Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

BEATTIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SD73 students create virtual reality experience

Feb 10, 2020 | 3:39 PM

KAMLOOPS — The idea of virtual reality has been around for several decades, and has a wide variety of applications. From education, training simulators, and entertainment, the possibilities for VR will continue to grow as the technology develops. Some SD73 students have been learning about virtual reality and the practical applications of that technology.

When the time came to pick a place to conduct a virtual reality tour, Atikk Boulter chose one of his family’s favorite vacation destinations.

“I picked Thailand,” Boulter explains. “I’ve been there a lot, so I just picked some different places in Thailand.”

Once he knew his location, he used some tools that are readily available to anyone with access to the internet to help him build the tour.

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“You’d use Google Maps and go somewhere in the world,” Boulter continues. “With the 360 [degree] camera, you use that area as your scene. Like, when someone goes in it, they can turn around, 360.”

Once the tour itself is built, the students create a special code that can be scanned with a smartphone that will take people to the tour.

“You have a link and you’d create it into a QR Code using a certain website,” Reanna Gilharry says. “You use a QR scanner and scan it so you can use [the code], then you’d insert [the phone] into the goggles so you can view it.”

The Grade Six students in Atikk and Reanna’s class were born into a world where Facebook and YouTube were already a reality. That immersion in technology allows them to pick up many of the skills necessary for this project very quickly.

“This is our third day. By our second day, I’d say at least a third of the class remembered the steps. What to do, where to go,” Ms. Dunstan, one of the teachers, told CFJC Today.

Judging by the ever-rising noise level in the classroom, the students enjoy the opportunity to utilize technology and try something new.

“Not all school work, you like, have to be using pencils and paper,” Tayla McLeary says. “Most schoolwork can be fun if you just give it a try.”

According to Ms. Dunstan, several students have already realized the potential that virtual reality possesses in other applications.

“One of the girls is doing research on autism, and she’s decided, ‘Well, could we use this in the future of VR for kids with autism?’” Ms. Dunstan says. “So she’s attacking that question and starting to think about how it can be used in the real world.”

So while these tours are a relatively simple introduction to virtual reality, this project could be the first step for the students in a journey down a brand new technological path.