This year, Iozzo piloted the use of the virtual
reality headset in her classroom. She spent hours
learning Google Tilt Brush, an art program for
device, to create worlds for her students. In their
last unit before graduation, her fifth-graders
used satellite Google Earth technology to travel
to Guatemala and the Tikal mountains, where
they saw the famous stone Jaguar Temple, and
to re-create a rain forest, filled with native flora
and fauna.
In a recent class, Lyons walked around a three-
dimension flower she painted, as her classmates
watched her progress in real time projected
onto the Smartboard.
As her friend, Sofia Balestra, looked on, Balestra
said she felt nervous when Iozzo first fitted the
headset over her ears and she stepped out into
the barren landscape inviting her to create.
“It’s like a different world,” Balestra said. “Time
goes by really fast because it’s fun. It’s not like
anything I’ve ever done before.”
Unlike normal drawing, she said, when she
applies pressure to the tip of her pencil or
marker, she feels light.
“You’re painting in mid-air, and control is hard,”
Lyons said. “Sometimes, my hand shakes.”
Iozzo is a fine artist who specializes in oil
painting, but the novelty of Google Tilt Brush
excites her.
“There hasn’t been a new art medium invented
in a long time,” she said.
A prep period here, a lunch there, Iozzo has
devoted hours to mastering the Tilt Brush,
and she documents her learning process on
Instagram. She has made full worlds, some of
which are so big and so detailed they take an
hour to load. In one, the VR visitor is immersed in
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