Virtual Education Is Here

Here we see the first classroom example of virtual reality(Oculus Rift and Leap Motion) being used for educational purposes. Named "World of Comenius," the demo gives the player or user the view of a fully modeled human body, with bones and organs, and the ability to interact by picking it apart using their hands.

Here you won't see children with their necks bent with their faces down in books, but instead looking forward and around using their hands to explore the human anatomy. And they're not bored or having problems keeping attention to the task at hand. They seem rather excited, and smiling, and working together, communicating. All focused at the task at hand, even if they're not given a specific task.

Here is a video that shows a better view of what it looks like in action

I can imagine a teacher going around the classroom asking them to find a specific bone or organ, and then checking if they found the right one. Would be a great interactive test, to check if someone did their reading or homework. And what better way to learn than to actually being able to interact with a human body, which some people won't until they're up for doctorate degree with a real human corpse, which isn't always that easy to come by.

Here is another video from local news interviewing students and the creator Tomáš Mariančík, who has also created the Oculus Rift demos Sightline and Sightline: The Chair.(Two of my favorites).

Kind of makes me wish I was born a couple of decades later, to be able to experience this in a classroom. This is anyway just great news for everyone. The future looks cool for education.