage, in the video.
“Moving forward, the way we want to use the platform is to allow educators to essentially put together a lesson with as much ease as they might put together a PowerPoint,” said Bobby Greaney, a developer on Engage. “And the idea is that they can take their own library of immersive effects, or the ones we can provide, and then put that into a single presentation or lecture and then show that to students as they go. It also allows educators to essentially bridge the gap for distance learning.”
HTC also offers educational VR software such as the historical space documentary Apollo 11, where students can access archive audio and film and explore the Moon’s surface, or its Medical Training Simulation.
“The point [of virtual reality] is how can we get our kids to understand these hard-to-grasp concepts in deeper ways by giving them immersive experiences in VR,” Jennie Magiera, the chief technology officer of Des Plaines School District 62, told Classcraft in an interview.
As the new wave of VR takes off, HTC faces fierce competition with other VR headsets, such as Sony’s PlayStation VR and Facebook’s Oculus Rift.
