The release of two consumer virtual-reality headsets
has more people thinking about buying the product, particularly those in the
world of immersive games and interactive videos. That has caught the attention
of higher education, according to Carl Straumsheim in a column for Inside Higher Education.
“The technology still has a way to go, but early
adopters of virtual reality imagine a future in which students go on field
trips around the world from the comfort of the VR lab, joined by tour guides
who connect to the class remotely,” Straumsheim wrote. “Students in online
programs, instead of only interacting with their classmates through discussion
forums, meet in virtual classrooms, where they can lean over and talk to their
neighbors or work together on a problem on a blackboard.”
Despite the excitement over VR, there are still some concerns
that must be addressed, starting with cost. The two commercial headsets
released earlier this year cost at least $600 each, and that doesn’t include
the gaming computers needed to use them.
Headsets are clunky and wireless technology remains
years away. In addition, some users have experienced eyestrain and a type of
motion sickness caused by the difference between what the eye sees and the ear
senses.
“Costs
will come down, the software might be easier to develop, and the technology
will continue to advance,” Nitocris Perez, an emerging-technology specialist at
Indiana University, Bloomington, told Straumsheim. “I don’t think it’s going to
be tomorrow, but three years from now things will be radically different.”
