Sara Kurig via UnSplash

Funny fact about me, I don’t think ever experienced virtual reality, it could be my 36 year old memory disintegrating, but I digress. I do have a best friend who used to work in the entertainment industry and experienced it first hand when it was in the beginning stages for the gaming industry, don’t quote me I believe she was experiencing the Playstation VR as it was about to launch in 2016, she told me it was out of this world. She said it was the future and she would love to have it.

While I do love to do VR games in the future. I am curious in the standpoint of how it could contribute with our education and museum visits when we cannot make it. Coming across the Forbes Article brought back memories and not so memories. In fact, this article came back in 2018, two years from my best friend’s experience of the Playstation VR launch. In this article, it is interesting to see someone describe a painting as if it was right in front of them in the first paragraph. I had a thought in my head of what can be an experience of people who can afford it, a not so experience for people in smaller rural communities. And in fact, McShane brought up that point and pointed out there can be such a thing if you make it crude box with your cell phone. And that’s when I remembered, that I experienced!

Sigmund via UnSplash

So, reflecting that, I was thinking “why isn’t virtual reality a thing now?” Is it a trend? I would love to see libraries having these in display for certain places if people could not make it such as in my library, the driving distance to the LACMA is extensive. We can have a day in the library where museums should pair up for the folks at home who cannot make the drive. I experienced the Getty and the Getty Villa. I also went to the Broad and MOCA as well as the usual childhood trips to the Natural History Museum, La Brea Tar Pits and The Children’s Science Center. While the fact that we could get a museum for free in some days locally in L.A, the drive can be too much. We could even get a view from Museums and Art galleys around the world. Some people could benefit either a preview or visiting virtually if they cannot make it, like even I missed out on museums at my time abroad.

I wonder what other educational purposes we can create with VR? I looked into it and children’s games can be educational. There is this site called Adventure Academy, and it has games for the children to learn. I think it is time we could make VR useful like this. Whether it can be a phone in a box, or a VR set that the library can contribute.

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