Why school might look a little different these days — from dangerouslyirrelevant.org by Scott McLeod
The 35 Best Apple and Google Apps of 2021 — from wonderoftech.com by Carolyn Nicander Mohr
Excerpt:
As 2021 draws to a close, Apple and Google have been busy creating their lists of the best apps of the year. These lists may include apps you already have or are familiar with. You may also discover your new favorite must-have app you’ll be eager to share with your friends.
The VRJAM metaverse platform is coming to transform the world of live entertainment
VRJAM, the UK’s leading creator of live music experiences in virtual reality, today teased the launch of the VRJAM platform, a revolutionary new metaverse events platform and NFT creation solution.
To bring the VRJAM metaverse platform to life, VRJAM has partnered with market leading NFT software developer Enjin.io to launch a rich virtual reality world that offers a host of new solutions for artists to render and monetize their music and live shows in amazing new ways using NFT’s, blockchain and immersive technology.
The VRJAM platform promises to open up completely new ways for both fans and artist to experience live music events and represents the next step in the evolution of live music.
Ownership of this virtual world will be shared by a guild of globally recognised artists and record labels who will cooperate to create value and define new possibilities for music inside the metaverse.
VRJAM’s metaverse platform offers solutions for true live performance using technology that is years ahead of other similar platforms. It provides unsurpassed user experience and offers fans, artists and labels an array of unique features:
At the heart of the VRJAM metaverse platform is a blockchain based trading and finance system, VRJAM Coin. This revolutionary new cryptocurrency will create ways for both artists and fans to earn money inside the metaverse and promises to create entirely new business models for artists, venues and labels at a time when their traditional ways of making money have been turned upside down by the Covid 19 pandemic.
The VRJAM cryptocurrency is backed by investment from 5 of the world’s leading blockchain specialist investment and venture capital firms, demonstrating the exciting potential of VRJAM’s tech.
The VRJAM platform is scheduled to go live in early 2022, follow on social media to stay up to date.
From DSC:
Hmmmmm….might this type of thing spill over into the worlds of teaching and learning? More direct-to-consumer (learner) types of offerings? Will this open up the doors for new methods of earning a living or for those interested in building a teaching & learning-based brand?
Alternatively, will this impact what actors, actresses, and comedians will be able to do?
Addendum on 12/2/21:
- Got Teacher Burnout? Launch A Microschool — from forbes.com by Kerry McDonald
50 digital team-building games (for students of all ages)
Excerpt:
At TeachThought, we believe that learning is inherently social, and we see a virtual or online learning structure as an opportunity to stretch ourselves and try new strategies. We’ve curated 50 of the most fun, engaging, and easy-to-implement digital team-building games for students of all ages, arranged by category.
About:
Since 2012, the EdSurge Product Index has been the first stop for educators in search of learning technology solutions. The redesigned EdSurge Product Index(BETA) features enhanced product profiles and validations from trusted education and technology organizations. Now, educators will be able to find the most complete, reliable and up-to-date information available on learning technology products.
Also see:
- New Tools for Instructional Design and Development Teams — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Bill Brandon
Also see Matthew Ball’s Metaverse Primer (excerpt below from this page) — with thanks to Annie Zhang for this resource:
“The Metaverse is a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds which can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments.”
Jacob Navok: Computing and Network Needs of the Metaverse — from hellometaverse.fm by Annie Zhang
Excerpt:
to progress towards this vision of the metaverse, jacob is focused on tackling the hard problem of improving concurrency. how do you get millions of people to concurrently be participating and interacting in one live experience with no lag?
he breaks this down the problem into two components:
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limitations of the traditional network to handle multiplayer experiences: coordinating, say, positional data of where you and all the other players in a game, gets very complicated, especially when latency needs to be low. meaning, if you want to see everything that everyone is doing at all times, coordinating the traffic of that data is very difficult
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with more connection, internet speed slows: the internet was not built for true real time communication, but rather optimized for cost and routing efficiency. when you load a fb page, it’s okay if it takes 10 milliseconds, but when you are in a shooting game, a delay of 10 milliseconds is a matter of life or death
Everything You Need To Know About The Metaverse — from protocol.com by Janko Roettgers
Excerpt:
Silicon Valley has a new favorite buzzword: Ever since Mark Zuckerberg announced earlier this year that Facebook’s future would be in the metaverse, everyone has been rushing to figure out what a metaverse even is. And when Facebook rebranded as Meta in October, metaverse fever swept the tech industry. From Microsoft to Nvidia, every company is suddenly in the metaverse business, and seemingly overnight, countless people became metaverse experts.
But what actually is the metaverse? Why does it matter, and who needs to worry about it? If the metaverse is truly “the next chapter for the internet,” as Zuckerberg put it, it’s important to understand and define it so as not to be caught flat-footed when (or if) the metaverse wave catches on.
NVIDIA OMNIVERSE: Creating and Connecting Virtual Worlds
A NEW ERA OF 3D DESIGN COLLABORATION AND SIMULATION
NVIDIA Omniverse™ is an easily extensible, open platform built for virtual collaboration and real-time physically accurate simulation. Creators, designers, researchers, and engineers can connect major design tools, assets, and projects to collaborate and iterate in a shared virtual space. Developers and software providers can also easily build and sell Extensions, Apps, Connectors, and Microservices on Omniverse’s modular platform to expand its functionality.
Also see:
- Nvidia Stock Leaps After Unveiling Metaverse Software Platform At Annual Tech Conference — from thestreet.com by Martin Baccardax
Nvidia unveiled its ‘Metaverse’ software platform late Monday as it looks to leverage its powerful AI chips into the multi trillion dollar development of the new virtual world. - Nvidia seeks to lead gold rush into the metaverse with new AI tools — from marketwatch.com by Wallace Witkowski
- Nvidia Stock Soars as GTC Conference Gets Under Way. The Metaverse Is Growing. — from barrons.com by Jack Denton
- As Facebook Changes Name to Meta, Company Wants to Pull Education Into Its ‘Metaverse’ — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young















