We are excited to launch VR Lessons, our first virtual reality content app. The app is designed for elementary school students, their teachers and parents.
VR Lessons by ThingLink is a collection of interactive, 360° image and video journeys on a variety of topics including science, language, and arts. The first stories take students to visit different kinds of ecosystems from the French Alps to a jungle in the archipelago of northern Australia. As students turn their heads to look around, they can spot details and unlock additional information of each habitat in a narrated virtual reality environment.Virtual reality can take students to places they could only dream of visiting, but it is also an open canvas for students to imagine and build new worlds and experiences. We are making it possible for schools to use virtual reality as an engaging learning platform.
VR Lessons by ThingLink utilizes three key feature additions to ThingLink’s core product, the image editor: audio annotations, background audio for 360° images, and the ability to connect several 360° images or videos into a one immersive story.
Audio annotations work wonderfully in a mobile VR environment, adding depth to the overall experience of the space. For example, in VR Lessons we added the sound of the wind in the background of an image from the Norwegian tundra, and an owl howling in the image of a cold winter forest in Finland. Annotations use both human and computer voice files. Students can vote on which voices they like best.
The first VR lessons have been created by ThingLink’s own content team using the company’s new VR editor. Later, others will be able to publish their virtual reality lessons in ThingLink’s VR Lessons app. VR Lessons is available on the App store for $4.99. The lessons can be viewed with iPhones using a virtual reality headset such as Google Cardboard, or iPads.
