Bellevue, United States- T-Mobile is teaming up with Prisms of Reality (Prisms VR) to connect virtual reality (VR) headsets to the Un-carrier’s 5G network, enabling students and teachers across the country with interactive math and science lessons designed to close the opportunity gap in STEM.
In order to give students access to new technologies like VR, first they need fast connectivity in places that has historically not been available. More than 19 million people in America live with limited access to the internet, creating a barrier for students of all types to participate in new learning opportunities.
T-Mobile announced that it is working with Prisms VR, a learning platform providing a new paradigm for math education, and Lenawee Intermediary School District (LISD) to deploy Prisms VR’s learning programs on Meta Quest 2 VR headsets connected to T-Mobile 5G across 11 school districts in rural Michigan. The collaboration brings new learning opportunities to thousands of students who might miss out otherwise due to poor and unreliable network connections often found in rural areas and creates opportunities for schools across the country to easily connect millions of students with the latest technologies using 5G.
Prisms VR, a T-Mobile Accelerator graduate – enables students to build lasting skills across core middle school math and science topics while solving real world problems. Since its deployment in 2022, LISD has reported improved lesson engagement and retention, with 80% of students who participated in the program saying they better understood the concepts and received higher grades.
Since Prisms VR’s graduation from the T-Mobile Accelerator program in 2021, the Un-carrier has worked with the company to help scale its solutions, including $425 thousand awarded in funding for VR headsets distributed to 20 schools so far. While the program with LISD is the initial that transfers and shares headsets across such a wide area, Prisms VR is already active across 28 states and regularly leverages T-Mobile 5G in schools that require the additional network capabilities offered by the nation’s large, fast 5G network.
“Our work with Prisms VR is just another example of our goal to bring 5G innovation to everyone,” says John Saw, EVP, advanced and emerging technologies, T-Mobile. “From major cities to small town America, our 5G network is inspiring and creating opportunities for students to connect with the world around them like never before.”
Available to schools across the U.S., Prisms VR relies on a reliable network connection to run its programs. While some schools can tap into fast Wi-Fi networks, many across the country are working on outdated systems that aren’t always reliable, which is where T-Mobile 5G comes in.
Even schools in urban areas that have access to reliable internet can benefit from leveraging T-Mobile 5G with Prisms VR. With only so much time in the day, connecting 30 plus VR headsets to school Wi-Fi systems and making it through the necessary permissions for each device eats up valuable learning time. Using T-Mobile’s 5G solution, VR headsets can be used as soon as they are turned on, eliminating the need for timely login processes.
“Our mission at Prisms VR is to make math relevant and connected to the world that students want to live in,” says Anurupa Ganguly, CEO and founder of Prisms VR. “VR powered by T-Mobile 5G allows us to democratise access to visceral experiences that empower students to build connections with current and compelling problems and abstract up to math models and equations from there, rather than memorising procedures in a sterile vacuum. With recent advances in spatial computing, we finally have the opportunity to teach STEM disciplines how they should be taught: through one’s own life experiences.”
“A major roadblock our teachers have in implementing new technologies like Prisms VR is often due to unreliable network connections,” adds Ann Smart, educational technology consultant, Lenawee Intermediary School District. “Prisms VR came to us with the recommendation to use T-Mobile 5G paired with their learning programs, which we’ve been able to easily adopt use at over 15 schools in rural Michigan, with outstanding responses from students and teachers.”
For more information about T-Mobile’s 5G network, visit T-Mobile. For more information on Prisms VR, visit Prisms VR.
Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @VanillaPlus OR @jcvplus
