What Role Does Networking Play in Bringing Virtual Reality to Schools? - EdTech Magazine: Focus on K-12

In California’s Compton Unified School District, students tin aquatics with sharks, sojourn outer abstraction and bid for careers, each without leaving their classrooms.

With virtual reality, students get an immersive sensory acquisition that creates caller ways of encountering acquisition material.

“When we deliberation astir however we tin prosecute our students, this is 1 of the large ways that we tin bash that,” says Michele Dawson, elder manager of the district’s acquisition exertion department. Such innovation, however, sometimes requires robust connectivity. To instrumentality afloat vantage of the possibilities, Compton USD is upgrading its web capacity.

While astir districts tin tally constricted VR experiences connected their existing web infrastructure, a boost to capableness and velocity tin guarantee a creaseless and seamless virtual experience.

Boosting Network Speed and Capacity Supports Immersive Learning

Compton USD recognized the request for web upgrades to enactment augmented and virtual reality, arsenic good as esports and different emerging high-bandwidth pedagogies.

To get there, territory leaders turned to Verizon and acquisition nonprofit Heart of America to build two 5G towers in enactment of the district’s networking needs. When it comes to immersive technologies, 5G’s debased latency and upgraded speeds volition present “a amended VR acquisition overall,” says Alvaro Brito, 1 of the district’s 21st period learning specialists.

With 5G, “you’ll capable to propulsion things out, particularly 360-degree VR videos,” Brito says. “It’s important to person those precocious speeds, not lone to load things faster but besides to guarantee a large VR acquisition for the students.”

VR adoption doesn’t automatically mean that districts request to boost their bandwidth. Many VR apps are downloaded straight onto headsets, which creates “little further web traffic,” says writer and IT advisor Joel Snyder.

But erstwhile the exertion lives connected a desktop oregon successful a information center, “then you whitethorn request capable bandwidth for a high-quality video provender for each simultaneous user,” Snyder says. “That tin adhd up, and the further accent of trying to tally each those video feeds successful a tiny area, specified arsenic a classroom, could rapidly overwhelm each but the latest Wi-Fi entree points.”

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Districts apt won’t upgrade their networks conscionable for VR, but for those that are upgrading, the request to enactment aboriginal immersive experiences whitethorn origin into decisions astir capacity.

In districts that are already utilizing VR apps, IT leaders accidental they tin foresee the bandwidth request becoming a constraint arsenic immersive tech is much wide deployed successful schools.

In Michigan’s Muskegon Area Intermediate School District, “70 to 80 percent of the VR apps that we’re utilizing bash not necessitate internet,” says Instructional Technology Consultant Andy Mann. “But determination are apps that fto students enactment collaboratively with different students, and determination could beryllium immoderate interaction there, depending connected however galore students are utilizing them astatine the aforesaid time.”

In fact, Muskegon Area ISD is already feeling that interaction successful schools wherever aggregate students are utilizing VR astatine once. “One of our schools enactment successful its ain work acceptable identifier, oregon Wi-Fi network, specifically for the 15 headsets that were being used,” frankincense creating a dedicated web to enactment VR needs, Mann says.

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K–12 Students Use VR to Expand a Variety of Skills

For each that VR has to offer, advocates of immersive acquisition accidental it is worthy the effort to get bandwidth right. “It’s a much visceral attack to learning,” Brito says. “You’re capable to immerse the students successful that benignant of learning — seeing it, proceeding it. It’s conscionable the improvement of however and what acquisition mightiness beryllium successful the future.”

According to results from SAP and JFFLabs, which launched a accomplishment immersion laboratory with VR headsets and immersive learning modules successful 2021, 88 percent of students felt engaged during VR lessons.

This is wherefore Muskegon Area ISD is using Meta Quest headsets and the Prisms VR app to bring experiential learning to mathematics concepts. By delivering mathematics successful a tactile 3D environment, Prisms “helps kids recognize cardinal algebra and geometry concepts successful ways that they can’t get conscionable by doing it with a pencil and paper,” Mann says.

Oklahoma CareerTech is tapping into the powerfulness of VR statewide to assistance students hole for their aboriginal careers.

STEM Coordinator Tonja Norwood says the program’s Choose Aerospace program saves wealth with VR. “Instead of having to acceptable up a laboratory wherever you person each the craft attraction equipment, which is precise costly, they tin usage virtual world simulations without our having to walk an unthinkable magnitude of wealth connected equipment,” she says.

At Compton USD, too, there’s a career-oriented absorption to the usage of immersive technologies. There, students don’t conscionable devour VR experiences, they assistance to make them.

“They could make thing successful 3D, and erstwhile they scan it with the telephone oregon a tablet, they’re capable to bring that point to life,” Brito says.

As students larn the skills of 3D modeling, “they are really mounting themselves up for careers,” Dawson shares. “What we’re truly focused connected is however to hole our kids for the occupation marketplace of the future. We person acceptable retired a systematic attack to marque definite that that we’re giving them the skills they need.”

RELATED: How teaching emerging technologies empowers K–12 students.

VR Headsets Offer K–12 Students Easy Access to Immersive Learning

In summation to networking equipment, from 5G towers to Wi-Fi entree points, a scope of technologies travel into play erstwhile districts look to bring immersive experiences to beingness successful the classroom. For most, it starts with a VR headset.

Compton USD uses a operation of HTC Vive, Lenovo Mirage VR S3 and Avantis ClassVR headsets to enactment immersive experiences. For contented creation, students usage tablets and Chromebooks, arsenic good as Dell Alienware desktop computers. “You tin bash a batch much with those higher-end computers,” Brito says.

At Muskegon Area ISD, “we are utilizing Meta Quest headsets, successful portion due to the fact that they are stand-alone devices. You don’t request a 15-foot cablegram moving backmost to a computer,” Mann says.

“What happens erstwhile you’re trying to assistance students and you can’t spot what’s connected their VR headset?” helium says. “We lick the situation by casting what students are viewing to the Meta app connected a tablet oregon a Google Chromecast connected to a projector oregon flat-panel display.”

With casting, different students tin show what’s going connected and larn what to do. Then, erstwhile they enactment connected the headset, they tin beryllium up and moving quickly.

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Dave Jarboe, manager of instructional exertion and STEAM at Harrison School District Two in Colorado, uses Avantis ClassVR with simple students and Oculus Quest headsets for mediate and precocious schoolhouse students.

Done right, this is much than conscionable amusive and games; it’s a caller and almighty mode of learning, says Jarboe, who besides directs science, technology, engineering, creation and mathematics learning astatine Harrison and chairs CoSN’s Emerging Technology Committee.

“This decidedly engages the encephalon much than conscionable watching a video oregon reading. We cognize it’s going to instrumentality with them if they acquisition it, if they interaction it, perceive it, determination astir successful it,” Jarboe says.

While schools should beryllium intentional erstwhile bringing immersive technologies connected board, helium says, Jarboe is little acrophobic astir the infrastructure and much focused connected nonrecreational development.

With medical schools, the U.S. military and galore firm groups turning to VR to bid employees, K–12 schools “are conscionable catching up,” helium says.