You can now visit the British Museum in VR: Here’s how

Samsung has teamed up with the British museum to offer VR visits to schools who are unable to enjoy a physical visit.

Samsung’s Virtual Visits programme will see 35,000 places offered to pupils. They will have the opportunity to interact with high-resolution digital assets and museum staff.

Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, said: “We are delighted that thanks to the generous support of Samsung, we can now offer 35,000 school children over the next five years the opportunity to interact with the world-class collection and expertise of the British Museum, who ordinarily might not be able to. Pupils from Andover to Aberdeen and Brecon to Belfast can now experience some of the Museum’s incredible treasures from their own classroom”.

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The scheme is tailored to suit the needs of the school curriculum and will see students learn about prehistoric Britain, Roman Britain and the Indus Valley.

More classes are being developed by Samsung and The British Museum on topics including ancient Egypt and ancient Greece.

President and CEO of Samsung Electronics UK and Ireland spoke about the developing partnership: “Our collaboration with the British Museum for the past ten years has allowed us to constantly trial new technologies that engage children and young people in innovative ways to not only help them learn about lessons in history, but enable them to better understand the present and prepare for the future.

“By extending this long-standing partnership for a further five years to 2024, we stand beside the British Museum as we together navigate the ways in which emerging technologies can further enhance the way we learn.”

This represents a wholesome use of VR technology that can bring history lessons to life for distant or disadvantaged children who, otherwise, would not be able to set foot in the iconic British Museum.