Charlton Park Academy is a Special Academy for students with complex, low incidence special educational needs. Based in Greenwich, London, Charlton Park goes above and beyond to transform the lives of its students, focusing on ensuring they become happy, fulfilled adults and citizens who can pursue their interests and dreams which is made possible with virtual reality learning.
Although Charlton Park has only recently introduced ClassVR headsets, they have already used them in a variety of ways. Even more exciting, they continue to explore innovative ideas for effectively implementing virtual reality learning in their classrooms to maximize student engagement and enjoyment.
New Experience with Virtual Reality Learning
We always thought that giving students the opportunity to be immersed in a place that they had never experienced could be a powerful tool, however there is a world of difference between a nice idea and the reality of seeing Caris from Charlton Park Academy put on a headset and find herself swimming with turtles, sharks and manta rays. There are no words to describe the look on her face and having that ability to give students, who would find a lot of trips limited by mobility issues or other difficulties, the chance to see the pyramids, fly in the clouds or even travel to Mars.
Tailored Content
Charlton Park Academy have also purchased a 360-degree camera to allow them to capture their own images and videos. They are yet to truly integrate this function into teaching and learning as it is still early days; however, they are extremely keen to get students involved in creating their own 360 content to view on the headsets as well as the possibilities for taking them on school trips so that they can relive those experiences whenever they choose.
Maintain Interaction
One of the features that Charlton Park Academy loved was the ability to not only control the content from an easy-to-use portal, but the fact that you can view a live feed of what each headset is looking at. While Caris was looking inside an Egyptian tomb, we were able to describe what she was seeing to her and ask specific questions about her experience and what she chose to focus on. This affords far more opportunities for personalised learning and prevents the students from feeling too distant while they’re wearing a headset.
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