XR – extended reality

Drawing on Ancient Arts and New Technology, Husson U. Launches Degree in Extended Reality [Koenig]

On 06/05/2021, in 21st century, architecture, art, Augmented Reality (AR), career development, creativity, design, drama/theater, ideas, innovation, universities, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Drawing on Ancient Arts and New Technology, Husson U. Launches Degree in Extended Reality — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpt:

The origins of the experience may come from an ancient artform: theater.

“As a set designer, I would think about experiences that are recreating augmented reality, essentially,” says Brave Williams, an associate professor at Husson University in Maine. “It is an augmentation of reality that has been done for thousands of years.”

Now, Williams is helping his institution push the boundaries of Shakespeare’s famous line that “all the world’s a stage.”
…
To expand the center’s reach, university leaders decided to build extended reality into the college curriculum. One example was the development of AR Stagecraft, an app that translates student set designs into an immersive experience of what the scenery would look and feel like if built on an empty stage.

Also see:

IEX CENTER — from husson.edu

An Innovation HubThe iEX Center /ai,?ks/ is an innovation hub that develops solutions using extended reality (XR) experiences such as virtual and augmented reality. Through the iEX Center, students learn how to solve real-world problems using the advanced technology associated with the emerging XR field.

These immersive and interactive experiences are developed with the involvement of students and faculty within the School of Technology and Innovation, as well as those from other colleges across campus as they work together on interdisciplinary XR projects.

My post-pandemic learning list — from chieflearningofficer.com by Elliott Masie
This is the time to extend our skills as learning professionals through the power of learning.

Excerpt:

Curation on a personal level. I want to create new ways to curate awesome information and knowledge that I encounter every day. I want a “Later” button on my mouse or a gesture feature on my phone to capture and re-present indicated content to me at a later time. My curiosity as a learner is demanding a better way to tag or selectively highlight content, conversations and resources effortlessly and at any time throughout the day.

Adding arts to learning for impact. We have hosted 33 one-hour Empathy Concerts since April 2020, combining Broadway performers and learning experts for powerful blends of content and music relevant to the workplace. I am excited to expand models for incorporating music, songs and theater into our learning efforts. Arts expand the emotional impact of cognitive mastery.

Also see:

The reverse culture shock of returning to the office — from chieflearningofficer.com by Camille Preston
Understanding reverse culture shock and its effects may be the best way to prepare for post-pandemic work and life.

Excerpt:

While leaving home to return to work will be remarkably different than coming back from an overseas tour, there are similarities. Understanding reverse culture shock and its effects may also be the best way to prepare for post-pandemic work and life.

Snap Spectacles Finally Evolve into Full AR Smartglasses with Standalone Immersive Superpowers [Palladino]

On 05/26/2021, in Augmented Reality (AR), business, collaboration, creativity, emerging technologies, immersion, innovation, vendors, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Snap Spectacles Finally Evolve into Full AR Smartglasses with Standalone Immersive Superpowers — from next.reality.news by Tommy Palladino

Also see:

Snap Now Lets You Build Lego in AR Remotely with Others, Reveals AR Tie-Up with Disney, Plus AR Business Tools — from next.reality.news by Adario Strange

Excerpt:

On Thursday, during the company’s Snap Partner Summit 2021, a wide range of tie-ups and new features were unveiled, with some of the biggest brands on the planet joining the AR fray.

Perhaps the most notable partnership is Snap’s new effort with the Lego company. Although Lego is known for allowing kids of all ages to use plastic building blocks to create art, toys, and even robots, now Lego fans will be able to build Lego constructs together, remotely, via a new feature from Lens Studio called Connected Lens. The new feature is available immediately via Snapchat.

More than a sandbox: Augmented reality lets students explore changing landscapes [Heinen Bell]

On 05/10/2021, in active learning, Augmented Reality (AR), education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning spaces, participation, XR - extended reality, youth, by Daniel Christian

More than a sandbox: Augmented reality lets students explore changing landscapes — from schoolnewsnetwork.org by Beth Heinen Bell

Excerpt:

Lowell — Have you ever wanted to make it rain with just a wave of your fingers? Carve a river into an empty field and then make it flood? Topple a mountain with your bare hands and see what happens to the surrounding landscape?

At the augmented reality (AR) sandbox in Jennifer Bolhuis’ fourth-grade classroom, students wield all this power and more. The sandbox is an Eagle Scout project and gift from one of Bolhuis’ former students, Lowell High School sophomore David Johnston.

What if we could create these kinds of calendars and/or apps for faculty & staff as well as for students? [Christian]

On 05/10/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, Augmented Reality (AR), Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, United States, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

What if we could create these kinds of calendars and/or apps for faculty and staff as well as for students? — idea from Daniel Christian. The vehicles could be developed as analog/physical formats or in digital formats and apps. In the digital realm, one could receive a daily notification.

For faculty/staff:

Teaching and learning tips; pedagogies (flipped learning, active learning, etc.); ideas that have worked well for others
Creative experiments to try (such as digital storytelling or with an emerging technology such as AR, MR, or VR)
Tips & tricks re: tools within the learning ecosystem of one’s organization
How to make digital content that’s accessible
Items re: bias, diversity, equity & inclusion
Dates to be aware of (for processes on one’s LMS/CMS as an example)
Notes of encouragement and/or humor
Links to key resources
Other

[The Corporate Training / L&D world could do this as well.]

An example of what a page might contain within a physical flip calendar

A calendar page that says Memory if the residue of thought.

Example calendar page that states when courses will be published on an LMS

For students

Studying tips
How to take courses online
How people learn
Resources, books, people to follow on Twitter, blogs and RSS feeds, etc.
Pictures of judges, legislative bodies, law offices, corporate HQs, other
Notes of encouragement
Ethics
Professionalism
Other

AirTags Are the Perfectly Boring, Functional Future of AR [Goode]

On 04/29/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), emerging technologies, future, innovation, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

AirTags Are the Perfectly Boring, Functional Future of AR — from wired.com by Lauren Goode
Apple’s new location-aware widgets point to the company’s possible larger ambitions for augmented reality.

Excerpts:

APPLE’S AIRTAGS HAVE found their way to market. The long-rumored competitor to Tile—a tiny Bluetooth tag you attach to frequently lost items—was unveiled today during Apple’s spring hardware announcement.
…
This latter feature points to another emerging platform for Apple: augmented reality. While the company didn’t explicitly say AirTags will be used in AR apps, immersive computing experts point out that the AirTags technology is using ARKit, Apple’s software framework for AR, and that tying digital information to nearby physical objects is an important step in the evolution of this tech.

Instead of seeing a flat, 2D image on your iPhone of where the keys are buried in the couch, a virtual arrow would be layered on top of the view through your phone’s camera, guiding you to the exact location of your keys as you move closer.

Design full rooms in AR with the IKEA Studio app [Melnick]

On 04/24/2021, in Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), innovation, Mixed Reality (MR), XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Design full rooms in AR with the IKEA Studio app — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick

Excerpt:

Whereas the IKEA Place app—released back in 2017 alongside the launch of Apple’s ARKit—allows you to place single pieces of AR furniture and decorations throughout your real-world environment, IKEA Studio lets you furnish entire rooms. Developed by IKEA’s own Copenhagen-based studio SPACE10, this iOS-exclusive app works by capturing 3D room plans and measurements using the LiDAR sensors featured on the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Put simply, this new technology generates a mesh scale capable of identifying surfaces, objects, and the geometry of your real-world environment, resulting in more realistic AR experiences.

Brief reflections on “How to Design a Hybrid Workplace” [The New York Times]

On 04/24/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, blended learning, business, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, face-to-face, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, hybrid learning, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, online learning, platforms, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, society, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

How to Design a Hybrid Workplace — from nytimes.com

Excerpt:

But many companies have hatched a postpandemic plan in which employees return to the office for some of the time while mixing in more work from home than before. The appeal of this compromise is clear: Employers hope to give employees the flexibility and focus that come from working at home without sacrificing the in-person connections of the office.

From DSC:
There has been — and likely will continue to be — huge pressure and incentives put on companies like Cisco, Zoom, Microsoft, and others that develop the products and platforms to help people collaborate and communicate over a distance. It will be very interesting to see where these (and other) vendors, products, and platforms are 2-3 years from now! How far will we be down the XR-related routes?

How will those new ways of doing things impact telehealth? Telelegal? Virtual courts? Other?

Making VR a Reality in the Classroom [Flynn & Frost]

On 04/22/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, future of higher education, generational differences, graphics, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, interaction design, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, multimedia, platforms, play, psychology, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Making VR a Reality in the Classroom — from er.educause.edu by Cat Flynn and Peter Frost
Faculty and staff at Southern New Hampshire University piloted virtual reality in an undergraduate psychology course to see if it can be an effective pedagogical tool.

Excerpt:

Meeting the Learning Needs of Gen Z and Beyond
While this study was conducted with current SNHU undergraduates, our team aimed to understand the implications of immersive learning for both today’s students and future learners.
…
Given Gen Z’s documented love for gaming and their desire for higher education to equip them with problem-solving and practical skills, VR provides a confluence of experiential learning and engagement.

From DSC:
Cost and COVID-19 are major issues here, but this is an interesting article nonetheless.

I think Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Augmented Reality (AR) will play a significant role in the future of how we learn. It may take us some time to get there, but I believe that we will.

Penn students use digital platform Gather to imitate in-person office hours — from thedp.com by Isaac Lee; with thanks to Professor Sue Ellen Christian for this resource

Excerpt:

As students yearn for in-person interaction and the familiarity of their school buildings, platforms like Gather are filling the void — virtually.

Gather, also known as Gather.town, simulates buildings and classrooms on campus where students, professors, and teaching assistants can interact with one another through personal avatars during office hours. Its main feature, “Interaction Distance,” launches a video call between users whose avatars are within five steps from each other in the virtual space. As the users’ avatars walk away from each other, their video and audio quality decrease, simulating an in-person interaction.

Also see:

From DSC:
Now picture this in VR.

Apple CEO Tim Cook: AR Is “Critically Important” For The Company’s Future [Carlton]

On 04/11/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), communications, computer science, corporate universities / corporate training, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, future of higher education, generational differences, higher education, ideas, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Mixed Reality (MR), mobile learning, mobile technologies, programming, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, vision/possibilities, wearables, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Apple CEO Tim Cook: AR Is “Critically Important” For The Company’s Future — from vrscout.com by Bobby Carlton

Excerpts:

When the subject of AR and it’s potential came up, Cook said “You and I are having a great conversation right now. Arguably, it could even be better if we were able to augment our discussion with charts or other things to appear.”

In Cook’s opinion, AR will change the way we communicate with our friends, colleagues, and family. It’ll reshape communication in fields such as health, education, gaming, and retail. “I’m already seeing AR take off in some of these areas with use of the phone. And I think the promise is even greater in the future,” said Cook.

Also see:

How Extended Reality Tools Can Bring New Life to Higher Education — from by Soulaymane Kachani

And it is not enough to try to use existing VR/XR applications and tailor them to educational scenarios. These tools can and should be created with pedagogy, student experience, and learning outcomes as the priority.

Also see:

10 VR Sports Games To Keep Us Occupied At Home — from vrscout.com by Henry Stockdale

Predictions and trends for Bio and Digital Healthcare in 2021

On 01/14/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, engineering, health, innovation, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

It’s Time to Heal: 16 Trends Driving the Future of Bio and Healthcare — from a16z.com by Vineeta Agarwala, Jorge Conde, Vijay Pande, and Julie Yoo
It’s Time to Heal is a special package about engineering the future of bio and healthcare. See more at:

Also see:

5 Predictions for Digital Healthcare in 2021 — from wearable-technologies.com by Cathy Russey

Excerpts:

Remote patient care and telemedicine
Virtual Reality
Wearables
Artificial Intelligence
Advancements in Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Will more walls of the future be like one of those billboards (that presents two or three different images) and could change surfaces? [Christian]

On 01/13/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, art, Augmented Reality (AR), Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interaction design, interactivity, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, Mixed Reality (MR), multi-touch, multimedia, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, wearables, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I was thinking about projecting images, animation, videos, etc. from a device onto a wall for all in the room to see.

Will more walls of the future be like one of those billboards (that presents two or three different images) and could change surfaces?

One side of the surface would be more traditional (i.e., a sheet wall type of surface). The other side of the surface would be designed to be excellent for projecting images onto it and/or for use by Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and/or Virtual Reality (VR).

Along these lines, here’s another item related to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI):

Mercedes-Benz debuts dashboard that’s one giant touchscreen — from futurism.com

Learning Ecosystems

Drawing on Ancient Arts and New Technology, Husson U. Launches Degree in Extended Reality [Koenig]

Snap Spectacles Finally Evolve into Full AR Smartglasses with Standalone Immersive Superpowers [Palladino]

AirTags Are the Perfectly Boring, Functional Future of AR [Goode]

Design full rooms in AR with the IKEA Studio app [Melnick]

Brief reflections on “How to Design a Hybrid Workplace” [The New York Times]

Will more walls of the future be like one of those billboards (that presents two or three different images) and could change surfaces? [Christian]

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