Milpitas Unified School District classrooms with the aid of virtual reality technology, have become portals for students to experience the Apollo Mission to the moon alongside Neil Armstrong, to see a Tyrannosaurus Rex up close or to visit parts of the country and world they have only read about.

What used to be two-dimension viewing experiences through photos or video are now fully immersive learning experiences, allowing students to literally step into events, like watching former President Barack Obama giving a speech at Yosemite National Park last summer.

Last summer, Milpitas Unified acquired $6,000 worth of virtual realty technology. The district then began what Chin Song, the districts director of technology services, calls the research and development phase of implementing virtual technology as a supplemental tool to teaching. During the last school year, the technology was taken into classrooms on an on-call basis. Song expects the number of requests to use the technology to increase with this school year, which begins Aug. 17.

Song explained that there are two versions of virtual reality being used: Oculus, a fully immersive experience which pairs a powerful computer with handheld controls; and Google Cardboard virtual reality, which requires a phone to be put into a visual unit for a partially interactive experience.

The acquisition of the units was basically on the idea that virtual reality and augmented reality will be the next phase of computingso having that immersive nature of getting information and ideas and also connecting people, Song said in an interview with the Post. He added it will also broaden how students think and view things, when they go from seeing things as two-dimensional on a page or screen to three-dimensional around them, the learning opportunities are just fantastic.

Since last summer, a few teachers have used Occulus virtual reality, while teachers at multiple sites have used the cardboard virtual reality in some way, additionally several teachers have had Google Expeditions, where entire classes are able to take a virtual field trip, Song said.

With Occulus, in which one person puts on a headset and can use different applications on a computer to immerse in different experiences, one application in particular interested the special education department in Milpitas Unified and William Burnett Elementary School student Gianna Ciardella. An application that simulates the visual and auditory experience of someone with autism.

Ciardella, who wants to be an elementary special education teacher when she grows up, teamed up with the special education and technology departments in February to introduce her classmates to what it is like for a person with autism to process incoming sensory information.

This was meant to supplement a sensory tool kit that she created as part of her class genius hour, where students create something useful. The toolkit includes a variety of items to support students with autism in the classroom with noise-cancellation headphones and a number of fidget toys, among other things.

Marissa Ciardella, program manager for student services and special education in the district and step-mother to Gianna, said it was the districts hope to bring more of these experiences districtwide in order to better understand students and their peers with disabilities. She said the use of virtual reality technology to provide experiences like the one showing just one of the experiences of someone with autism, could do wonders to help further understanding and create empathy districtwide.

Ciardella said while school districts in the past have aimed to keep students with disabilities separated from general population students, districts like Milpitas are aiming to be inclusive.

Inclusive practices are embracing community and including students with disabilities in general education classrooms, Ciardella said.

As the virtual reality technology gets better and more efficient Song said the use of virtual reality in classrooms will become wide-ranging and more prevalent.

We are still very much in the research and development stage, what value we will get out is a combination of the software that is available and how our teachers are able to tie that into their instructional practices, Song said.

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Milpitas: Virtual reality technology take students to a land far, far away - The Mercury News