Grade 8 students from Minto-Clifford Public School travelled to Vimy Ridge – right from the comfort of their own classroom.
On March 29 the students experienced a virtual reality (VR) tour of the Vimy Ridge historical site in France produced by the CBC and Google.
“It was filmed a month ago,” Minto-Clifford Grade 8 teacher Neil Brunet told the Advertiser, adding Peter Mansbridge and the CBC filmed different sites for the virtual reality tour.
“For example, the guys saw … the memorial … some of the tunnels as well, and sort of the caves that the Canadians were in overnight and,of course, the trenches.”
Mansbridge provided the virtual tour, Brunet explained. He said students could turn around and see a complete 360-degree view of the areas Mansbridge described.
“For example when you’re out at the monument itself on Hill 145 … it’s kind of like ‘wow, that hill really does go down’ and that’s where the Canadians kind of came up and you don’t really get an aspect of that unless you’re there or now with … a VR experience,” Brunet said.
“That was really cool for the students to kind of witness that.”
Students were able to read the names of the 11,285 Canadian soldiers killed in France who have no known grave.
Their names are inscribed on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, which was built at the highest point of Vimy Ridge and also honours all Canadians who served in the First World War.
Grade 8 student Desirae Yeo-Ellis said she liked the tunnels best.
“If you look one direction you would (see) … where they had to hide … that was like the safety area but then if you turned the other direction it kept going and stuff,” she said. “It was cool.”
For Grade 8 student Ian Faris it was the Vimy cemetery that most intrigued him.
“You could see how many young soldiers died and [Mansbridge] told the story of a 17-year-old who illegally joined the military and then he died,” Faris said.
Brunet said it was quite the experience to be in the cemetery.
“You know 3,598 soldiers died at Vimy,” he said. “All their graves are there and you’re looking around and it’s like you’re surrounded by them.”
Yeo-Ellis said she felt more immersed using the virtual reality tour than learning through traditional methods.
“You felt more of … how you would feel if you were there in person,” she said. “It kind of touched … a lot of us.”
“I personally felt a lot of empathy for those soldiers and I felt inspired because it was good to know that thousands of soldiers went to France to fight for our freedom, for our country, so it inspired me and touched me.”
Brunet agreed the feelings experienced were truly unique.
“You can’t get that particularly from a textbook,” he said. “I know a lot of students, any 13 or 14-year-old, needs to experience something in order to get it.”
While Brunet taught his students the military tactics that went into the battle and about Canada’s involvement at Vimy Ridge, the virtual reality experience went far beyond.
“What we really appreciated about that particular experience was the little stories that you’re not going to be able to find in a generic textbook or you’re not going to be able to locate in a video and … a number of students thought that was really good,” he said.
Not only was the experience like no other for the students, but Brunet was also excited.
“I was just blown away because every November I take the time through Veterans Week to provide them knowledge of the Canadians’ role in our wars and kind of pay homage to that,” he said.
“I’m a history guy, that’s my background, so … I wanted to go to Vimy this year (but) I couldn’t and so this was about as good as you can get, almost being there.”
Brunet added it was the Upper Grand District School Board that was asked to participate and the administration made the decision for Minto-Clifford to have the experience.
“I was just really touched that the board thought of us that way,” he said. “It was great.”
The virtual reality headsets are based on Google Cardboard but are higher quality.
“It’s one of the view master units that we’re using so it’s headphones and then basically a phone that gives you the VR aspect.
“It’s kind of the low end that anybody can access.”
The Grade 8 class will likely appear on The National on CBC on April 7.
“They told us that as part of the making of the documentary we were sort of those Beta testers … that kind of give them feedback on what we thought and … so they’re giving us a couple-minute segment on there,” Brunet said.
Minto-Clifford had access to the headsets and tour for a few days this week so other classes also took the Vimy Ridge VR tour. Brunet said he was also arranging for Legion members to come to the school to experience the tour.
