By Matthew Parets
During the midterm exam week, I kept the Media Arts computer lab open to allow the students to experience the world of Virtual Reality (VR).
VR describes the world that you enter when you don a VR headset, such as the Quest 2 headsets that are part of the Innovation Center. The impact of VR is hard to understand until you experience it. The sights and sounds are so immersive that you feel that you have visited another world.
During exam week, students could join National Geographics to virtually explore the African savannas and sky dive with the pros. They could participate in a short film of an adorable bunny saving the world from cartoon aliens, freely explore a maze or a virtual art museum, get an aerobic workout while slashing blocks with light sabers, or even cast a line to catch a fish.
The promise of VR is astounding. One of the more practical uses of VR headsets at Montverde Academy is allowing juniors and seniors to visit college campuses virtually and experience a campus as if they were there, giving them access to more schools than they could possibly visit in person.