If it’s two things you’d think belong nowhere near a classroom, it’s immersive video games and Facebook. But not at Jackson School, a primary and secondary school outside of Melbourne. It’s become one of a handful of tester schools for Oculus Rift in the classroom, even despite its link to new parent company Facebook .

“We’ve been using Oculus Rift to improve teaching students with disabilities, as well as potential therapeutic benefits for students with autism,” says Mathieu Marunczyn, IT coordinator and a teacher at Jackson School. Students play Blue Marble, a demo game that lets players listen to their favorite music while exploring outer space. Marunczyn says that the game’s peaceful chill-out effect is central to its usefulness as a classroom aid. “It allows them space away from usual school surroundings,” he says.

Another Oculus demo he’s been using at Jackson School is Titans of Space. It’s a VR game that takes players on a tour of outer space, zooming in on planets and shrinking them down to one millionth their actual size. Marunczyn says the kids think the game is fun, but it’s also jammed with actual educational content, like how many kilometers across each planet is.

But is virtual reality really learning, or is this just an expensive digital babysitter? And what happens when Facebook uses its enormous resources to push its agenda into education, whatever that might be? Is Oculus a Trojan horse?

In his Facebook.com blog post detailing his goals for Oculus, Mark Zuckerberg wrote: “We’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences… Imagine studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world just by putting on goggles in your home.” So it’s clear FB has education on its VR radar.

“Facebook has access to almost one fifth of the planet,” says VR expert Jeremy Bailenson. “Given Mark Zuckerberg has donated close to a billion dollars to charity, lots of it to education, I am hopeful that he can provide a unique lever to get the tech to classrooms.” Bailenson founded Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, which studies the relationship between humans and VR technologies. He thinks that Facebook’s inherent reach on the global populace could give VR the exposure it needs to become a mainstream utility.

And he says that once VR actually reaches schools, students will have an easy time using it, and teachers will have an easy time teaching it.