Half-Life: Alyx Used As Virtual Classroom In Poland
Teachers are using the acclaimed virtual reality game to continue providing education to their students.
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Returning to school during the course of a pandemic holds a lot of risk. But teachers in Poznań, Poland have discovered a way of integrating virtual reality to keep students and staff safe, in Half-Life: Alyx no less.
Poland made online education mandatory back on March 25 and educators had to get creative when thinking of ways to engage their students. Using Half-Life: Alyx may seem an unorthodox choice, but the interactivity of the game allows for a realistic experience for students. Teachers could write on the windows and white boards, demonstrate realistic physics, and go over names of objects as seen in an English class here:
“We decided to use VR in lessons because it seemed like a good opportunity to try something new and to engage our students in online classes,” Katarzyna Sut, an English and Spanish teacher, told Upload VR. “The pandemic had just started back then, the schools were closed, and we wanted to interest our students in the classes somehow. We also hoped that it would help them with the uncomfortable situation everyone found themselves in – those first few weeks were not easy for kids, being on lockdown in their homes and not able to roam freely.”
With the help of a local media company, OFFshot, the teachers set up a camera system and an HTC Vive and were ready to fully utilize the innovations virtual reality could provide. They recorded language, math, and science lessons that would stream to their students, providing them with a unique experience.
“VR is the future of creation,” said OFFshot’s Adrian Michalski. “Projects like ours show that VR can be introduced more widely into universal teaching.”
With the school’s staff hoping to get back to in-person classes this September, there are still plans to continue utilizing VR, with each student using the technology at least once a week. All of this is still up in the air as the pandemic surges on, but it looks like VR is here to stay.
Source: Upload VR, YouTube
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/half-life-alyx-virtual-classroom-poland/