attention

Google Earth lets you explore the planet in virtual reality — from vrscout.com by Eric Chevalier

How virtual reality could change the way students experience education — from edtechmagazine.com by by Andrew Koke and Anthony Guest-Scott
High-impact learning experiences may become the norm, expanding access for all students.

Excerpt:

The headlines for Pokémon GO were initially shocking, but by now they’re familiar: as many as 21 million active daily users, 700,000 downloads per day, $5.7 million in-app purchases per day, $200 million earned as of August. Analysts anticipate the game will garner several billion dollars in ad revenue over the next year. By almost any measure, Pokémon GO is huge.

The technologies behind the game, augmented and virtual reality (AVR), are huge too. Many financial analysts expect the technology to generate $150 billion over the next three years, outpacing even smartphones with unprecedented growth, much of it in entertainment. But AVR is not only about entertainment. In August 2015, Teegan Lexcen was born in Florida with only half a heart and needed surgery. With current cardiac imaging software insufficient to assist with such a delicate operation on an infant, surgeons at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami turned to 3D imaging software and a $20 Google Cardboard VR set. They used a cellphone to peer into the baby’s heart, saw exactly how to improve her situation and performed the successful surgery in December 2015.

“I could see the whole heart. I could see the chest wall,” Dr. Redmond Burke told Today. “I could see all the things I was worried about in creating an operation.”

Visionary: How 4 institutions are venturing into a new mixed reality — from ecampusnews.com by Laura Devaney
Mixed reality combines virtual and augmented realities for enhanced learning experiences–and institutions are already implementing it.

Excerpt:

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock and San Diego State University are both part of a Pearson mixed reality pilot aimed at leveraging mixed reality to solve challenges in nursing education.
…
At Bryn Mawr College, a women’s liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, faculty, students, and staff are exploring various educational applications for the HoloLens mixed reality devices. They are testing Skype for HoloLens to connect students with tutors in Pearson’s 24/7 online tutoring service, Smarthinking.
…
At Canberra Grammar School in Australia, Pearson is working with teachers in a variety of disciplines to develop holograms for use in their classrooms. The University of Canberra is partnering with Pearson to provide support for the project and evaluate the impact these holograms have on teaching and learning.

ZapBox brings room-scale mixed reality to the masses — from slashgear.com by JC Torres

Excerpt:

As fantastic as technologies like augmented and mixed reality may be, experiencing them, much less creating them, requires a sizable investment, financially speaking. It is just beyond the reach of consumers as well as your garage-type indie developer. AR and VR startup Zappar, however, wants to smash that perception. With ZapBox, you can grab a kit for less than a triple-A video game to start your journey towards mixed reality fun and fame. It’s Magic Leap meets Google Cardboard. Or as Zappar itself says, making Magic Leap, magic cheap!

Shakespeare’s Tempest gets mixed reality makeover — from bbc.com by Jane Wakefield

Intel’s flying whale was the inspiration for the technology in The Tempest

Excerpts from the 9/23/16 School Library Journal Webcast:

vr-in-education-thejournal-sept2016

Table of Contents

Introduction
New Technologies: Do They Really Change Learning Strategies? — by Joe Ganci and Sherry Larson
Enhanced Realities: An Opportunity to Avoid the Mistakes of the Past — by David Kelly
Let the Use Case Drive What Gets Augmented—Not the Other Way Around — by Chad Udell
Augmented Reality: An Augmented Perspective — by Alexander Salas
Virtual Reality Will Be the Perfect Immersive Learning Environment — by Koreen Pagano
Will VR Succeed? Viewpoint from Within a Large Corporation — by John O’Hare
Will VR Succeed? Viewpoint from Running a VR Start-up — by Ishai Albert Jacob

From DSC:
I think Technical Communicators have a new pathway to pursue…check out this piece from Scope AR and Caterpillar.

From DSC:
If we had more beacons on our campus (a Christian liberal arts college), I could see where we could offer a variety of things in new ways:

For example, we might use beacons around the main walkways of our campus where, when we approach these beacons, pieces of advice or teaching could appear on an app on our mobile devices. Examples could include:

Micro-tips on prayer from John Calvin, Martin Luther, or Augustine (i.e., 1 or 2 small tips at a time; could change every day or every week)
Or, for a current, campus-wide Bible study, the app could show a question for that week’s study; you could reflect on that question as you’re walking around
Or, for musical events…when one walks by the Covenant Fine Arts Center, one could get that week’s schedule of performances or what’s currently showing in the Art Gallery
Peaces of scripture, with links to Biblegateway.com or other sites
Further information re: what’s being displayed on posters within the hallways — works that might be done by faculty members and/or by students
Etc.

A person could turn the app’s notifications on or off at any time. The app would encourage greater exercise; i.e., the more you walk around, the more tips you get.

From DSC:
Consider the affordances that we will soon be experiencing when we combine machine learning — whereby computers “learn” about a variety of things — with new forms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) — such as Augment Reality (AR)!

The educational benefits — as well as the business/profit-related benefits will certainly be significant!

For example, let’s create a new mobile app called “Horticultural App (ML)” * — where ML stands for machine learning. This app would be made available on iOS and Android-based devices. (Though this is strictly hypothetical, I hope and pray that some entrepreneurial individuals and/or organizations out there will take this idea and run with it!)

Some use cases for such an app:

Students, environmentalists, and lifelong learners will be able to take some serious educationally-related nature walks once they launch the Horticultural App (ML) on their smartphones and tablets!

They simply hold up their device, and the app — in conjunction with the device’s camera — will essentially take a picture of whatever the student is focusing in on. Via machine learning, the app will “recognize” the plant, tree, type of grass, flower, etc. — and will then present information about that plant, tree, type of grass, flower, etc.

Above image via shutterstock.com

horticulturalapp-danielchristian

In the production version of this app, a textual layer could overlay the actual image of the tree/plant/flower/grass/etc. in the background — and this is where augmented reality comes into play. Also, perhaps there would be an opacity setting that would be user controlled — allowing the learner to fade in or fade out the information about the flower, tree, plant, etc.

horticulturalapp2-danielchristian

Or let’s look at the potential uses of this type of app from some different angles.

Let’s say you live in Michigan and you want to be sure an area of the park that you are in doesn’t have any Eastern Poison Ivy in it — so you launch the app and review any suspicious looking plants. As it turns out, the app identifies some Eastern Poison Ivy for you (and it could do this regardless of which season we’re talking about, as the app would be able to ascertain the current date and the current GPS coordinates of the person’s location as well, taking that criteria into account).

easternpoisonivy

Or consider another use of such an app:

A homeowner who wants to get rid of a certain kind of weed. The homeowner goes out into her yard and “scans” the weed, and up pops some products at the local Lowe’s or Home Depot that gets rid of that kind of weed.
Assuming you allowed the app to do so, it could launch a relevant chatbot that could be used to answer any questions about the application of the weed-killing product that you might have.

Or consider another use of such an app:

A homeowner has a diseased tree, and they want to know what to do about it. The machine learning portion of the app could identify what the disease was and bring up information on how to eradicate it.
Again, if permitted to do so, a relevant chatbot could be launched to address any questions that you might have about the available treatment options for that particular tree/disease.

Or consider other/similar apps along these lines:

Skin ML (for detecting any issues re: acme, skin cancers, etc.)
Minerals and Stones ML (for identifying which mineral or stone you’re looking at)
Fish ML
Etc.

fish-ml-gettyimages

Image from gettyimages.com

So there will be many new possibilities that will be coming soon to education, businesses, homeowners, and many others to be sure! The combination of machine learning with AR will open many new doors.

* From Wikipedia:

Horticulture involves nine areas of study, which can be grouped into two broad sections: ornamentals and edibles:

Arboriculture is the study of, and the selection, plant, care, and removal of, individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants.
Turf management includes all aspects of the production and maintenance of turf grass for sports, leisure use or amenity use.
Floriculture includes the production and marketing of floral crops.
Landscape horticulture includes the production, marketing and maintenance of landscape plants.
Olericulture includes the production and marketing of vegetables.
Pomology includes the production and marketing of pome fruits.
Viticulture includes the production and marketing of grapes.
Oenology includes all aspects of wine and winemaking.
Postharvest physiology involves maintaining the quality of and preventing the spoilage of plants and animals.

A “heads up!” on the Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference! I’ll be moderating a panel on AR, VR, & MR.

On 09/29/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Blockchain, bots, Bring your own device (BYOD), change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communications, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, machine-to-machine communications, Mixed Reality (MR), mobile learning, Near Field Communication (NFC), pace of change, pedagogy, platforms, student-related, teaching & learning, technology (general), trends, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I have attended the Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference for the past two years. Both conferences were very solid and they made a significant impact on our campus, as they provided the knowledge, research, data, ideas, contacts, and the catalyst for us to move forward with building a Sandbox Classroom on campus. This new, collaborative space allows us to experiment with different pedagogies as well as technologies. As such, we’ve been able to experiment much more with active learning-based methods of teaching and learning. We’re still in Phase I of this new space, and we’re learning new things all of the time.

For the upcoming conference in February, I will be moderating a New Directions in Learning panel on the use of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR). Time permitting, I hope that we can also address other promising, emerging technologies that are heading our way such as chatbots, personal assistants, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, tvOS, blockchain and more.

The goal of this quickly-moving, engaging session will be to provide a smorgasbord of ideas to generate creative, innovative, and big thinking. We need to think about how these topics, trends, and technologies relate to what our next generation learning environments might look like in the near future — and put these things on our radars if they aren’t already there.

Key takeaways for the panel discussion:

Reflections regarding the affordances that new developments in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) — such as AR, VR, and MR — might offer for our learning and our learning spaces (or is our concept of what constitutes a learning space about to significantly expand?)
An update on the state of the approaching ed tech landscape
Creative, new thinking: What might our next generation learning environments look like in 5-10 years?

I’m looking forward to catching up with friends, meeting new people, and to the solid learning that I know will happen at this conference. I encourage you to check out the conference and register soon to take advantage of the early bird discounts.

“10 Incredible Uses of Virtual Reality” plus 7 other items re: AR, MR, and VR

On 09/26/2016, in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), computer science, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, Google, health, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, interactivity, journalism, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), mobile technologies, online learning, online media, programming, society, story, storytelling, UK, user experience (UX), vendors, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

10 Incredible Uses of Virtual Reality — from fortune.com by Rose Leadem
It’s not just for video games.

Excerpt:

Virtual reality technology holds enormous potential to change the future for a number of fields, from medicine, business, architecture to manufacturing.

Psychologists and other medical professionals are using VR to heighten traditional therapy methods and find effective solutions for treatments of PTSD, anxiety and social disorders. Doctors are employing VR to train medical students in surgery, treat patients’ pains and even help paraplegics regain body functions.

In business, a variety of industries are benefiting from VR. Carmakers are creating safer vehicles, architects are constructing stronger buildings and even travel agencies are using it to simplify vacation planning.

Check out these 10 amazing uses of VR.

Visit the U.K. Prime Minister’s Home in This Virtual 10 Downing Street Experience — from uploadvr.com by

Excerpt:

Google has unveiled a new interactive online exhibit that take users on a tour of 10 Downing street in London — home of the U.K. Prime Minister.

The building has served as home to countless British political leaders, from Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher through to Tony Blair and — as of a few months ago — Theresa May. But, as you’d expect in today’s security-conscious age, gaining access to the residence isn’t easy; the street itself is gated off from the public. This is why the 10 Downing Street exhibit may capture the imagination of politics aficionados and history buffs from around the world.

The tour features 360-degree views of the various rooms, punctuated by photos and audio and video clips.

Microsoft’s HoloLens Now Helps Elevator Technicians Work Smarter — from uploadvr.com by Charles Singletary

Excerpt:

In a slightly more grounded environment, the HoloLens is being used to assist technicians in elevator repairs.

Traversal via elevator is such a regular part of our lifestyles, its importance is rarely recognized…until they’re not working as they should be. ThyssenKrupp AG, one of the largest suppliers for elevators, recognizes how essential they are as well as how the simplest malfunctions can deter the lives of millions. Announced on their blog, Microsoft is partnering with Thyssenkrupp to equip 24,000 of their technicians with HoloLens.

Insert from DSC re: the above piece re: HoloLens:

Will technical communicators need to augment their skillsets? It appears so.

Phiona: A Virtual Reality Portrait of ‘Queen of Katwe’ — from abcnews.com by Angel Canales and Adam Rivera

Get a front-row seat in Harvard’s largest class, thanks to virtual reality — from medium.freecodecamp.com by Dhawal Shah

Intro video here: This is CS50 2016

The future of mobile video is virtual reality — from techcrunch.com by Mike Wadhera

Excerpt:

But in a world where no moment is too small to record with a mobile sensor, and one in which time spent in virtual reality keeps going up, interesting parallels start to emerge with our smartphones and headsets.

Let’s look at how the future could play out in the real world by observing three key drivers: VR video adoption, mobile-video user needs and the smartphone camera rising tide.

Now, a virtual reality programme to improve social skills in autistic kids — from cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com by
The VR training platform creates a safe place for participants to practice social situations without the intense fear of consequence.

Excerpt:

“Individuals with autism may become overwhelmed and anxious in social situations,” research clinician Dr Nyaz Didehbani said.

“The virtual reality training platform creates a safe place for participants to practice social situations without the intense fear of consequence,” said Didehbani.

The participants who completed the training demonstrated improved social cognition skills and reported better relationships, researchers said.

Also see:

The Top 10 Companies Working on Education in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality — from touchstoneresearch.com by Drew Lewis

THIS is what interactive video can look like! Excellent [team] work from Heineken!

On 09/16/2016, in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, blended learning, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, drama/theater, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, interaction design, interactivity, online learning, pedagogy, play, story, storytelling, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Interactive video — a potentially very powerful medium to use, especially for blended and online-based courses or training-related materials! This interactive piece from Heineken is very well done, even remembering how you answered and coming up with their evaluation of you from their 12-question “interview.”

But notice again, a TEAM of specialists are needed to create such a piece. Neither a faculty member, a trainer, nor an instructional designer can do something like this all on their own. Some of the positions I could imagine here are:

Script writer(s)
Editor(s)
Actors and actresses
Those skilled in stage lighting and sound / audio recording
Digital video editors
Programmers
Graphic designers
Web designers
Producers
Product marketers
…and perhaps others

This is the kind of work that I wish we saw more of in the world of online and blended courses! Also, I appreciated their use of humor. Overall, a very engaging, fun, and informative piece!

EDUCAUSE Research Snapshot | Leveraging Technology to Better Engage Students — from er.educause.edu

Virtual reality: The hype, the problems and the promise — from bbc.com by Tim Maughan
It’s the technology that is supposed to be 2016’s big thing, but what iteration of VR will actually catch on, and what’s just a fad? Tim Maughan takes an in-depth look.

Excerpt:

For Zec this is one of VR’s most promising potentials – to be able to drop audiences into a situation and force them to react emotionally, in ways that traditional filmmaking or journalism might struggle to do. “We really cannot understand what the people [in Syria and other places] right now are going through, so I thought maybe if we put the viewer inside the shoes of the family, or near them, maybe they can feel more and understand more rather than just reading a headline in a newspaper.”

The aim of Blackout is to challenge assumptions New Yorkers might have about the people around them, by allowing them to tap directly into their thoughts. “You’re given the ability to pick into people’s minds and their motives,” says co-creator Alex Porter. “Through that process you start to realise the ways in which you were wrong about all the people around you, and start to find these kind of exciting stories that they have to tell.”

From DSC:
Virtual Reality could have a significant impact in diversity training. (I don’t like the word diversity too much; as in my experience, everybody in the Fortune 5oo companies where I worked belonged in the realm of diversity except for Christians, but I’ll use it here anyway.)

The point is…when you can put yourself into someone else’s shoes, it could have some positive impact in terms of better being able to relate to what that person is going through.

Star Trek in VR – Why can’t we do this with VR in education? — from digitalbodies.net by Maya Georgieva

Excerpt:

What if there was a new way to start this journey? What if you walked into the room and boarded a starship instead? What would a school experience be like if we sent our students on a mission, joining a global team to learn and solve our world’s most pressing problems? What if they met in Virtual Reality? For example, literally experiencing the streets of Paris if they were studying French culture or urban planning. Examining first hand the geology of volcanoes or building the next generation transportation? What would happen if they are given a problem they could not answer on their own, a problem that requires collaboration and teamwork with colleagues to find a solution?

Here is how VR and AI can empower the future of learning. The Star Trek: Bridge Crew VR Game gives us a glimpse of how we can engage with our students. Or, as Levar Burton (Geordi La Forge from Engineering) in the video trailer puts it:

There is something different being in a shared virtual environment . . . The team does not succeed unless everybody does their job well.

…
In the true spirit of Star Trek it is through cooperation rather than competition that we learn best. In VR, you can sit on any of the crew chairs and be the captain, engineer, or doctor and experience events from very different point of views. In Star Trek: Bridge Crew, you are flying the ship but have to work collaboratively with your team. You have to work with your crew to reach goals and accomplish the mission as this is virtual reality as a social experience. It demands that you be fully engaged.

Not just for gamers: CSU launching Virtual Reality Initiative — from source.colostate.edu by Lauren Klamm

Excerpt:

Think “virtual reality,” and it’s probably video gaming that comes to mind. CSU is looking to expand the breadth and depth of this emerging technical field with a campus-wide Virtual Reality Initiative, launching this semester.

The initiative will give students and the science community hands-on experience with virtual reality, for research and educational applications.

Virtual reality (VR) is a way of experiencing virtual worlds or objects – the cockpit of a spaceship, an anatomy lesson, a walk through a historical building – through devices like computers, goggles or headsets designed to immerse someone in a simulated environment. VR touches fields ranging from design to art to engineering.

VR Learning: How Virtual Reality Will Democratize Learning — from iamvr.co

Excerpt:

In case you haven’t heard, there is a lot of hype right now about virtual and augmented reality. Three months into 2016, investors have already spent 1.1 billion dollars to get a piece of the action.

Still, I am confident that virtual reality will revolutionize how we learn, and the reason is simple. Virtual reality is not just a technology, it’s a medium. And I’ve seen how powerful that medium can be.

Augmented reality has surgical application — from thestack.com by Nicky Cappella

Excerpt:

A Chinese surgeon has discovered a practical application for augmented reality in the medical field. Using the same technology by which a Pokemon character is layered onto a real-life setting, two surgical images can be combined into a single view, eliminating the need for surgeons to watch two separate screens simultaneously.

Catherine Chan Po-ling, a surgeon in Hong Kong and co-founder of MedEXO Robotics, says that the use of augmented reality technology in keyhole, or minimally invasive, surgery can solve one of the biggest problems for surgeons performing these procedures.

Currently, surgeons in keyhole procedures must create and view two images simultaneously. In Chan’s example, when checking for cancerous cells in the liver, the surgeon operates a regular camera showing a view of the surface of the liver, and at the same time operates an ultrasound probe to check beneath the surface of the liver.

Stanford Journalism Program’s Guide to Using Virtual Reality for Storytelling — from storybench.org by Geri Migielicz and Janine Zacharia

Excerpt:

Given the explosion of interest in virtual reality among media organizations, we sought in January to establish best practices and ideal scenarios for using the technology in storytelling through our inaugural immersive journalism class at Stanford University.

During the 10-week course, 12 undergraduate and graduate students evaluated a range of virtual reality experiences published by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC News and others. We compared commercially available virtual reality headsets (Google Cardboard, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear/VR and Oculus Rift) for ease and quality as well as virtual reality cameras — the (more expensive but expansive) GoPro and the (more affordable) Ricoh Theta S.

12 ways to use Google Cardboard in your class — from ditchthattextbook.com

Excerpt:

Virtual reality used to be the thing of science fiction books and movies. Now, it’s inexpensive, works with the technology we carry in our pockets, and can transform us to real and imaginary places.

These 5 Incredible HoloLens Videos Will Make You A VR/AR Believer — from uploadvr.com

Upload And Make School Graduate Their First Class Of VR Developers — from uploadvr.com

The first truly awesome chatbot is a talking T. Rex [Brownlee] #edtech #chatbots #AI #HCI

On 08/26/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), bots, computer science, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, love of learning, multimedia, platforms, play, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, youth, by Daniel Christian

The first truly awesome chatbot is a talking T. Rex — from fastcodesign.com by John Brownlee
National Geographic uses a virtual Tyrannosaur to teach kids about dinosaurs—and succeeds where other chatbots fail.

Excerpt:

As some have declared chatbots to be the “next webpage,” brands have scrambled to develop their own talkative bots, letting you do everything from order a pizza to rewrite your resume. The truth is, though, that a lot of these chatbots are actually quite stupid, and tend to have a hard time understanding natural human language. Sooner or later, users get frustrated bashing their heads up against the wall of a dim-witted bot’s AI.

So how do you design around a chatbot’s walnut-sized brain? If you’re National Geographic Kids UK, you set your chatbot to the task of pretending to be a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Cretaceous-era apex predator that really had a walnut-sized brain (at least comparatively speaking).

She’s called Tina the T. rex, and by making it fun to learn about dinosaurs, she suggests that education — rather than advertising or shopping — might be the real calling of chatbots.

Also relevant/see:

Honeybot would teach kids using “3D augmented reality” — from newatlas.com by Aaron Heinrich

From Dreams to Realities: AR/VR/MR in Education | A Q&A with Daniel Christian — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush; I’d like to thank Jason VanHorn for his contributions to this article

Excerpt:

Grush: Is there a signpost you might point to that would indicate that there’s going to be more product development in AR/VR/MR?

Christian: There’s a significant one. Several major players — with very deep pockets — within the corporate world are investing in new forms of HCI, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, Magic Leap, and others. In fact, according to an article on engadget.com from 6/16/16, “Magic Leap has amassed an astounding $1.39 billion in funding without shipping an actual product.” So to me, it’s just not likely that the billions of dollars being invested in a variety of R&D-related efforts are simply going to evaporate without producing any impactful, concrete products or services. There are too many extremely smart, creative people working on these projects, and they have impressive financial backing behind their research and product development efforts. So, I think we can expect an array of new choices in AR/VR/MR.
…

Just the other day I was talking to Jason VanHorn, an associate professor in our geology, geography, and environmental studies department. After finishing our discussion about a particular learning space and how we might implement active learning in it, we got to talking about mixed reality. He related his wonderful dreams of being able to view, manipulate, maneuver through, and interact with holographic displays of our planet Earth.

When I mentioned a video piece done by Case Western and the Cleveland Clinic that featured Microsoft’s Hololens technology, he knew exactly what I was referring to. But this time, instead of being able to drill down through the human body to review, explore, and learn about the various systems composing our human anatomy, he wanted to be able to drill down through the various layers of the planet Earth. He also wanted to be able to use gestures to maneuver and manipulate the globe — turning the globe to just the right spot before using a gesture to drill down to a particular place.

Imagination in the Augmented-Reality Age — from theatlantic.com by Georgia Perry
Pokémon Go may have reached the zenith of its popularity, but the game has far-reaching implications for the future of play.

Excerpt:

For young people today, however, it’s a different story. “They hardly play. If they do play it’s some TV script. Very prescribed,” Levin said. “Even if they have friends over, it’s often playing video games.”

That was before Pokémon Go, though.

The augmented-reality (AR) game that—since its release on July 6, attracted 21 million users and became one of the most successful mobile apps ever—has been praised for promoting exercise, facilitating social interactions, sparking new interest in local landmarks, and more. Education writers and experts have weighed in on its implications for teaching kids everything from social skills to geography to the point that such coverage has become cliché. And while it seems clear at this point that the game is a fad that has peaked—it’s been losing active players for over a week—one of the game’s biggest triumphs has, arguably, been the hope it’s generated about the future of play. While electronic games have traditionally caused kids to retreat to couches, here is one that did precisely the opposite.

What Pokémon Go is, however, is one of the first iterations of what will undeniably be many more AR games. If done right, some say the technology Go introduced to the world could bring back the kind of outdoor, creative, and social forms of play that used to be the mainstay of childhood. Augmented reality, it stands to reason, could revitalize the role of imagination in kids’ learning and development.

In Memory: Seymour Papert — from media.mit.edu; with thanks to Mr. Joe Byerwalter for this resource

Excerpt:

Seymour Papert, whose ideas and inventions transformed how millions of children around the world create and learn, died Sunday, July 31, 2016 at his home in East Blue Hill, Maine. He was 88.

Papert’s career traversed a trio of influential movements: child development, artificial intelligence, and educational technologies. Based on his insights into children’s thinking and learning, Papert recognized that computers could be used not just to deliver information and instruction, but also to empower children to experiment, explore, and express themselves. The central tenet of his Constructionist theory of learning is that people build knowledge most effectively when they are actively engaged in constructing things in the world. As early as 1968, Papert introduced the idea that computer programming and debugging can provide children a way to think about their own thinking and learn about their own learning.

Also see:

AI and Computer Learning Lion Seymour Papert Dies at 88 — from fortune.com by Barb Darrow
Excerpt:
Seymour Papert, the MIT professor who helped blaze the trail for artificial intelligence and computer-aided education for children at a time when no one saw the potential for using these massive machines for such purposes, died Sunday at the age of 88 in East Blue Hill, Maine.

“In this particular art class they were all carving soap,” he continued, “but what each student carved came from wherever fancy is bred, and the project was not done and dropped but continued for many weeks. It allowed time to think, to dream, to gaze, to get a new idea and try it and drop it or persist, time to talk, to see other people’s work and their reaction to yours — not unlike mathematics as it is for the mathematician, but quite unlike math as it is in junior high school.”

.

Seymour Papert, 88, Dies; Saw Education’s Future in Computers — from nytimes.com by Glenn Rifkin
Excerpt:
Seymour Papert, a visionary educator and mathematician who well before the advent of the personal computer foresaw children using computers as instruments for learning and enhancing creativity, died on Sunday at his home in Blue Hill, Me. He was 88.

He added, “In the past, education adapted the mind to a very restricted set of available media; in the future, it will adapt media to serve the needs and tastes of each individual mind.”

Take a step inside the classroom of tomorrow [Fearn]

On 08/01/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, bots, change, collaboration, communications, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, history, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, love of learning, Microsoft, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, UK, United States, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Take a step inside the classroom of tomorrow — from techradar.com by Nicholas Fearn
Making learning fun

Excerpt:

But the classroom of tomorrow will look very different. The latest advancements in technology and innovation are paving the way for an educational space that’s interactive, engaging and fun.

The conventions of learning are changing. It’s becoming normal for youngsters to use games like Minecraft to develop skills such as team working and problem solving, and for teachers to turn to artificial intelligence to get a better understanding of how their pupils are progressing in lessons.

Virtual reality is also introducing new possibilities in the classroom. Gone are the days of imagining what an Ancient Egyptian tomb might look like – now you can just strap on a headset and transport yourself there in a heartbeat.

The potential for using VR to teach history, geography and other subjects is incredible when you really think about it – and it’s not the only tech that’s going to shake things up.
…

Artificial intelligence is already doing groundbreaking things in areas like robotics, computer science, neuroscience and linguistics, but now they’re now entering the world of education too.

London-based edtech firm Digital Assess has been working on an AI app that has the potential to revolutionise the way youngsters learn.

With the backing of the UK Government, the company has been trialing its web-based application Formative Assess in schools in England.

Using semantic indexing and natural language processing in a similar way to social networking sites, an on-screen avatar – which can be a rubber duck or robot – quizzes students on their knowledge and provides them with individual feedback on their work.

From DSC:
Though the title of Ashley Coolman’s blog posting out at smartsparrow.com mentions technology in it, the article is largely not about technology at all — but rather about the benefits of active learning. That’s why I’m highlighting it here.

Enabling active learning through technology — from smartsparrow.com by Ashley Coolman

Excerpts:

To many, it seems as though any learning can be considered active. Is a student taking notes not actively engaged in a class, especially when compared to their peers sleeping or playing on their phones in the back of the room?

The problem here is that while the note-taking student may be engaging with the class and professor, they are not engaging with the material. When furiously scribbling notes, students are more focused on getting every word down rather than evaluating, understanding, and analyzing what it is they are writing. They have engaged with the lecture, but not the material being relayed — which is the most important part.

In a study on active learning called “Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom”, the researchers stated:

“Surprisingly, educators’ use of the term “active learning” has relied more on intuitive understanding than a common definition. Consequently, many faculty assert that all learning is inherently active and that students are therefore actively involved while listening to formal presentations in the classroom. Analysis of the research literature (Chickering and Camson 1987), however, suggests that students must do more than just listen: They must read, write, discuss, or be engaged in solving problems. Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.” (Bonwell and Eison 1991)

It is the degree and form by which students are actively engaging that matters. It is “learning by doing” that students really need.

Active learning is any learning activity in which the student INTERACTS or ENGAGES with the material, as opposed to passively taking in the information.

Furthermore, Cornell University found that research suggests learner attention starts to wane every 10–20 minutes during lectures. Incorporating active learning techniques a few times throughout class can encourage more engagement.*

*A side note from DSC:
A tool like Socrative may come in useful here.

The blog posting from Smart Sparrow also linked to this resource:

The problem is that lecture-based learning is not like filling a jug — you just don’t catch it all. Learning from lectures is more like holding out your hands and trying to keep the imparted knowledge from spilling through the cracks in this tidal wave of new information. Ultimately, students will catch some of the water, but most of it will be lost.

A side note from DSC to Calvin College faculty members:
If you doubt the immediately preceding quote, see if you can *fully* recall exactly what last Sunday’s sermon was about — including all examples, details, and wisdom that the preacher was trying to relay.

Ultimately, it’s about impact. What strongly impacts students stays with students — and isn’t that true for all of us?

Ashley lists the following resources re: active learning at the end of her posting:

Pokémon Go — AR’s killer app, at least so far

On 07/12/2016, in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), society, tools, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I posted an item yesterday warning parents of the potential dangers of Pokémon Go. But I don’t want to leave it at that. I’m generally pro-technology and there are many solid, good, positive reasons for using most technologies. So I also want to post some other, more positive items showing the enormous success of this augmented reality (AR)-based app.

5 Crazy Facts That Prove the Ridiculous Popularity of ‘Pokemon GO’ — from uploadvr.com by David Jagneaux

Excerpts:

Nintendo’s Valuation Increased by $9 Billion
People Are Already Using it As Much as Twitter
It’s Helping People Fight Depression and Anxiety
Businesses Are Changing the Way They Operate
Pokemon GO is Bringing People Closer to Together

The Weekend Pokémon Go Took Over America — from wired.com by Emily Dreyfuss, Brian Barrett, Kevin McFarland, Emma Ellis, Jake Muncy, and Chris Kohler

This Surprising Game Is Driving People To Church — from ministrytech.com

‘Pokemon Go’ Readies for Wider Launch as Nintendo Shares Soar — from uploadvr.com by by Jamie Feltham

Pokemon Go Is Driving Augmented Reality And Geolocation Adoption — from zugara.com by Matthew Szymczyk

What #PokemonGo means for immersive learning — from learningintandem.blogspot.com by Koreen Pagano

Excerpt:

But let’s end with some larger implications for learning, particularly organizational learning.

New hire training: tour facilities with augmented reality or virtual reality. Meet key folks in the organization. See behind the scenes production, or visit HQ virtually.
Skill refinement: once the basics have been taught, present ongoing practice scenarios. Could be internal, customer-facing, or software/equipment training.
Product training: provide the ability to interact with multiple customers and see how the product benefits them differently.
Application in context: how do you navigate a real-life complex environment effectively? Think busy retail, insurance adjusters, combat/disaster zones, crime scenes, etc.
Just in time geographically relevant support: have a question in context? What if an app let you access training and tips relevant to where you are?

Pokémon Go is Improving Thousands of Users’ Mental Health — from interestingengineering.com by Trevor English

“Pokémon Go” May Prove That AR Is More Mainstream Than VR — from fastcompany.com by Daniel Terdiman
Ever seen this many people with VR headsets on at one time? Didn’t think so.

Playing Pokemon Go? You Need the Right Gear — from wired.com by Tim Moynihan

And along the security/safety awareness line:

Pokémon Go can be a huge security risk – here’s how to play privately! — from imore.com by Rene Ritchie Mon
Police Urge Pokémon GO Players to Stay Alert — from pixelkin.org by Nicole Tanner
Pokémon Go shouldn’t have full access to your Gmail, Docs and Google account — but it does — from techcrunch.com by Devin Coldewey

Learning Ecosystems

Ideas for the use of beacons on a faith-based campus [Christian]

THIS is what interactive video can look like! Excellent [team] work from Heineken!

From Dreams to Realities: AR/VR/MR in Education [C-Level View Q&A with Mary Grush & Daniel Christian]

Pokémon Go — AR’s killer app, at least so far

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