HackMeet All things Virtual

On Thursday 17th May, a collection of teachers and education technology industry representatives gathered to plan the way forward for virtual reality in education.

Ian Phillips, chair of the ISC Digital Strategy group opened proceedings, explaining the rationale for the day and the importance of sharing good practice.

James Mannion, Director of Rethinking Education, provided an overview of how to perform action research and summarised the current data findings from the project.

A practical session followed allowing delegates to try a range of virtual and augmented reality equipment, including a Microsoft’s Hololens, HP Windows Mixed Reality Headsets, an Oculus Go and a collection of low cost phone based headsets.

Teachers also demonstrated equipment including Ronan Mc Nicholl, Head of Digital Learning at Sevenoaks Preparatory School and Katie Tallett-Williams, a Geography teacher working in Godolphin and Latymer.

The afternoon session involved joining a virtual reality discussion using Engage, involving guest participants, Steve Bambury, Graeme Lawrie and Chris Long.

Cautious optimism emerged as a key statement from the day. Everyone can see the mainstream potential, though challenges remain such as cost, health concerns and the technical ability required to integrate in lessons.

Many thanks to our key sponsors, Systemactive (HP Platinum Partner), Microsoft for providing equipment to schools for trialling, as well as C-Learning (Google Premier Partner) for demonstrating equipment on the day.