August 5, 2020 – Lenovo has recently announced updates to its portfolio of education solutions designed to help support schools adopting new curricula and ways of teaching as students head back to class this fall during the ongoing coronavirus global health crisis.
Students across the globe are experiencing school closures and general disruption to their learning. As a result of the impact of COVID-19, educators are implementing distancing learning programs and hybrid learning scenarios. In response to this, Lenovo has announced that it is providing teachers and students the tools needed for schools’ expanding digital ecosystems. The company is doing so primarily in the form of purpose-built laptops and tablets, software and content for education, including immersive learning with virtual reality (VR) solutions.
Specifically, Lenovo’s VR Classroom 2 is now on sale in North America, and available soon in select markets around the world. According to the company, VR Classroom 2 offers a complete solution for teaching with VR, and includes a combination of hardware, content, device management, training, and support.
The company stated that through VR, students are immersed in experiences that enable learning beyond the classroom to foster a deeper understanding of complex concepts, knowledge retention, and empathy. As a result, VR Classroom 2 offers students and teachers a visually and audibly isolated environment to fully engage with instructional material, thus helping to limit some of the distractions of the home, which can potentially impact students in distance learning scenarios.
“From virtual tours to stimulating math and science lessons, more educators are understanding the value of immersive learning with VR. Lenovo’s goal is to provide teachers with a solution that’s easier to deploy and manage inside or outside the classroom, so they can stay focused on kids’ learning,” said Rich Henderson, Director of Global Education Solutions at Lenovo.
The new educational VR solution comes with the Lenovo Mirage VR S3, an all-in-one headset specifically designed for enterprise and education. Featuring a 4K display for clear visuals, the headset can be used with or without the provided controller and has an easy to clean face plate suitable for mass use. Built with integrated audio and up to three hours of battery life, the new VR headset is rugged, light weight, and ready to use on campuses and throughout districts, according to Lenovo.
The Lenovo VR Classroom 2 solution is powered by the ThinkReality platform, which the company states allows a district’s IT staff to deploy a fleet of headsets with online device management. Using LanSchool Air for classroom management, teachers can remotely manage and control all of a class’s devices from a single source.
VR Classroom 2 is supported by Lenovo Integrated Solutions Support (LISS), providing end-to-end support from expert technicians and engineers. LISS provides Lenovo customers with support for their entire Lenovo solution, including a dedicated phone line for access to a team of technical experts and engineers.
Lenovo states that it is partnering with software developers and content creators to provide students with virtual reality solutions to aid with a more immersive learning experience. These apps and content come pre-installed:
- Veative Limited – Veative Labs, a provider of immersive learning solutions, developed this application specifically for VR Classroom 2. It features 40 VR modules including science, mathematics and virtual tours. Users also have the option to upgrade to Veative Lab’s full library of 550 interactive STEM modules either on Lenovo computers or on VR Classroom 2;
- VICTAR VR – Dev Clever, a developer of mobile and immersive experiences, has developed VICTAR VR, an integrated virtual reality careers platform. The platform is designed to engage with students using interactive environments to gamify the journey of self-discovery for young people as part of career planning;
- Wild Immersion – A virtual wildlife reserve that shows animals in their natural habitat through 360° immersive experiences. The videos are self-guided activities, where students work independently to experience animals in the wild, as well as come to understand the challenges of nature conservation.
For more information about the Lenovo VR Classroom 2 please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Lenovo
About the author
Sam Sprigg
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.
