Mr Burnie’s Blog

‘Just two steps to go!’

I held on tightly to the swaying rope ladder, attempting to cross a crevasse at approximately 7000m above sea level in the snowy Himalayas. Many had tried before me. Most had succeeded.
I treated myself this week. Mr Brady, our Head of Enterprise Technology, had been encouraging me to visit him in the newly-renovated Enterprise Technology Suite. And so, on a weekday lunchtime, for a few minutes, I was transported to another world, courtesy of one of the school’s new virtual reality headsets. In addition to my Himalayan expedition, I was also fortunate enough to dive deep under the sea, and was happily minding my own business on a shipwreck when a huge blue whale swam past.

The quality of these incredibly immersive experiences was stunning, and served as a reminder of the power of technology in providing fantastic opportunities for learning across the curriculum. Indeed, embedding our new subject, Enterprise Technology, into the curriculum at Croydon High School is one of our whole-school priorities this academic year.

The school has purchased a class set of Google Cardboard VR headsets, which are already being used to augment learning in a number of lessons. Virtual field trips have been conducted to culturally important destinations, the intricacies of human blood have been explored from within the vessels themselves and key geographical landmarks have been visited. Not satisfied with merely observing virtual content, Mr Brady and his department are keen to explore the possibilities of our girls being responsible for creating their own virtual resources. The department of Modern Foreign Languages have expressed an interest in a create-your-own virtual patisserie project (yum), while the use of Google’s Tilt Brush application will allow our outstanding artists and designers to create virtual 3D masterpieces; this LINK gives an exciting flavour of what is possible.

Moving forward, the Enterprise Technology department intends to provide opportunities to program and develop software for VR platforms. Watch this space!
For now, however, I’m going to see if I can sneak in another lunchtime visit; I’ve got my eye on a walk around the International Space Station…

Chris Burnie
Deputy Head (Academic)