So for a while now, Virtual Reality (VR) has been a thing. It’s been slowly gathering steam for the last 5 years or so. And now it’s coming to GSU! 😀
Currently, there are two Oculus Rifts (Dev Kit 2) at the CII for SIFs-only use, meaning just regular students won’t be able to reserve them, but faculty will probably. (To see what other equipment you can check out as student/faculty visit the CII website ).
However, I believe that at least one person in the CII is looking at the potential use of 3D technologies in general, especially related to VR. So there will be a good chance both students and faculty will get a good chance to mess around with VR.
If you are a faculty member that wants VR or any other technology in your department, go to the Student Tech Fee website to learn more. Students can take the initiative and share the information of the Tech Fee to their teachers. Help make your classroom the classroom of tomorrow™ !
Anyways, SIF has been busy with VR and it’s a major focus next semester. Looking at the projects page, you can see a lot of material we’ve been gathering ever since SIF got started. We’ve been using the Digital Collections section of the library a lot. Unpacking Manuel’s, 3D Atlanta Project, and an upcoming VR for the Blind project are all using 3D space whether it’s in technologies like Unity, Memento, or Agisoft.
So how can VR benefit the classroom? What are the hard facts when it comes to VR? These are questions we must answer as we continue to build on these projects.
Hopefully, I’ll offer my facts without bias in a later blog post (as well as explaining what my bias really is for VR) at a later blog post. But until then…
