Getting Started With Apple Vision Pro in Education: Your Questions Answered

If you are considering how an Apple Vision Pro might work in your district, school, or classroom, you might be wondering about many of the device’s “basics.” The AVP is still so new that many of the fundamental features are still shrouded in mystery — so I’m hopeful that the FAQs below will help to clarify how the Apple Vision Pro might work from an educational standpoint!

A: Yes and no. When a consumer purchases the Apple Vision Pro at an Apple Store, they’re typically asked to use a special iPhone app that performs a lidar scan of their head in order to determine the optimally sized “light seal” and “headband” — but these parts of the AVP are modular and magnetically detach. That means that if you’re purchasing a device for a school (or for shared use), it would be prudent to obtain multiple light seals and headbands so that users can mix-and-match.

While the headbands are fairly straight forward to understand (Small, Medium, Large), the light seals (i.e. the component that sites between the screen and your eyes) require a bit more decoding. These are sized with a two-digit number, such as 11, 23, and 36. In short, the first digit signifies the position of one’s forehead and cheeks, where “2” is the most typical size, and the second digit signifies the depth of the light seal, where “1” is the shallowest and “6” is the deepest. There are also “W” (wide) and “N” (narrow) versions of these available.

Anecdotally, I have found that “23” is a popular size — and when I’ve shared my AVP with other users, my “23” light seal has always worked pretty well. This might be a good starting point for your first light seal before purchasing additional sizes.

It’s worth noting that the Apple Vision Pro doesn’t currently allow for users to wear glasses while using the device. Instead, users can wear contacts or purchase prescription inserts. This, of course, leads us to our next frequently asked question.

Q: Won’t the device get gross if a lot of students are using it?

A: Probably! Fortunately, disposal “VR face covers” and “silicone face pads” have long been available to address this issue. A quick search on Amazon will yield exactly what you’re looking for!

A: In this case, it would be best to defer to Apple’s safety information for the AVP, which states that “Apple Vision Pro is designed to fit and be used by individuals 13 years of age and older, and should not be used by children under the age of 13.”

A: It has long been true that mixed reality headsets aren’t for everyone. The good news is that the feature that allows those students to stay engaged is the same feature that can be leveraged for full class engagement — and that’s AirPlay.

In short, the Apple Vision Pro has an AirPlay feature that can be used to project everything that a student is seeing in the headset directly to the front of the room, using your preferred AirPlay setup of choice. (You might be using Apple TV, AirPlay To Mac, etc… and Apple Vision Pro’s AirPlay functionality is compatible with each of these.)

That means that if you’re asking a student to interact with an augmented reality human heart in the AVP, the entire class can see it in realtime and can participate in that capacity, such as by providing the student with feedback along the way.

A: In addition to AirPlay, which would enable you to see everything a student is doing on the Apple Vision Pro, the device has a feature called “Guest Mode” that enables teachers to select exactly which apps the student (or “guest”) will be able to access. 

A: While the Apple Vision Pro definitely costs more than the typical devices that are used for 1:1 computing initiatives, it’s helpful to consider that it only takes one AVP to get started. In these early days, it might also be beneficial to explore how grants pertaining to innovation, computer science, and student engagement might help to bring an Apple Vision Pro pilot to life in your school.

A: At the time of this writing, we are still in the very early days of the Apple Vision Pro — but that also means that the app ecosystem is the smallest it’s ever going to be. The AVP launched with 600 apps designed for the device on February 1st, and six months later, over 2000 apps are in the App Store. On top of that, there are 1.5 million (yes, you read that right) compatible iOS and iPadOS apps available on the Apple Vision Pro, too. That means that many of your favorite iPad apps can already be used on the AVP. That being said, as incredible as that is from a user-standpoint, those iOS and iPadOS apps aren’t going to be where the true firepower of the AVP lies when it comes to teaching and learning.

Q: Do you need an AVP or a special camera in order to record spatial videos?

A: Nope! iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max can shoot spatial videos! You can check out this guide from Apple to learn more about how to record in spatial mode, but it's as easy as turning your phone sideways and tapping the AVP icon before you record. If you have an iPhone 15 Pro and you don't see that icon, you'll have to toggle it on in your settings: Open Settings ➝ Camera ➝ Formats ➝ Video Capture ➝ Toggle on Spatial Video!

A: Apple Vision Pro can be managed "with a mobile device management (MDM) solution using the MDM protocol and declarative device management. Users can also sign in with a Managed Apple ID using federated authentication." You can check out the official Apple Vision Pro deployment documentation from Apple here.

To take a deeper dive into how the Apple Vision Pro can already be used across the curriculum, check out: “Apple Vision Pro in Education: 9 Ways to Deepen Learning and Increase Engagement Across the Curriculum.”