Hello everyone!
I was hoping for some opinions/advice on the topic of VR in the classroom. First a little background: my school district has multiple funding sources for Next Generation Learning Environments. I am a STEM teacher at my school district and recently I have demoed my personal Rift for my Superintendent's office. They have asked me to coordinate a new VR Program at our district and I have a budget of $200,000 to get the program up and running for this school year. I am hopeful that everything will be ready by September 1st, but I am realistic and understand that there will likely be some wait time for certain products. Here is what I plan to purchase:
Three Google Cardboard Expeditions Mobile Labs
-Nexus 6P ($499 x 90)
-Google Cardboard ($12.50 x 90)
-Google Cardboard Storage Solutions ($4,500)
-Samsung Galaxy S7 ($695 x 60)
-Gear VR ($100 x 60)
-Mobile Storage Cart ($4,000)
-GEAR VR App budget
FULL Oculus Rift VR/Computer Lab
-convert one current open computer lab at High School into open VR Lab for all teachers to share
-Oculus Rift VR Headset ($599 x 30)
-VR Computer System ($1449 x 30)
-Monitors (possible we already have 30 extra in district, if not $200 x 30)
-possible to get bundle discounts depending on availability
-Software budget
I believe it shouldn't be too difficult to purchase the Google Cardboard devices. I have spoken to a representative of Samsung and they are getting back to me with details on purchasing 60 S7s without a cell service plan. We will be using our devices on wifi, so cell service is unnecessary. The Samsung representative seems confident he can fulfill this order by August. My main concern is the Oculus Rift VR Lab I would like to create. I believe I can get the VR Computer systems order and installed, monitors, and storage solutions for the headsets all before september.
The issue is the Rifts themselves. Everywhere I look they are sold out, and the oculus website says limit 1 per customer.
I need 30. Does anyone have any idea of a timeframe for when bulk orders can be placed? I am pretty confident I can get the mobile labs up and running by the first day of school, but I plan to tell my administrators the Oculus Rift Lab will not be up and running until Christmas. Would this be a good estimate? Any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated. THANK YOU!
Comments
I really didn't want to do that ha!
The trick is finding the correct channel and selling the concept, you may get lucky (no pun intended) and get a deal.
Holy crap. I'm also a STEM educator. That kind of budget is a fantasy for my district.
You from a private school??
The goal for VR education is to engage students in learning and give them realistic experiences which will increase their retention of content knowledge. Google Cardboard with Google Expeditions is great for a quick 3-5 minute expedition, the engagement of students is through the roof. Then teachers have students put their cardboard down, and pick up their pencils. Time to discuss/reflect on what we are learning! Not to mention for the price of 1 oculus rift lab we can purchase three google cardboard mobile labs and 1 gear VR mobile lab.
Gear VR has the exact same effect, 360 videos and 360 photos can be, part of the lesson, but students don't have to stay in VR during the entire lesson. It is likely most teachers will have students take headsets on and off often when using Cardboard and Gear VR. I believe that a teacher that wants a longer VR experience, Body VR, Apollo 11 or any new content that comes out soon, will want to use the Oculus Rift VR Lab.
There are no plans for software development year 1. We plan to create the course year 2. Gear VR is a great platform to teach software development with. Year 3 we will likely send the Oculus Rifts and VR Computer systems to the software development class and replace all stations in the VR lab with Gen 2 devices/computers.
The mobile VR is just a different kind of experience and I believe there is a place for it in education, and will typically what will be preferred by most teachers unless they have an epic lesson to teach with Oculus Rift.
I think the future there will be VR headsets with cell phone components built in (minus the cell radio) and running a cell phone OS like Android. I don't think VR with an actual cell phone will be the norm in a few years. Using cell phones is only an on ramp to what this will eventually be.
Imagine buying a Rift except instead of plugging it into your PC it's got a built in Nvidia Tegra running Android.
The Microsoft Hololens is already an all in one system. I'm sure we'll see one for VR soon.