Update. Not college. Virtual Reality grade school.
Classical curriculum development firm Optima Domi will host an online virtual reality news conference and school tour via Zoom on Thursday, January 6, 2022, at 10:00 am to launch the world’s first and only virtual reality (VR) charter school, Optima Classical Academy (OCA), for the 2022-23 school year.
The tuition-free, cutting-edge charter school will enroll up to 1,300 students, grades 3-8, for its inaugural classes in August 2022. Based in Florida, the school plans to extend VR classes through the 10th grade for the 2023-24 academic year, then all K-12 students the following year.
OCA combines a virtual reality classroom with a classical learning model and a dedicated focus on student learning independence. Students will have the opportunity to step into a virtual world as their own personalized avatar, transported to a “classroom” at Pompeii, a pre-historic watering hole, or deep under the ocean. They will learn about historical events, characters, stories, fables, poetry, scientific facts, and mathematical proofs in a fully immersive experience, adding an unheard-of level of context to their studies.
Anyone familiar with AR/VR knows this little venture is going to fail. AR headsets will be hard to support and tossed aside within days/weeks. It’s just not practical to work, learn, engage in a sustained fashion with the current AR/VR technology. Think Second Life but with headsets.
Hilarious they created a Jeb avatar. I wonder if they put his overpriced guac bowl in there too.
Label this “just because you can, does not mean you should.”