We are excited about sharing our VR kits with members. (Thank you to the Minnesota Dept of Education, Library Services; and to the IMLS, for the funding for this project!!) Virtual Reality kits are very cool, and we have so many good educational resources for people to share.

And we are enjoying finding all sorts of articles on different ways VR is being used to entertain and educate people, in all sorts of different areas of life.

This week we look at an article discussing one very cool use: using VR to help people living in retirement communities to beat the problem of isolation! This is a tough problem for people who have trouble traveling around, or keeping in touch with friends and family that had previously been important in their lives.

‘Virtual Travel’ With Real Friends is Combating Isolation

Retirement communities embrace 3D virtual reality technology

“At Carlsbad By The Sea, a senior living community in California, a group of four residents recently came together to take a vacation.

Or, rather, a “vacation,” experienced courtesy of a virtual reality (VR) program that the nonprofit Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing directed. The participants donned Samsung Gear VR headsets.

When one suggested they go to a beach in Belgium he remembered visiting as a child, “the facilitator took him and the whole group to that spot, and he just immediately lit up when he saw the pier,” says Davis Park, vice president of the innovation center. In the past five years, the center has been testing VR technology at Front Porch communities such as Carlsbad By The Sea, a little more than 30 miles up the coast from San Diego.”

What a great idea! Everyone can browse the images, and you really feel like you are present, exploring and experiencing some neat things you may net ever see in real life. The chance to experience these things with your community is even better!