Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Network

Earlier this week I joined the Call to Unite – a 24 hour global live stream event where I shared my thoughts on how we can seize the opportunity to transform how we educate our children, and how we approach our relationship with the world we live in.

"The new partnership will allow technology companies and Original Equipment Manufacturers to build Himax display technology powered by VividQ software suite straight into their products to enable integration of truly holographic projections into everyday consumer devices."

Jim Lerman's insight:

This is a really big deal, in my opinion. I believe holographic projection will overcome many of the limitations of AR and VR, especially related to educational use.

Dear Readers,

"In Democratic Schools children can decide for themselves what to learn and how to learn it. There is no syllabus and no grading and exams are voluntary. Students and staff have the same rights and organise their schools cooperatively. When decisions have to be made, everyone has one vote.

"Can this really work?

'Democratic Schools. A film about the delight of learning."

"The Sherman Fairchild Foundation has awarded a grant to the College for Immersive Experiences in Arts and Technology. The $493,321, four-year project will bring to campus new equipment, technology, and additional professional development for curricular and co-curricular digital experiences in the arts, and a new technologist to support creative development and advisory support for faculty and students.

"The Arts and Technology project emerged from a two-year planning process to transform the learning experience at Hamilton. Two of the priorities developed from the College’s strategic plan are Digital Hamilton – to change the way we teach, learn, and operate the College using digitally intensive courses and emerging digital technologies – and Experiential Hamilton – to provide direct, hands-on experiences to prepare students for fulfilling lives and careers."

"There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy.

"In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom.

"Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments.

"How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults."

Jim Lerman's insight:

This is the most up-to-date, definitive, consensus, scholarly publication on how people learn in the US. Can be read online or downloaded, for free. This is an update of the 2000 edition.

"Despite the AI hype, we are not there, yet.

"While AI is super-hyped at the moment, it is a real thing and can be explained in plain language. For a fantastic introduction (and then some), Tim Urban’s Wait but Why post ‘The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence‘ from back in 2015 is an easy, entertaining but mindblowing intro to AI and still one of the best. If you are looking to go deeper, grab a copy of Nick Bostrom’s book ‘Superintelligence‘.

"Seriously, go beyond the news and blogs on the topic of AI. This is an important topic with far-reaching consequences and deserves your attention.

Five Applications of AI in Education

"But just saying “AI” doesn’t tell you much about the underlying applications or technology. So we are using five tangible buckets to analyze AI – here is a really quick description.

"Vision is being used in learning and administrative contexts. Emotion recognition can assist in detecting learners’ confusion or engagement while face detection can be used for attendance management, parent/carer access or identity management for testing.

"Voice. Campuses and classrooms are starting to use speech to text and voice interface to support campus life and learning activities. Applications for literacy development and language learning are some of the first to use voice recognition in education settings.

"Language. Deciphering human language is still one of the most difficult AI problems due to its complexity. However, advances over the past few years have seen applications of NLP into educational contexts such assessing levels of understanding, providing feedback and plagiarism detection.

"Algorithms. Deep and machine learning are most prevalent in ‘personalized learning’ systems. Content intelligence and automation, behavioral recommendations provide notifications, intelligent content delivery and personalized learning pathways.

"Hardware. At the intersection of AI, Robotics and IoT, hardware-based AI is being deployed on a variety of devices to reduce latency and lowering networking costs. Smart devices on campus, in labs and classrooms connect software systems, data for learning and the physical learning environment in new and smart ways."

"The first big technology platform was the web, which digitized information, subjecting knowledge to the power of algorithms; it came to be dominated by Google. The second great platform was social media, running primarily on mobile phones. It digitized people and subjected human behavior and relationships to the power of algorithms, and it is ruled by Facebook and WeChat.

We are now at the dawn of the third platform, which will digitize the rest of the world. On this platform, all things and places will be machine-­readable, subject to the power of algorithms. Whoever dominates this grand third platform will become among the wealthiest and most powerful people and companies in history, just as those who now dominate the first two platforms have. Also, like its predecessors, this new platform will unleash the prosperity of thousands more companies in its ecosystem, and a million new ideas—and problems—that weren’t possible before machines could read the world."

Jim Lerman's insight:

This seems to me a very keen and well-informed look into the future of digital network technology. It's this month's lead article in Wired and it excited me so much I think everyone interested in the internet ought to read it. Author Kelly is well positioned to offer up his informed thoughts.

A new era of 360° camera technology has transformed the process of creating immersive learning experiences for education

My daughter, Michela Marino Lerman, is co-coordinating this protest, so it's sure to be very special. Many musicians and performers will participate. Starting at 110th St. and Malcolm X Blvd. and going to Columbus Circle. Please share with anyone you think might be interested.

What can technology replace in the classroom? While it isn't enough to makeup for unengaging learning models, done well technology can change everything.

Technology progress influences the way kids learn, and it’s constantly changing. Internet, smartphones, and apps have connected people globally without caring about the distance. Within seconds you can communicate with anybody anywhere. Virtual reality has taken it a step further. Now it’s possible to visit these faraway places or go…

Virtual reality is still niche, but a growing crop of VR games with a fitness element, like Beat Saber may inspire people to pick up a headset.

Screenwriting is the act of writing what's known as a script or screenplay for film, television and webseries. It involves a special set of rules that makes it different from a book or play.

Writing the script is part of the pre-production process. Once it is written, it will be edited (often several times) and passed on to the director.

Scripts include all essential information such as: the setting of each scene, character details, dialogue and behaviour. But there’s a lot more in a script than these things.

Jim Lerman's insight:

An excellent, quite short, free, online course on screenwriting (but not only screenwriting) for beginning-level storytellers from about 9 or 10 years old to any age. Outstanding resource for teachers.

The first part centers on the elements of story and how they work together. This is essential for telling as well as viewing, reading, writing, or otherwise constructing stories for any type of media -- including live media. Creating a story in any of these forms, using the activities and understandings put forward here, will make nearly anyone a more aware, engaged, and knowledgeable consumer of all media. Great job and fine resource.

Bringing distant places closer to students and boosting retention through enhanced visual cues, AR/VR adds value to teaching and learning.

"Augmented Reality (AR) technologies have opened up an entire world of possibilities for teachers and educators. From organizing virtual field trips to setting up simulated virtual laboratories, AR is reshaping teaching and learning in unprecedented ways ..."

1. Google Spotlight Stories
2. Waypoint EDU
3. 3D Bear AR

Columbine High School teacher Kiki Leyba remembers April 20, 1999 as a day of two life-altering extremes. He was a first-year Columbine teacher meeting with then-Principal Frank DeAngelis, who had just offered him a contract to continue teaching at the school — his dream job — when gunshots rang out in another part of the building.

He quickly found himself guiding students outside and away from the building, attempting to call 911 on his cell phone but finding the line was busy, overloaded by calls from frantic people.

"Virtual and augmented reality in the classroom has proved to be effective for history and chemistry lessons. However, a new use for these tools is now emerging: teaching computer science.

"Currently, one of the few setbacks to integrating virtual reality is a lack of readily available content. 

"While this may seem like a negative, it opens a new door for teachers to encourage students to explore the world of coding and create their own virtual reality worlds. 

"Coding skills are in high demand and will soon become a necessary skill for nearly all industries. Since 1990, jobs in science, technology, engineering and math have grown by 79 percent, and are expected to grow an additional 13 percent by 2027, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey. 

"This means it is essential for educators to find a way to engage students early to build their coding knowledge, and virtual and augmented reality platforms may be the answer."

As a school library specialist, I strive to always have my students engaged and excited about exploring new ways of learning. One of those new tools is augmented reality (AR). The challenge that many of my fellow educators face with this kind of technology is that it looks fun, but they don't have a concrete plan to incorporate it into learning on a daily basis or an idea of exactly how (or if) it will impact student learning. Here are three ways that I have discovered to help educators move from admiring AR to actually teaching with it.

Collaborate to Create Projects
I'm also the head of project-based learning at my school, so I'm always looking for ways to collaborate with classroom teachers. I have an English teacher who frequents my room a lot, and AR intrigued her, so we put our heads together. She was just starting The Diary of Anne Frank with her eighth-grade honors classes, so we had her students conduct background research into what the rooms in Anne Frank's attic looked like. They found everything from the dimensions of the rooms, to the pieces of furniture, to how many people had to hide in the attic.