Virtual Reality: Expensive Hobby or Educational Gold Mine

Ed Tech Innovations

The question we will discuss in today’s episode is whether or not Virtual Reality has a place in modern day classrooms. There is an endless source of educational applications to Vr that already exist and innovations are being made daily. The major issue for education, like always, cost efficiency. The higher end headsets are expensive, require dedicated spaces and are tethered to dedicated high power computers. All-in-all, schools are looking at upwards of $2000 dollars per unit. On the other hand, there are much cheaper wireless headsets, typically a few hundred dollars, that don’t require computers at all and can be used anywhere. The trade off, they are far more limited in the applications they can use plus, their visual quality and immersability are infinitely worse. So the question stands, is Vr an expensive hobby for gamers or the next big thing in instructional technology?