Cool VR @ SXSW

The predictive education bazaar that we know as SXSWedu is held each year in Austin, Texas in the Spring. 

Over the last two years, virtual reality made its presence known in a big way at SXSWedu. The diversity of approaches and angles is mind-boggling, such as:

• Mike Cuales and Bethanne Tobey (North Carolina State University) talking about the use of 360 spherical video as a teaching tool .
• Ilan Bren Yakov (MidCET) demonstrating the empathy-creating potential of virtual reality by placing your own head/vision in the body of a dog, chasing cats and living a dog’s life in general.
• Carlos Castaneda (University of Chihuahua MX) demonstratingvirtual reality combined with gesture control (using a jerry-rigged Leap motion controller creatively mounted on VR headgear.
• Renee Hobbs (University of Rhode Island) demonstratingthe Google Cardboard phenomenon.
• In their presentation, “Virtual Exchange Meets Virtual Reality”, Grace Lau and Hanna Weitzer (Global Nomads Group) introducing their innovative project combining virtual reality with distance learning, called “Reimagine: Syria”. " (In this project, students from Los Angeles were dropped into a virtual reality recreation to understand the realities of the Syrian Crisis, and then later, were connected with actual refugee youth in Amman, Jordan in a live skyped session.)
• Jennifer Holland (Product Manager for Google Expeditions) and Benjamin Scrom (Project Manager, Google) conductinga two-hour workshop entitled“Explore Your Worlds with Google Expeditions”, designed to take students “places a school bus can’t go”. 
• Dr. Jennifer Simonson and Len Scrogan providing a medical perspective about the intersection of virtual reality, reading, learning, and healthy vision for children. 
• Emory Craig, (Director of eLearning at the College of New Rochelle) and Maya Georgieva, (Co-Founder, Digital Bodies) [see their interesting web site] conducting a workshop raising fundamental questions about future media, storytelling, and narrative using this new medium. 
• Lizzie Edwards (Education Manager, Samsung Digital Learning Programme [Samsung Digital Discovery Centre at the British Museum]) describing the museum’s effort to host a “virtual reality” weekend in which families were able to explore the Museum’s first virtual reality environment—a bronze Age round house—set within a realistic landscape, and showcasing 3D scans of real objects from this period in history.
• The Digital Media Academy demonstratinghow they help students learn to create virtual reality environments through their community-based programs.
• A college demonstrating how they use virtual reality as a recruiting tool to attract new students to their campus by featuring innovative virtual reality walkthroughs of their innovative learning spaces, experiencing the look and feel of the campus before having to commit to a college site visit.

As you can see, VR can take on numerous roles in education. In a few months I will provide a preview of virtual-reality sessions being offered at the upcoming SXSW 2018 conference.

Fishbowl

The annual SXSWedu phenomenon has rapidly outpaced the TED talk as the most innovative, fresh, and prognostic venue for envisioning the future of the education and technology marketplace. This year, the SXSWedu® Conference & Festival will be held in Austin, Texas from March 6-9. 

The following ed-market trends emerging at SXSWedu are noteworthy, appearing in great frequency and with strident emphasis at this trailblazing conference:

• STEAM education
• Virtual Reality
• MakerSpaces
• Coding
• Learning Space Redesign
• Re-designing Schooling
• Social Justice

The remarkably stout presence of the virtual reality meme, one totally expected, now appears to be one of the biggest ed-tech footprints at 2017 SXSWedu conference. This meme has literally doubled or tripled since last year. 

If you are in the neighborhood, I’ll be presenting on Wednesday at 11am in Salon H of the JW Marriott hotel. Joined by Dr. Michael Duenas, the Chief Public Health Officer from the American Optometric Association, we will be pushing past the hype and executing a “deep dive” with our joint 2-hour workshop, Fishbowl: Virtual Reality in Education. See this link for a preview. This unique “deep learning” session addresses the challenges, logistics, scaling, classroom management, research, pedagogical strategies, and vision health (medical) issues surrounding the roll out of VR in U.S. classrooms. No breathless cheerleading here. Just the heavy lifting.

SXSW and VR

Hi, would you do me the privilege of voting for my SXSW proposal on 3D Virtual Reality in Education? (One must be ‘crowdsource’ voted to get accepted.) To vote, just click on the Link or the voting icon below. You will need to create an account and log in to vote, unfortunately. It would be so appreciated!

My proposed Panel Picker Session: Fishbowl: Virtual Reality in Education

3D Vision and Early Readers

Reading. What does it take to be successful? Part of the answer is physiological. For the early learner, how well vision works is vital. Children’s eyes must be able to track, focus, and team (work together). Successful reading requires our eyes to track a line and focus on a word or letter—and our eyes must do those things together, or team. Healthy vision deeply influences a child’s achievement in reading, learning, success in sports, and future career choices.

Enter modern day virtual reality. Virtual reality experiences are a hot-button technology these days. But is this immersive technology safe for our eyes? Of course, the answer is yes. But there’s a deeper story here. 3D virtual reality experiences also require our eyes to track, focus, and team. Sound familiar? Those are the same capabilities required for successful early reading, as described above.

I am writing this from Austin, Texas, while presenting here at the SXSWedu conference. Our presentation involves how 3D and VR technologies are being used to screen for and improve early childhood vision. And to screen for potential reading inhibitors. Bet you didn’t know there was a direct connection. Now you do!

Previewing SXSWedu

During the last decade, the very best ideas in education and technology could be scouted by listening to a TED talk. Times have changed. Move over TED, because the annual SXSWedu phenomenon has rapidly outpaced the TED talk as the most innovative, fresh, and prognostic venue for envisioning the future of the education. This year, the SXSWedu®Conference & Festival will be held in Austin, Texas from March 7-10. SXSWedu is a part of the SouthbySouthwest family of conferences, fostering “innovation in learning by hosting a diverse and energetic community of stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds in education.”

Conference session analysis can give us particular insight. The biggest footprint in ed tech coming out of the 2016 SXSWedu conference appears to be stout arrival of the virtual reality meme. Here are the sessions now approved in the first wave of program announcements:

Enhancing learning with VR/AR.

The session will showcase how VR experiences significantly enhance learning through various curricular disciplines. It also shows how VR is being used to address pedagogical challenges (such as building empathy with the other), through collaborations between teachers, students, researchers and entrepreneurs from different countries (Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, USA). See this slide presentation.

Learning Through Virtual Reality Experiences.
In this workshop, Maya Georgieva (New York University) and Emory Craig (The College of New Rochelle) analyze how immersive wearable technology reshapes the teaching-learning environment and institutional culture, “raising fundamental questions about the shape of future media, narrative and storytelling.”

Virtual Exchange Meets Virtual Reality 
Students from Los Angeles were “dropped into” a virtual reality recreation to understand the realities of the Syrian crisis. They then connected these students with Syrian refugee youth in Amman, Jordan via virtual exchange. A most interesting mashup of old and new virtual technologies.

Using 360º Spherical Video as a Teaching Tool.
Bethanne Tobey and Mike Cuales, professors from North Carolina State University explore the use of 360º spherical video to better support lab-based and field-based instruction in online learning environments. This session is unique in that it demonstrates the use of virtual reality field-based simulation. See this video.

Augmented Reality: Engaging a Minecraft Generation. 
More in the augmented reality arena, this session will highlight the way educators and students are using augmented reality to comprehend learning complex concepts and retain information easier.

See2Achieve: Virtual Reality, Vision and Learning.
The only entry in the early learning category for virtual reality (all other topics focus on older students), this session features Dr. Jennifer Simonson of Boulder Valley Vision Therapy and Len Scrogan (that’s me!) from the University of Colorado-Denver. The crux of this presentation is that successful reading requires our eyes to track a line and focus on a word or letter—and our eyes must do those things together. Enter modern day virtual reality. 3D virtual reality experiences also require our eyes to track, focus, and team. This presentation shows how virtual reality is fostering unanticipated benefits for vision health and learning; and how new mobile 3D technology is being used to screen for and improve early childhood vision.

At the SXSWedu conference, 3D virtual reality is no doubt turning out to be a favored son. Even more interesting are the creative twists we are seeing for VR in the areas of online learning, virtual reality mashups, vision health, emotional intelligence, and the future of storytelling.

SXSW Redux

SXSW here we come!

Thanks to all our readers who helped vote for our South by Southwest edu (SXSWedu) 3D proposal, See to Achieve: Where VirtualReality, Vision, and Learning Meet. 

The crux of this presentation is that successful reading requires our eyes to track a line and focus on a word or letter—and our eyes must do those things together. Enter modern day virtual reality. 3D virtual reality experiences also require our eyes to track, focus, and team. This presentation shows how virtual reality is fostering unanticipated benefits for vision health and learning; and how new mobile 3D technology is being used to screen for and improve early childhood vision. 

Out of 1300 applicants we were accepted. For those unfamiliar with SXSW, in the U.S. this is bigger and trendier than a TED talk. So thank you very much for helping us get accepted!

3D @ SXSW

Last Chance!

The voting deadline is approaching for our SXSW proposal. September 4th is the last day you can vote! Help us take 3D to SXSW! To vote, just click on the voting icon below.

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/49162

(You will need to create an account and log in to vote, unfortunately. It would be so appreciated! 

See to Achieve: Where Virtual Reality, Vision, and Learning Meet

Reading. What does it take to be successful? Part of the answer is physiological. For the early learner, how well vision works is vital. Children’s eyes must be able to track, focus, and team (work together). Successful reading requires our eyes to track a line and focus on a word or letter—and our eyes must do those things together. Enter modern day virtual reality. 3D virtual reality experiences also require our eyes to track, focus, and team. Sound familiar? This presentation will show how virtual reality is fostering unanticipated benefits for vision health and learning; and how new mobile 3D technology is being used to screen for and improve early childhood vision. 

Take us to SXSW

Please consider voting for our SXSW proposal. To vote, just click on the voting icon below.

http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/49162

(You will need to create an account and log in to vote, unfortunately. It would be so appreciated! Voting must be completed by September 4^th.)

See to Achieve: Where Virtual Reality, Vision, and Learning Meet

Reading. What does it take to be successful? Part of the answer is physiological. For the early learner, how well vision works is vital. Children’s eyes must be able to track, focus, and team (work together). Successful reading requires our eyes to track a line and focus on a word or letter—and our eyes must do those things together. Enter modern day virtual reality. 3D virtual reality experiences also require our eyes to track, focus, and team. Sound familiar? This presentation will show how virtual reality is fostering unanticipated benefits for vision health and learning; and how new mobile 3D technology is being used to screen for and improve early childhood vision.