Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning

From DSC:
Reading the item below prompted me to return to a thought/question that I’ve had several times now…in the future, will students be able to choose “where” they want to study? One of our daughters would probably be able to focus better if she were able to be transported to a place of her choosing — perhaps by a stream of running water.

Anyway, it’s an interesting thought/question to consider. It would certainly provide:

Thanks to VR, your office will resemble a tropical island — from thenextweb.com by Amber Leigh Turner

Excerpt:

For example, the idea of being able to teleport their employees to worlds outside of the office – including on a beach on an island a thousand miles away – may help boost employees’ productivity while reducing their stress level.

Mure VR, an Icelandic company, has found a way to integrate virtual reality with your work with the introduction of Breakroom. According to their website, “Breakroom is the way to turn your virtual reality headset into a multi-monitor system. You open a relaxing virtual environment and open your regular Windows applications as a floating 2D monitor within the virtual world. You are no longer limited by the physical computer monitor and can surround yourself with applications.”

Breakroom allows employees to escape workplaces by creating a workspace – such as on the beach, or in a park – that is stress-reducing, while tailored specifically to their needs. Becoming immersed in your work and blocking out the distractions that come with now-popular open office environments is a practical way that Mure VR is bringing virtual reality into the workplace.

Also here’s another application of virtual reality:

Using virtual reality to teach medical students empathy for elders — from unionleader.com by Gretchen Grosky

Excerpt:

“We are Alfred” is a pioneering virtual reality program where students don a headset to experience first-hand what it is like to be an older adult living with these common conditions.

Students at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Maine – the state with the oldest population in the country – are among the first in the world to use this program as a means to learn empathy for their patients.

“We’re trying to get our students to understand the person-to-person approach of caring for people and working with people,” said Dr. Marilyn R. Gugliucci, professor and director of geriatrics education and research at the college. “We don’t want to just teach in a classroom. They’ve got to know people to help heal people.”

Farmers Insurance is using the Oculus Rift to train workers in Virtual Reality [Vanian]

On 10/26/2017, in business, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, immersion, innovation, platforms, professional development, student-related, tools, training / L&D, universities, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Farmers Insurance is using the Oculus Rift to train workers in Virtual Reality — from fortune.com by Jonathan Vanian

Excerpt:

By the end of this year, about 50 employees will have donned the Oculus Rift headsets and participated in the VR training program, said Farmers Insurance chief claims officer Keith Daly. The company plans for hundreds more to be trained using the next year, and, eventually, get all of its thousands of claims adjusters through the program, Daly said.

The goal is to build on the company’s existing two-to-three week training that workers attend before going into real world to inspect homes damaged in earthquakes, floods, and other major catastrophes.

Also see:

College Recruiting Goes Virtual with Immersive Technology — from edtechmagazine.comby Jacquelyn Bengfort
From residence halls to football games, prospective students can get a firsthand look at a college campus.

“Infuse real life into virtual reality worlds”

On 10/25/2017, in emerging technologies, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

“Infuse real life into virtual reality worlds”

Microsoft’s new studios create Mixed Reality holograms — from theverge.com by Tom Warren

Excerpt:

Microsoft is opening its first Mixed Reality capture studios in San Francisco and London, allowing developers and creators to create holograms from real life objects. Microsoft has been using its own studio at its Redmond headquarters to capture Buzz Aldrin, Reggie Watts, Max Frost, and Cirque Du Soleil performances and bring them into virtual reality and augmented reality holograms.

The new studios in San Francisco, London, and Redmond will allow third parties to create holograms that can be used on regular 2D screens, a HoloLens device, or even Microsoft’s new Windows Mixed Reality (VR) headsets. Microsoft will be licensing these studios, and it’s likely to be an expensive process to capture items as holograms.

VR and AR: Transforming Learning and Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences — from er.educause.edu by Emory Craig and Maya Georgieva

What if a text or work of art is no longer read, but instead, experienced? What new questions are raised when it’s possible to visit an author’s home or stroll through the streets of an ancient city? How will our interpretations of literature, art, history and archaeology change when we are no longer passive recipients but co-constructors and actors in immersive experiences? How will this challenge us to think outside our current learning paradigms? These and other questions arise when we examine the impact of immersive technologies on the humanities and the social sciences.

Some examples mentioned there include:

Microsoft joins the VR battle with Windows Mixed Reality [on 10/17/17] — from theverge.com by Tom Warren

Excerpt:

Microsoft is launching its own answer to virtual reality today, taking on HTC and Oculus in the process. Windows Mixed Reality will be available in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and headsets are now available to buy. Here’s everything you need to know about Windows Mixed Reality.
…
Microsoft is offering movement tracking (six degrees of freedom) without the need for traditional external sensors placed throughout a room. Windows Mixed Reality headsets have cameras and sensors to track the motion controllers.

Walmart looks to see if virtual shopping is better than the real thing — from washingtonpost.com by Abha Bhattarai

Excerpts:

…Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is setting its sights on virtual reality. Imagine this, says Katie Finnegan, who heads Walmart’s tech incubator: You need a tent for your next camping trip. If all goes to plan, you could one day virtually swoop in to your campsite and see any given tent in action. “You could unzip it, lay down, look left and right and say, ‘Oh, this is supposed to be a two-person tent? It’s kind of tight,’ ” she said. And then you could move on to the next tent — without leaving your couch.
…
Here are the five ideas the Bentonville, Ark.-based company says could be making their way online:

3-D holograms at Bonobos.com, the male clothing site Walmart acquired this year for $310 million, that would make it possible for shoppers to try on virtual clothing for fit and style.
At ModCloth, the women’s clothing site Walmart took over in March, customers may one day be able to take 3-D photos of themselves using their smartphones, and use those images to get an idea of how something might look on.
An “interactive virtual store” for designer Rebecca Minkoff, whose items are sold at Walmart.com, would allow customers to sit in on fashion shows and shop directly from the runway.
Tired of shopping online alone? If Walmart gets its way, you may soon be interacting with other shoppers and experts as you pick out items for your virtual cart.
Electric outlets, stove tops and door handles can all be child safety hazards — and soon, an online tool could peek inside your home and tell you where the biggest risks are lurking.

Explore the surface of Mars from the comfort of your living room — from haptical.com
Google’s new project allows viewers to explore the discoveries of NASA’s Curiosity rover.

Excerpt:

NASA and Google have teamed up to build a new virtual experience that lets space enthusiasts explore the red planet without having to leave their homes. Dubbed as “Access Mars”, the new project virtually transports users, wherever they are, to Earth’s neighboring planet in the solar system.

Chinese School Opens Full-Function VR Classrooms — from vrfocus.com by Rebecca Hills-Duty
HTC Vive have created a system which allows 50 VR units to work together with no cross-interference.

Congrats to the NingXia province on opening the first of 20 Vive 50-student full-function #VR classrooms. @htcvive #EducationEvolved pic.twitter.com/g6URsslgPP

— Alvin Wang Graylin (@AGraylin) October 13, 2017

Online Guide Helps Students Learn How to Create Immersive Media [Schaffhauser]

On 10/19/2017, in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, curriculum, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, online media, student-related, teachers, technologies for your home, tools, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Online Guide Helps Students Learn How to Create Immersive Media — from thejournal.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

Now the two organizations have produced a free online guide that covers tools and resources to help students undertake 360-degree production. Among the topics: how to identify the “big ideas” worth exploring and personalize them; how to do 360-degree recording and handle pre-production, production and post-production; and how to share the film “with the world” and assess its impact. There’s also an educator resource on integrating video production into the curriculum.

Also see:

Launching a New Project Guide for 360-Degree Storytelling — from global.digitalpromise.org

For institutions of higher education: Some of the ways to respond to the new, exponential pace of change [Christian]

On 10/18/2017, in 21st century, adult learning, Amazon, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain, bots, business, business side of he, career development, change, colleges, community colleges, consortiums, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, distance education, education reform, elearning, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interaction design, interface design, internet, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, Michigan, Mixed Reality (MR), online learning, organizational change, pace of change, parents/guardians, personalized/customized learning, platforms, real-world assignments, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technology (general), traditional / tradition, trends, United States, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
In Part I, I looked at the new, exponential pace of change that colleges, community colleges and universities now need to deal with – observing the enormous changes that are starting to occur throughout numerous societies around the globe. If we were to plot out the rate of change, we would see that we are no longer on a slow, steady, incremental type of linear pathway; but, instead, we would observe that we are now on an exponential trajectory (as the below graphic from sparks & honey very nicely illustrates).

How should colleges and universities deal with this new, exponential pace of change?

1) I suggest that you ensure that someone in your institution is lifting their gaze and peering out into the horizons, to see what’s coming down the pike. That person – or more ideally, persons – should also be looking around them, noticing what’s going on within the current landscapes of higher education. Regardless of how your institution tackles this task, given that we are currently moving at an incredibly fast pace, this trend analysis is very important. The results from this analysis should immediately be integrated into your strategic plan. Don’t wait 3-5 years to integrate these new findings into your plan. The new, exponential pace of change is going to reward those organizations who are nimble and responsive.

2) I recommend that you look at what programs you are offering and consider if you should be developing additional programs such as those that deal with:

Artificial Intelligence (Natural Language Processing, deep learning, machine learning, bots)
New forms of Human Computer Interaction such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality
User Experience Design, User Interface Design, and/or Interaction Design
Big data, data science, working with data
The Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications, sensors, beacons, etc.
Blockchain-based technologies/systems
The digital transformation of business
Freelancing / owning your own business / entrepreneurship (see this article for the massive changes happening now!)
…and more

3) If you are not already doing so, I recommend that you immediately move to offer a robust lineup of online-based programs. Why do I say this? Because:

Without them, your institution may pay a heavy price due to its diminishing credibility. Your enrollments could decline if learners (and their families) don’t think they will get solid jobs coming out of your institution. If the public perceives you as a dinosaur/out of touch with what the workplace requires, your enrollment/admissions groups may find meeting their quotas will get a lot harder as the years go on. You need to be sending some cars down the online/digital/virtual learning tracks. (Don’t get me wrong. We still need the liberal arts. However, even those institutions who offer liberal arts lineups will still need to have a healthy offering of online-based programs.)
Online-based learning methods can expand the reach of your faculty members while offering chances for individuals throughout the globe to learn from you, and you from them
Online-based learning programs can increase your enrollments, create new revenue streams, and develop/reach new markets
Online-based learning programs have been proven to offer the same learning gains – and sometimes better learning results than – what’s being achieved in face-to-face based classrooms
The majority of pedagogically-related innovations are occurring within the online/digital/virtual realm, and you will want to have built the prior experience, expertise, and foundations in order to leverage and benefit from them
Faculty take their learning/experiences from offering online-based courses back into their face-to-face courses
Due to the increasing price of obtaining a degree, students often need to work to help get them (at least part of the way) through school; thus, flexibility is becoming increasingly important and necessary for students
An increasing number of individuals within the K-12 world as well as the corporate world are learning via online-based means. This is true within higher education as well, as, according to a recent report from Digital Learning Compass states that “the number of higher education students taking at least one distance education course in 2015 now tops six million, about 30% of all enrollments.”
Families are looking very closely at their return on investments being made within the world of higher education. They want to see that their learners are being prepared for the ever-changing future that they will encounter. If people in the workforce often learn online, then current students should be getting practice in that area of their learning ecosystems as well.
As the (mostly) online-based Amazon.com is thriving and retail institutions such as Sears continue to close, people are in the process of forming more generalized expectations that could easily cross over into the realm of higher education. By the way, here’s how our local Sears building is looking these days…or what’s left of it.

4) I recommend that you move towards offering more opportunities for lifelong learning, as learners need to constantly add to their skillsets and knowledge base in order to remain marketable in today’s workforce. This is where adults greatly appreciate – and need – the greater flexibility offered by online-based means of learning. I’m not just talking about graduate programs or continuing studies types of programs here. Rather, I’m hoping that we can move towards providing streams of up-to-date content that learners can subscribe to at any time (and can drop their subscription to at any time). As a relevant side note here, keep your eyes on blockchain-based technologies here.

5) Consider the role of consortia and pooling resources. How might that fit into your strategic plan?

6) Consider why bootcamps continue to come onto the landscape. What are traditional institutions of higher education missing here?

7) And lastly, if one doesn’t already exist, form a small, nimble, innovative group within your organization — what I call a TrimTab Group — to help identify what will and won’t work for your institution.

2017 Campus Technology Impact Awards
The inaugural recipients of the CT Impact Awards are using tech to improve teaching and learning, streamline operations, build community and more.

Oculus Announces $199 Standalone VR Headset [Nafarrete]

On 10/13/2017, in Facebook / Meta Platforms, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, tools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Oculus Announces $199 Standalone VR Headset — from vrscout.com by Jonathan Nafarrete

Excerpt:

‘Oculus Go’ doesn’t require a phone or PC.

Oculus’ biggest event of the year, Oculus Connect 4, kicked off Wednesday morning with an opening keynote reveal from Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

The Facebook owned Oculus unveiled on stage their first standalone VR headset. Dubbed Oculus Go, the VR headset is a all-in one mobile computer, which means you don’t need to slide in your phone or plug it into a beefy gaming PC. There’s also no cords. The best part of it all, Oculus Go is priced at $199 and will be available in 2018.

Also see:

Facebook Adds Live 360° Video and Creative Tools to Spaces — from vrscout.com by Jesse Damiani

Virtual Reality: A Great Fit for Employee Onboarding — from trainingindustry.com by Andrew Woodberry

Excerpts:

For jobs that are particularly dangerous or high-stress, introducing employees to the environment through virtual reality is a smart approach. In recent years, companies have created realistic VR applications that they have used to train people from surgeons to firefighters. Virtual reality gives new employees as close an approximation to their new workplace as they can have without actually needing to be physically present. The exposure to the simulated high-stress environment should, theoretically, make the VR users more comfortable when they actually face the real-world equivalent.

Tips for Adding VR to Onboarding

Start with shorter VR onboarding videos.
Add interactivity to generate a more memorable training experience.
Measure the effectiveness of VR onboarding.

From DSC:
I appreciated that the article included the following sentence: “For industries without a lot of change, the VR training modules can be used for numerous years.” This hints at the need to start small and be sure that your content won’t be changing all the time. If it does, VR may not be a good fit. It’s at least something to consider — along with the costs of the hardware to review/experience the training-related content (which are changing all of the time these days…and will likely continue to change for a while yet).

Reflections on “Faculty Predict Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality Will Be Key to Ed Tech in 10 Years” [Kelly]

On 10/12/2017, in 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, innovation, internet, IT in HE, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, Mixed Reality (MR), mobile learning, mobile technologies, Natural Language Processing (NLP), personalized/customized learning, platforms, smart classrooms, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Faculty Predict Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality Will Be Key to Ed Tech in 10 Years — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
Faculty in our 2017 Teaching with Technology Survey believe tech will play a positive role in the future of higher education — but some technologies will be more important than others.

Excerpt:

What technologies do faculty think will be important in education over the next decade? The most popular answer to that question by far was virtual/augmented/mixed reality, garnering 81 percent of responses (it topped the list last year as well). Mobile devices and apps, 3D modeling/scanning/printing, adaptive/personalized learning and video/streaming all rounded out the top five.

From DSC:
Great to see several of these items made the list. I would also add:

The use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to allow more voice-enabled and voice-driven applications
Learning agents/bots (for example, a learning-related bot could go find out the top 50-100 jobs that employers are hiring for and present a list of potential digital playlists from a variety of providers that would help potential employees be able to do the work in those positions)
Blockchain and the use of web-based learner profiles
Artificial Intelligence / cognitive computing (which could be argued is already mentioned in the item re: adaptive, personalized learning)
Moving towards providing up-to-date streams of content (for purposes of lifelong learning and microlearning)

Finally, it was great to see #9 on the list as I, too, believe that a next gen learning platform is needed:

Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2018 — from Gartner Research

Summary

The intelligent digital mesh is a foundation for future digital business and its ecosystems. To create competitive advantage, enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders must evaluate these top trends to identify opportunities that their organizations can exploit.

Key Findings

Artificial intelligence (AI) delivers value to every industry, enabling new business models. It does so by supporting key initiatives such as customer engagement, digital production, smart cities, self-driving cars, risk management, computer vision and speech recognition.
As people, places, processes and “things” become increasingly digitalized, they will be represented by digital twins. This will provide fertile ground for new event-driven business processes and digitally enabled business models and ecosystems.
The way we interact with technology will undergo a radical transformation over the next five to 10 years. Conversational platforms, augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality will provide more natural and immersive interactions with the digital world.
A digital business is event-centric, which means it must be continuously sensing and adapting. The same applies to the security and risk infrastructure that supports it, which must focus on deceiving potential intruders and predicting security events.

Table of Contents

Analysis

Trend No. 1: AI Foundation
Today’s AI Is Narrow AI

Trend No. 2: Intelligent Apps and Analytics
Augmented Analytics Will Enable Users to Spend More Time Acting on Insights

Trend No. 3: Intelligent Things
Swarms of Intelligent Things Will Work Together

Trend No. 4: Digital Twins
Digital Twins Will Be Linked to Other Digital Entities

Trend No. 5: Cloud to the Edge
Edge Computing Brings Distributed Computing Into the Cloud Style

Trend No. 6: Conversational Platforms
Integration With Third-Party Services Will Further Increase Usefulness

Trend No. 7: Immersive Experience
VR and AR Can Help Increase Productivity

Trend No. 8: Blockchain
Blockchain Offers Significant Potential Long-Term Benefits Despite Its Challenges

Trend No. 9: Event-Driven Model
Events Will Become More Important in the Intelligent Digital Mesh

Trend No. 10: Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust
Barriers Must Come Down Between Security and Application Teams

Gartner Recommended Reading

Also see:

AI, Merging of Digital and Physical Worlds Among Top 10 Tech Trends for 2018 — from campustechnology.com by Joshua Bolkan
Excerpt:
Gartner has released its list of top 10 strategic technology trends for 2018 with a focus for the coming year on technologies related to artificial intelligence and machine learning and those that blend the physical and digital worlds.

7 Things You Should Know About Research on Active Learning Classrooms — from library.educause.edu

Excerpt:

Research into active learning classrooms (ALCs)—spaces explicitly designed to support and promote this kind of learning and pedagogy—is expanding. This research provides educators with insights about how best to implement active learning pedagogies and support learners in ALCs. Studying how pedagogy and physical space can influence each other, researchers assess how well design elements work and how they affect learning. Higher education needs to know why active learning works, how it works best, and how these methods can be adopted more widely. Research that shows the efficacy of ALCs helps advance the use of such spaces and informs improvements in the design of learning spaces.

That item also mentions:
A Guide to Teaching in the Active Learning Classroom

7 Things You Should Know About AR/VR/MR — from library.educause.edu

Excerpt:

Augmented reality can be described as experiencing the real world with an overlay of additional computer generated content. In contrast, virtual reality immerses a user in an entirely simulated environment, while mixed or merged reality blends real and virtual worlds in ways through which the physical and the digital can interact. AR, VR, and MR offer new opportunities to create a psychological sense of immersive presence in an environment that feels real enough to be viewed, experienced, explored, and manipulated. These technologies have the potential to democratize learning by giving everyone access to immersive experiences that were once restricted to relatively few learners.

Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality applications for education and the enterprise; plus several other items re: AR, VR, & MR

On 10/07/2017, in Apple, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, mobile learning, mobile technologies, student-related, tools, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Augmented Reality apps for iOS 11 — from appadvice.com

AR in the Enterprise: How the Technology Can Benefit Your Business — from blog.metavision.com by Lis Owuor

Excerpt:

3 Ways AR Can Benefit the Enterprise:
1. Advanced ways to interact with data and training materials: In today’s world of Big Data, knowledge workers, manufacturing employees, and others are required to take on a number of data-intensive tasks: accessing, analyzing, and acting on large quantities of information, all while tackling the everyday collaboration and communication tasks of a normal work day. For employees in a number of industries, AR has the potential to be a game-changer in how employees interact with and share information because the technology overlays digital information over a user’s view of the real world.
…
2. Increased sales opportunities: For those brands who want to deliver richer customer experiences and increase sales, AR offers plenty of opportunities to transform the way that ustomers purchase products.
…
3. Enhanced model visualization: One useful ability of AR’s technological potential for the enterprise revolves around its 3D technology.

Smart glasses stage new experiences for deaf theater fans — from cnet.com by Katie Collins
London’s National Theatre is using augmented reality to make its performances more accessible for hard of hearing customers.

Excerpt:

It’s something the theater is hoping to change with the help of Epson’s latest smart glasses. This week it launched a trial that will see deaf and hearing-impaired customers supplied with the eyewear, which displays subtitles in their field of vision wherever they’re sitting.

“The problem we’re aiming to solve is the lack of choice and the customer experience — it’s twofold,” Jonathan Suffolk, the theater’s technical director, said in an interview. The smart glass tech, he said, “gives customers the chance to come anytime they want, matinee or evening, and sit anywhere they want in any size theater.”

Augmented Reality Apps for Education — from virtualrealitypop.com by Derek Baird

Excerpts:

Like other technologies, AR has the potential to be a powerful constructivist learning technology that supports the personalized learning goals of students by bringing scannable content to life in an engaging and cost effective manner.

For a generation that’s been raised on interactive technologies, bringing AR into the classroom and curriculum can also help encourage active engagement and contribute to student retention.
…
Here are a few top picks for introducing and creating AR experiences in the classroom.

Designing for Presence in VR, Part 1: Introduction — from virtualrealitypop.com by Aki Järvinen

Excerpt:

I strongly believe that presence is the quality that makes Virtual Reality unique as a medium. Yet, analytical approaches to presence from a creative standpoint have been lacking. Let’s fix that.

Microsoft & Ford Demonstrate AR’s Potential for Innovation in Enterprises — from next.reality.news by Tommy Palladino

Writing for VR: The Definitive Guide to VR Storytelling [Damiani & Southard]

On 10/07/2017, in digital storytelling, story, storytelling, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, writing, by Daniel Christian

Writing for VR: The Definitive Guide to VR Storytelling — from vrscout.com by Jesse Damiani and Dylan Southard

Excerpt:

Though it’s geared toward 360° filmmaking, we also wanted to get creators thinking about conceiving and composing VR experiences with an eye toward the medium’s future. We’re guessing many readers fall into a similar camp, so we decided to make this resource available to the public—think of it as something like, “VR Writing and Storytelling 201.”

…

In other words, your audience will feel an increased sense of responsibility—these questions of Why am I here? and What should I do? This is why games and genre stories that focus on intentions (rescuing something; capturing something; escaping something; solving something) work particularly well.

…

The nuts-and-bolts part of presence is point of view (POV). In 360° storytelling, you must directly address the question of which specific POV you will utilize in your story. Will your audience see things through a specific character’s eyes (first-person POV) or will you simply take on an “objective,” detached perspective (third-person POV)?

We can’t express this enough: the space is as (if not more) important than your plot and characters. While composing your story, think about the ways you can build environments capable of making the viewer imagine stories of their own—even without any other human beings in the picture.

Check out these huge announcements from Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mixed Reality Event & Google’s Pixel 2 Event

On 10/04/2017, in A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, collaboration, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, machine-to-machine communications, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), multimedia, music, Natural Language Processing (NLP), technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Before we get to the announcements in more detail….
can you imagine being a teacher, a professor, or a trainer — with all of the required applications
launched — if you were the presenter in this video at say the 12:45 mark?

If you are at all interesting in emerging technologies and what several pieces
of our future learning ecosystems — and meeting spaces — could easily look like,
you NEED to watch the entire presentation.

Also, they announced
Microsoft’s purchase of AltspaceVR…in virtual reality!
This clip shows them meeting in a virtual space.

The era of Windows Mixed Reality begins October 17 — from blogs.windows.com by Alex Kipman
Samsung unveils Windows Mixed Reality headset, AltSpaceVR joins Microsoft, SteamVR catalog coming to Windows Mixed Reality this holiday.

At an event in San Francisco we unveiled our vision for Windows Mixed Reality, announced SteamVR and AltSpaceVR are coming to Windows Mixed Reality, introduced the new Samsung Odyssey HMD, and kicked off the holiday shopping season by announcing the availability of pre-orders for Windows Mixed Reality headsets at the Microsoft Store.

Also see:

Mixed Reality at Microsoft’s site

Inside VR & AR

Oct 4th, 2017

Microsoft held its long-awaited launch of Windows 10 Mixed Reality yesterday, and while most of the new devices and products had been leaked earlier, there were still some big takeaways. Here are some of them:

Mixed Reality: Microsoft gave a demo of what its new platform will do, covering the AR/VR spectrum with games, apps, and experiences. One such experience is Cliff House, a virtual work space and entertainment room.
Altspace VR: When the pioneering social VR app shut down this summer and was rescued by a “third party,” people wondered who that was. Turns out it was Microsoft, which acquired Altspace VR for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was announced yesterday.
Steam VR and Halo: Microsoft had previously announced that its new Mixed Reality headsets would support Steam VR titles. Developers can now access that support, and consumers will be able to access it later this year. In addition to the hundreds of VR titles available on Steam, on Oct. 17, Microsoft will offer free downloads of Halo Recruit.
Odyssey and other headsets: The new Windows 10 platform is launching alongside a host of new headsets. In addition to the new Odyssey, which was made in partnership with Samsung, there are other headsets forthcoming from Acer, HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Asus.
2018 Olympics: This was announced previously in June, but yesterday Microsoft briefed the press that Intel is partnering with the International Olympic Committee to bring Windows Mixed Reality experiences to the 2018 games.

Watch the Google Pixel 2 event in 19 minutes — from the verge.com by Natt Garun
The Google Pixel event has wrapped and we got a good look at a bunch of new hardware lineup this year: the second generation of Pixel smartphones, new Google Homes, a Pixelbook, and a surprise new Google camera that uses artificial intelligence to snap pictures and videos of your family. Is it as weird as it sounds? If you missed the keynote where Google presented everything, here’s a recap of everything Google announced in about two hours cut into a 19-minute video so you can see for yourself if these new products will make it to your shopping list this holiday season.
Google Upgrades Virtual-Reality Headset, Debuts Augmented-Reality Features — from bloomberg.com by Mark Gurman
Google is turning Stranger Things characters into adorable augmented reality stickers — from the verge.com by Adi Robertson
Google Pixel 2 and 2 XL announced with water resistance, ‘dual-pixel’ camera, and always-on display — from theverge.com by Jacob Kastrenakes
The 5 biggest announcements from Google’s Pixel 2 event — from theverge.com by Shannon Liao
Google Launches PixelBook Laptop Embedded With its Services — from bloomberg.com by Mark Gurman

Learning Ecosystems

“Infuse real life into virtual reality worlds”

Oculus Announces $199 Standalone VR Headset [Nafarrete]

Virtual Reality: A Great Fit for Employee Onboarding [Woodberry]

7 things you should know about ALCs as well as AR/VR/MR [EDUCAUSE]

Writing for VR: The Definitive Guide to VR Storytelling [Damiani & Southard]

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