by Cristell Ramirez

Virtual reality is slowly taking over the world. Virtual reality is a simulated experience that is similar to or can even be completely different from the real world. This can be used for education, entertainment even for business. There are many different devices you can use for virtual reality. There is the Oculus. The Oculus is one of the most expensive VR sets available. It is priced at $300 and it can be a big spend for a lot of people. Especially if they are using this for education. On the lower price side there is the Google Cardboard. The Google Cardboard is priced at $8.95 cheapest and the most expensive is $40.

Google Cardboard is a virtual reality device that can be used with your phone. You play a video or a simulation on your phone and put it on for you to see it with your VR device. Since VR devices can be expensive, this is a great and inexpensive alternative. It can be used with your phone depending on the size and you can put basically anything on it so you can see it.

This can be used in the classroom. If there is a budget of 100 dollars, you can buy 10 Google Cardboards and use them in your classroom. Even if you can buy one which is $8.95, you can allow students to try it. It can be used for teaching different things and using different immersive videos. On YouTube you can find 1,000’s of educational videos on VR.

There even is an option to get the kit in order for you to build it yourself. It can be used for you to make your own and find the supplies. This is great even if you cant order it online, you can find the supplies and then make it yourself. You just follow the steps after downloading the kit.

I think every kid should be able to try this tool out. This is an educational and immersive experience for not just students but it can be used for adults. Using a virtual reality experience and even owning one, can be expensive. But this is an affordable way for classrooms to experience this.

I found this downloadable PDF from the New York Times which includes different tools you can use in order to make VR a part of your classroom and curriculum. VR is used as an immersive experience and it helps students understand more in depth what they are learning. It comes with tools in order to build your lesson plans and how to plan your curriculum around it. It comes with 8 different lesson plans to use with the virtual reality.

(article:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/learning/lesson-plans/virtual-reality-curriculum-guide-experience-immersion-and-excursion-in-the-classroom.html)

You can find the full PDF here: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/virtual-reality-teaching-resource-guide/2f53bf8c259b3b2d/full.pdf

Buy the Google Cardboard here: https://arvr.google.com/cardboard/get-cardboard/

Check out my twitter: @CRamirez2001 !!