Little Tony was very upset! His day was not going to plan, his attitude was spiralling out of control and if history was to be an accurate predictor, another days learning was about to disappear in a wisp of smoke.

With some gentle pushing and prodding I was able to coax this young man (with the help of a virtual reality headset – the Oculus Rift) into strapping in and being teleported to an alternate world of his choosing.

Within moments, awe inspired gasps echoed, and my directions were interrupted by a soothing voice beginning a guided meditation with Tony. In Tony’s world I ceased to exist as did the school and seemingly all of his troubles. He was alone in a Japanese garden openly conversing with the soothing rhetorical voice of the program.

A feeling of intrusion overwhelmed me and I slipped out of the room for 5 minutes.

On my return, Tony was a new person. Calm. Reflective. Most importantly ready to engage with his learning.

“Would you like to go back to class?” Was about the sum of my conversation with Tony – a confident and relaxed “yes” was the response as he drifted off back to class, where he engaged with his learning and proceeded to have a much improved day.

I was left astounded by the marked improvement in attitude that was so quick with so little adult input.

Was this a one-off? I’ll get back to you on that.

So what are the implications here? Just another tool to engage students? A way in for educators to meaningfully interact with students? How is this going to change the way we explore student behavior and wellbeing? Should it? What are the dangers we should prepare for?

Student Voice I was finding going to school stressful knowing that i had an operation coming up. In fact everything had become a little bit stressful. I was finding I couldn’t concentrate on my work, so my teacher recommended that I should try Guided Meditation on the Oculus Rift. I found that this helped me lots when … Continue reading Student Voice →

You can take a look at the software demo below. I’d love to hear your comments – just post in the box at the bottom of this page.