Oculus Rift CEO Says Classrooms of the Future Will Be In VR Goggles

jyosim writes "Oculus Rift isn't just for gaming. Brendan Iribe, CEO of the VR company, says the immersive tech will be "one of the most transformative platforms for education of all time." In an interview with Chronicle of Higher Education, he imagined laser-scanning every object in the Smithsonian for students to explore, and collaborating in shared virtual spaces rather than campuses. "The next step past that is when you have shared space, and not only do you believe that this object is right there in front of me, but I look around and I see other people just like we see each other now, and I really, truly believe that you’re right in front of me. We can look at each others’ eyes. If you look down at something, I can look down at the same time. And it’s every bit as good as this. And if we can make virtual reality every bit as good as real reality in terms of communications and the sense of shared presence with others, you can now educate people in virtual classrooms, you can now educate people with virtual objects, and we can all be in a classroom together [virtually], we can all be present, we can have relationships and communication that are just as good as the real classroom," he says.

Comments

Re:why?

[Teresita]

Actually the biggest issue these days is when people go "Where's the phone on my phone?" People look at their cell phone and wail, "Where the hell is the phone on my phone?"

Transformative Platforms!

[Anonymous Coward]

List of transformative, disruptive, game-changing, paradigm-shifting technologies that have changed education forever:

1) Radio
2) Televison
3) Language Labs
4) Personal Computers
5) Laptops
6) Tablets
7) Second Life/Virtual Worlds
8) Gamification
9) Eight-Track Tape Recorders

Thanks to these transformative platforms, the classroom of today is nothing like the ancient classroom of Rome or Greece, or even the quaint antiquity of the early twentieth century. Education is completely different now! No more reading, writing, and arithmetic: thanks to transformative platforms and gadgets, kids have no need for such lessons! And it's all thanks to visionaries and other CEO's who haven't seen the inside of a classroom since their childhood.

Re:why?

[sunderland56]

Why does the classroom of the future need to be VR?

So that your teacher can be a smokin' hot babe? In every single class?

Re:why?

[pitchpipe]

Having a smoking hot babe as a teacher has been show to increase focus and attention span, at least in a study I did of myself. Although I don't remember if I learned anything.