Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/912628
is fall, as part of the program, Google is introducing its AR component to classrooms, and is asking interested teachers and schools to sign up. Other companies offering VR, AR and 3-D systems for schools are Sony, Samsung, Oculus (owned by Facebook) and Amazon. Lifeliqe (pronounced " lifelike") offers more than 1,000 3-D images of plants, animals, and natural features like volcanoes and rivers. Students can click on a subject, zoom in, turn it around and examine it closely layer by layer. Costs vary. Some apps are low-cost or free, but the equipment — headsets, earphones, etc. — can run anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $1,000 per set. Some schools use funds from their Local Control Funding Formula to update technology pro- grams, or grant money to purchase equipment. In Los Angeles, for example, a teacher received a grant to purchase two Oculus VR sets costing approximately $600 each on Amazon, which allow students to walk through buildings they've designed and view their work in immersive 3-D. 3-D pilot program Inside a Los Altos classroom, students put on a pair of 3-D glasses to look at a computer monitor, and with a stylus pen in hand "pick up" the Earth from the screen, spin it around and examine the water cycle in 3-D. ey watch in amazement as water evaporates from the surface of the earth, rises into the atmosphere, cools and condenses into rain or snow in clouds, and falls again as precipitation, refilling rivers, lakes and the ocean. Students zoom in and out to see phenomena such as snow melt and even tiny beads of water condensation. e students at Santa Rita Elementary School are using WHAT'S YOUR REALITY? Virtual reality: An umbrella term for all immersive experi- ences, which can be created using real-world content, computer-generated content, or a hybrid of both. Augmented reality: An over- lay of virtual content on the real world. A virtual dinosaur may appear to be in the class- room — but it can't eat a real student or physically inter- act with real objects. Think Pokémon GO or Google Glass. Mixed reality: A merging of real and virtual worlds to pro- duce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects coexist and interact in real time. Micro- soft's Hololens, which allows you to engage with holograms while anchored in your reality, is an example. Technology from zSpace combines VR and AR to let students see and manipulate 3-D objects. San Francisco State University research shows that playing VR games offers exercise benefits. 37 D E C E M B E R 2 017 / J A N U A R Y 2 018