Virtual Reality Headsets Give ICT Students A Whole New Outlook

Year 10 ICT student Jazmine Botterill takes a tour of Rome on the Virtual Reality Headset guided by Mr Connor Hotson, Curriculum Leader for ICT.

A link-up with the Institute of Technology in Grimsby has given ICT students at Somercotes Academy a whole new outlook.

They have been gifted the use of Virtual Reality Headsets which can replace the students’ natural environment with virtual reality content, such as a movie, a game or a pre-recorded 360-degree virtual reality environment that allows them to turn and look around just as they would in the physical world.

Teachers hope the headsets will bring fresh inspiration to ICT students and show them that it is not just about sitting in front of a computer screen.

Connor Hotson, Curriculum Leader for ICT, said: “Already the headsets have brought new excitement into the classroom. Students are queueing up to use them and, as I hoped, it is really igniting a passion for the subject. We may be studying in a rural Lincolnshire school but these headsets show the students that there is a whole world out there to be discovered. 

“You would usually see this kind of equipment in larger cities so we are delighted to have this link-up with Grimsby Institute and its new Institute of Technology, which has led to us being able to use these headsets. We will be using them to make websites and comic books, to really bring the story to life.”

Year 10 GCSE student Jazmine Botterill was bowled over by her virtual tour of the streets of Rome. “It is amazing,” she said. “It is like being there and you can reach out and almost touch the buildings. It is a really cool piece of equipment and we all want to use it.”