Microsoft’s HoloLens and other mixed reality devices have enormous potential to inform and educate, arguably even more so than VR. Immersive education startup Lifeliqe is looking to capitalize on that potential.
You may have already heard of Lifeliqe; last year the company partnered with HTC to make educational VR experiences for the Vive headset. With HoloLens, though, the company is looking to move into the classroom. In fact the company has already run pilot lessons using the headset in classes at Renton Prep in Seattle, Washington, and Castro Valley Unified College in California. You can see a video of the student’s impressions below.
Lifeliqe’s HoloLens apps used interactive 3D models to provide a new kind of visual learning for students. They got to explore the human body, bringing up 3D models of organs, blood vessels and more. In a statement, Michelle Zimmerman, Director of Innovative Teaching and Learning Sciences said it actually looked like students preferred using MR for education over VR, which the school had also been working with.
HoloLens isn’t the only headset that could one day take over the classroom; Google has been pushing VR into educational territory with its Expeditions initiative, which uses mobile-based headsets like Cardboard to take students on virtual field trips. We expect to see plenty more examples of VR, AR and MR in schools as the technology continues to grow in popularity, too.
Lifeliqe is designing HoloLens experiences for grade 6 – 12 classrooms. However, with the developer edition of the kit costing $3,000 and a full consumer version still likely years away, it’s probably going to be a long time before we see MR commonly used in schools across the globe. VR will be a good stepping stone in the meantime, and Microsoft has that angle covered with its upcoming Windows 10 headsets.
