This was my view yesterday of downtown Dallas (featuring my reflection. Photography isn’t exactly my strong point). It’s so strange being in a city where almost every building is at least 30 floors up.

As stated in previous posts Tracy Locke has a huge variety of clients who always need things advertised for them but one of the main aspects of this advertising is design. 

Today, I was shown Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. I had heard of these before and I always just assumed that they were used for games and even rollercoasters. I’ve only ever used one at Alton Towers on the Galactica ride. You put on the headset and everything around you was like you were in space. So really, I just assumed VR headsets were for “fun”. But today I was shown that they are also used for creative purposes.

One of the client’s is an Hewlett-Packard (HP) computers. The company met with TL and discussed what they wanted the space to look like. From this, TL designed the store on computers. When it was complete the client would come back in and use the VR headset to look at it. This was the part that amazed me: whenever I moved my head it was as if i was in the room. They had designed a 360 degree setting and using a remote control I could walk myself around the store and continue to move my head to see everything around me. This, therefore, allowed the client to see what their flagship store would look like and could suggest any changes if needed.

Tracy Locke also run an initiative called TLC which stands for Tracy Locke in the Community. This is when staff members volunteer for a day in places that mean something to them. Mark was telling me that for this someone visited a children’s hospital where there was a helipad on the roof. The children would hear this but never be able to see it so people at TL took a variety of photos of the helicopter and helipad and put it on the VR headset. The children would then use the headset and it would allow them to feel as though they were on the roof and actually be able to see the helicopter.

If money was no issue: I think these would be a fantastic asset in the classroom. I think they would be great in topic work. In my MA1 placement our topic was the Caribbean. Obviously, we could not have a trip there (As much as we all would have loved to!) But I feel that the use of VR headsets would allow children to have a feel of what the islands looked like and allow them to have a better understanding of what they were learning about. Additionally, it could be used for topics like space and allow the children’s imagination to almost become reality.

However, after doing some research there are cheaper options. Google Cardboard is a good one. They come in at around $70 but do not have the same effect as the one I used yesterday.

Therefore, after being introduced to VR yesterday I am intrigued to learn more about it and when I am a teacher this is most definitely something I want to include in my lessons to allow the pupils’ imagination to become reality.