Students give VR a blast

Transition Year students in Bailieborough Community School needed cool nerves and steady hands as they were assigned the unusual job of defusing a bomb.

Students worked against the clock in groups of three to make safe the device through virtual reality headsets. The students were partaking in the programme in collaboration with Dublin City University and the Town Centre First Initiative in the east Cavan town. Speaking to The Anglo-Celt following the unusual day’s events, Senan McManmon laughed, “It was unreal to attempt to disarm a bomb - without the fear of a real bomb exploding. A whole new experience!”

Derval O’Reilly agreed: “The games were just fantastic. You could really immerse yourself in the gaming world.”

Students were also asked to create a five-minute speech in advance, which they delivered for a virtual crowd of 120 people. Despite their audience being made up of digitalised people, the students couldn’t help but approach the task as if the audience was listening, and thus some were confident and some nervous. Following their speeches, they were given personalised feedback on their public speaking performances on factors such as eye contact, speaking pace and body language.

No strangers to public speaking themselves, Niamh Reilly and Yvonne Gillick Uceda agreed, “It was a wonderful opportunity to speak in a virtual auditorium like a real TED Talk.”

Joanne McGovern, TY co-ordinator, was delighted the students got to experience such fantastic technology. “This workshop was a wonderful opportunity for our TY students. They are a great group of enthusiastic students who fully embraced this experience. In linking with our theme of TY for this year, this workshop will help to broaden their horizons into the world of virtual reality.”

Ms McGovern explains the school has a huge interest in new technology and tries to expose their students to it as often as possible. “Bailieborough Community School is committed to the development of students’ digital media literacy and broader digital skill sets. At both Junior and Senior Cycle, students are provided with opportunities to use digital technologies to enhance their learning experiences. In Transition Year, students are provided with numerous opportunities to explore the wider digital technologies sector.”

The opportunity came following the appointment of Caroline Brady as Town Regeneration Officer who is focused on developing the Town Centre First initiative. Town Centre First aims to create town centres that function as viable, vibrant and attractive locations for people to live, work and visit. One of Caroline’s aims is to promote digital media in the town, and get more people using it to market their businesses.

“The Town Centre First is looking at a range of projects that we can roll out in Bailieborough to improve public amenity, but there’s also other elements to it as well around digital and climate.

“Today is the first of the digital initiatives we’re doing for the town. We’re going to take an intergenerational approach to it so the younger people and the older people in the town as well will have an input across a range of projects,” explained Ms Brady.

Further virtual reality projects are on the cards for Bailieborough as Ms Brady has organised to introduce the town’s older generation to the unique technology.