What is the difference between AR and VR?
AR stands for augmented reality. Augmented reality is an interactive experience of your current real-world environment. Take Pokemon Go for example, when catching a pokemon, the pokemon seemingly ‘pops up’ in front of you on your device seemingly in your surroundings. BlippAR is another great example of AR, if you download the blippAR app, go to the digital leaders board on the G corridor opposite the library. Using the app, scan the code on the board and every week a something new will appear!
VR is an acronym for virtual reality instead of having things ‘pop up’ on your device, you are completely ‘consumed’ within another environment without ever leaving your surroundings! You could be in the Amazon rainforest, without leaving your classroom.
Google Expeditions – probably the best known educational provider of AR and VR content. This tool is available as an app and canbe downloaded onto iPads and Chromebooks. The list of expeditions is expanding all of the time. The TECHNOPOLIS team is seriously impressed!
Take a look at Google Expeditions
Where can AR & VR go?
This sounds completely surreal but the possibilities and opportunities are endless. In the past school has used VR to show students an experience of prison conditions as part of their curriculum but this is a small scale example. You could go to the bottom of the ocean floor to study aquatic life, abseil down the inside of a volcano to find out more about the Earth’s core or even Brazil to study about tourism. We’re exploring different ways of incorporating AR into our learning, for example we’ve been experimenting with a website called
Sheffield Girls’ has invested in VR headsets and have AR apps available so complement our learning. Using AR/VR in school is a fantastic opportunity and can really aid learning.
Finally…
Take a look at this VR/AR video put together by Mr Wiles and our head of Earth Science, Mr Speed:
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