The Possibilities Are Endless

This week, Dr. Peter allowed us to visit virtual sims in Second Life and gave us an extended amount of time to examine their purpose and how well the design and tools were able to fulfill this purpose. It was an excellent activity as I have always been rather skeptical of the promise of VR actually being able to accomplish things that are "better done F2F." I will now admit that I was entirely wrong and that VR, particularly with the genesis of new VR goggles headsets, might very well subsume some of the traditional activities that are normally done today "by necessity" only F2F. Immediately after class, I began looking at Microsoft's Hololens and Google's Daydream. Daydream is an $80 pair of VR goggles that work with Google's phones. Here is a review! It may very well fulfill the promise of affordable, convenient VR. Hololens is Microsoft's effort at what they are calling "mixed reality." Here is a demo that was recently done at MS's Build Conference! Needless to say, I am very excited about the future of VR, not only with respect to education, but also with respect to home entertainment and personal learning and productivity.

When I visited the Virtual Hallucinations Tour by UC Davis, I was immediately sucked in by the creepy atmosphere. The whispering voices and the exploration of the claustrophobic, dark hallways made me feel paranoid and scared. I could only imagine how much more vivid and disturbing the simulation would be with the higher resolution (and more immersive) graphics and sound of a headset like DayDream. Something like this might very well be useful for giving students a genuine feel for what it was to live through things like a Nazi concentration camp or perhaps witnessing the 9-11 terror attacks at ground level. The possibilities are endless! There is a Malaysian phrase "cuci mata" that roughly translates as "to change one's view to refresh your perspective." I think that this is a great description of virtual reality!