Australian students partake in tours of agricultural operations without ever leaving the classroom. This is due to an immersive technology-based company called Think Digital. The founder, Tim Gentle, uses his passion for technology and his agricultural background to bring educational experiences to students of all backgrounds, and give them a chance to see life on the farm.
For the past five years, Gentle and his team have been touring Australia, bringing agricultural education to over 170 schools through the use of their bus that contains virtual reality technology, and his app, FarmVR. Gentle has used 360-degree videos of his dairy farm, as well as other farms in his area, to produce educational videos for the classes that he visits.
“They’re not just adopting it at agricultural schools, we’re seeing it being used generally across the curriculum,” Gentle said. “Learning about history, or math, or geography, but using agriculture as the backbone.”
This project is promoting changes in the standard curriculum around Australia. Schools are beginning to incorporate agriculture into a variety of lessons, and the students are providing positive feedback to this change.
Retailers, such as Woolworths, are paying Gentle and his team to create educational material for students in an attempt to encourage healthy eating habits in children and curiosity about the origins of their food.
In addition to exposing urban students to agriculture, these virtual reality experiences complement existing agricultural classrooms well. They provide agriculture students the opportunity to learn about various lessons before practicing the work themselves on the farm.
“These vets, they go in, they learn how to work with these different cattle in VR, they take off their headsets, they have a short break, and then they head out to the yards,” Gentle said. “It’s almost like a flight simulator, it’s like a cattle simulator in our world. So they learn both.”
Animal science students are getting first-hand experience with animal handling and safety around livestock without compromising the safety of the student. This experience would not be possible to the same level with a simple video in the classroom. This technology has proven its value in the general education system and adds to the experience of the traditional agriculture classroom. Students are capable of receiving immersive experiences in an industry that they may not have access to otherwise.