Blog Post # 4 Technology Hardware

Imagine being able to actually enter into the world of a book, like the movie Never Ending Story, or being able to travel back in time to experience a catastrophic day in history such as 9/11 without ever leaving school!  Well VR or virtual reality could be the next technological tool for school librarians to use for students to explore. This is not the first opportunity that students have had to experience a virtual world, but it may be the first where the world can be brought to life in such a realistic way.   

In my research I found that the Oculus offers a more affordable version of their headset that is called the Go. It is wireless and does not require a PC for use. There are several apps available for reading, one called Immersion VR Reader, although it doesn’t get great ratings on the Oculus site. https://www.oculus.com/experiences/go/ A warning to teachers and librarians is that some of the content offered for students could possibly cause some issues for censorship or appropriate for educational use. I think that this area could possibly be worked out with a collaboration of the librarian, administration, and the IT department at a school district.