"This was followed by a dimly lit museum corridor with a T-rex coming around the corner and slowly but menacingly approaching me. The model was very detailed and well animated, which really sold it. It wasn’t scary per se, but when it got close and roared right at me, I was definitely teetering on the edge of feeling like I was near a living creature. Why take kids to museums when they can travel back to the era of dinosaurs? VR in education is going to be huge."[0]
I've been seeing this repeated a lot lately, but I am going to say not with current hardware it isn't. The potential is obvious, but since SDK 0.4.0, the Rift comes with a huge on-screen disclaimer that can't officially be disabled (much to the annoyance of developers) that it is not for use by minors.
The reason is that much more research is needed to determine whether or not VR headsets are safe for developing eyes and brains. When you are using a VR headset, you are continually focused on infinity, which is not natural.
Sim sickness also continues to be a problem. Again it is not known whether there are potentially damaging effects while the brain is still in development. I would expect especially younger children to compensate for sim sickness for more readily than adults do, but who knows if that is at the expense of their balance and coordination in the real world? Right now, we don't.
University-level education, yes: VR will yield immediate tangible benefits. The truly big gains for general education cannot come until these problems can be worked out, which hopefully will be somewhere around CV3-CV4 (say around 5 years out). It won't be a solved problem within a year or two, unfortunately.
>The reason is that much more research is needed to determine whether or not VR headsets are safe for developing eyes and brains. When you are using a VR headset, you are continually focused on infinity, which is not natural.
It's not natural for humans to move 60mph either, but we do it all the time. Before that, when cars were first invented, they thought that going that fast would just kill you instantly.
And rightly so. G forces absolutely will kill you, just not from the speeds a car can attain. Why on earth WOULDN'T we be cautious with a new technology that we know has the potential to cause permanent damage?
"This was followed by a dimly lit museum corridor with a T-rex coming around the corner and slowly but menacingly approaching me. The model was very detailed and well animated, which really sold it. It wasn’t scary per se, but when it got close and roared right at me, I was definitely teetering on the edge of feeling like I was near a living creature. Why take kids to museums when they can travel back to the era of dinosaurs? VR in education is going to be huge."[0]
Reminds me so much of this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1_bp8YKUPU
[0]http://www.roadtovr.com/hands-on-oculus-rift-crescent-bay-pr...