Education 2.0 & 3.0

Students at Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus now have a highly advanced educational space that uses ultramodern technology - a new extended reality, or XR, lab space.

The ANU Medical School TELT team hosted the inaugural Show and TEL event on 9 June. This was first in a series of professional development events the team will offer under the Show and TEL banner, where experts from ANU and beyond will share their innovative teaching practices and invite you to discuss new ideas.

The event, titled Virtual Reality in Health Education, featured a talk by Associate Professor Jane Frost from the University of Canberra followed by hands-on demonstrations of virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR), and a fishbowl panel on the Pedagogy and Practicalities of using VR in teaching. Together, over 25 academics, clinicians, learning designers, technologists and education officers attended the event face-to-face and via livestream.

While these emerging technologies may offer many benefits for students and professors, institutions will need to address ethical and safety concerns.

CoSpaces Edu is offering free access to Pro to support schools that are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Immersive technology allows students to explore the world firsthand on a molecular level.

“I don’t have enough devices.” This is a common reason teachers give for not being able to integrate augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences into their classrooms. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are powerful learning mediums that continue to find a foothold in education. Augmented Reality (AR) – always involves adding […]

Google AR/VR tools can be a way to take students to places that they may never have (or will have) the chance to visit. A teacher can select a particular VR expedition and act as the tour guide for the entire journey.

Jaime Donally talks about all the ways kids can create and make inside Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in the classroom. She gives an excellent overview of all of the apps and tools out there. Today’s Sponsor: Metaverse is a powerful augmented reality app. They have a new classroom management tool called Collections. …

You don’t need a VR headset to experience virtual reality. That’s the message that AR/VR guru Jaime Donally wants all educators to understand.

“Headsets present barriers. I focus on implementation,” says Donally, author The Immersive Classroom: Create Customized Learning Experiences with AR/VR. “There’s a place for VR, but it needs to be more specific and thought through or VR becomes a road block.”

As both augmented and virtual reality become more accessible on ordinary devices, Donally hopes more educators will explore the potential of these tools. Augmented reality (AR) layers and enhances reality. Think using your phone camera to translate a foreign language. Virtual reality (VR) creates its own reality that is disconnected from the real world. It’s possible to use VR, such as a 360-degree view on a phone, without using a headset.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/some-practice-examples-that-will-influence-education/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2016/05/19/a-holistic-view-of-what-will-influence-education-in-the-future/

https://www.scoop.it/t/la-realite-augmentee-augmented-reality-ar

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mixed+reality

EdX has launched two Spark Augmented Reality courses from Meta, developed as part of the online learning platform's partnership with Meta Immersive Learning. The goal: to "build a learning ecosystem for the metaverse and give professionals broader access to the tools and education needed to build a career in augmented reality."

Google Search 3D results, Google search tips for students

Google Expeditions allows a teacher to guide students through collections of 360° scenes and 3D objects, pointing out interesting sites and artifacts along the way.

"Virtual and augmented reality have become a trend more recently due to advances in artificial intelligence. They’ve grown to be more commonly utilized tools for interpretation of ideas in a variety of fields. VR is an immersive technology experience. Though it was commonly used in the gaming industry, it’s now being applied to a variety of fields. For example, companies can make use of simulated interviews and best choose candidates for the job when recruiting and training. AR on the other hand, supplements and enhances reality that already exists. Social media filters are a good example of this. Another example, the furniture company IKEA recently used this immersive technology to help shoppers envision how furniture would look inside their home."

The cool factor behind augmented reality might grab the attention of students at first glance, but can this technology really change the way students interact with content in their classroom? Making teaching and learning relevant and engaging for students can take many forms. With augmented reality in the classroom, students can bring their ideas to life and represent their thinking in new ways.

Earlier this year I shared a blog post on augmented reality and Web 3.0 featuring 3DBear. If you haven’t gotten a chance to look at their dynamic EdTech tool, I definitely recommend that you take a look. At TCEA in San Antonio last month, I sat in on a presentation where Kurt Allen from 3DBear shared the quick steps for getting started with a room full of enthusiastic educators.

If you think that magic is something you only see in the Harry Potter series and you can’t create anything even similarly engaging in your classroom — think again! Augmented Reality has a magical power to make your lessons so exciting that students don’t want to stop exploring mathematics when the bell rings.

To improve outcomes student agency has to be at the forefront. I’ve always preferred tools that let students take control of their learning by turning passive consumers into creators because it allows them to tap into their imagination, while the learning happens naturally. I was blown away when I discovered Metaverse and seeing it utilized in a classroom during a recent coaching visit. It is a platform that makes it easy for anyone to create augmented reality experiences without having to code. I have not seen any other tools come close when it comes to ease of use and student engagement.




So, what is augmented reality (AR)? Using the camera on a mobile device (phone, tablet) AR overlays images/media over the real world. It is a social experience, as opposed to virtual reality (VR) where a single student would wear goggles that would obstruct them from their surroundings. AR might have started out as a novelty but has now become a fantastic way to engage students through authentic learning experiences. There are many reasons to incorporate AR in the classroom. A short list includes letting students experience characters/imagery that would not otherwise be accessible (historical figures), new places (enhanced field trips), added interactivity to classroom materials, gamified learning, and more immersive opportunities aligned to the curriculum.

Last April I wrote the blog post Augmented Reality in the Elementary Classroom. In that post I mentioned how educators could "start small" with augmented reality and easily integrate AR experiences into their classroom. I have always been interested in learning more about how to create my own AR experiences and get students creating as well. When the folks at Metaverse reached out for a call, I quickly jumped on the opportunity!