#VR

The Whole World In His Hands

Guest post by Ronan McNicholl Google Earth VR demonstrates the immersive and experiential power of virtual reality in education. How can this be used in the classroom? Naturally, Google Earth VR is a perfect fit for geography teachers as it can help bring the subject to life. Students can access a vast array of topics related to physical and human geography. For example, pupils could explore active volcanoes, visit urban environments or possibly learn about glacial and coas

VR - from "Consume" to "Experience"

I'm connected with some truly inspirational people in the field of VR and AR across social media, both within educational circles and the broader XR community. One such person who is a regular source of great content is Helen Situ who is the creator and editor of the Virtual Reality Pop Newsletter. Boasting a lineup of writers including Charlie Fink and Robert Scoble, Virtual Reality Pop is an amazing source of expert insight into the world of immersive technology. So when H

VR for Impact in the Classroom

This week I spoke at the BETT conference in Abu Dhabi about VR in education. Alongside an encore performance of the Ready Learner One session I delivered at another event and for the last #CPDinVR session (read about that here) I also hosted a Vive demonstration with the wonderful Paola Paulino and delivered a brand new session around the theme of meaningful VR integration. Oh and this happened: I was awarded the 2018 Innovation Award for my work with VR both at JESS Dubai an

The Common Sense Media VR Report

Two weeks ago a report about VR use with children was published by Common Sense Media in collaboration with Jeremy Bailenson, director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. Aimed at parents, the report details the results of an extensive parent survey carried out by Common Sense Media regarding the use of VR by children. The report was supplemented by some other new content on Common Sense Media including a post dedicated to VR in education, a short animation with tips

Book Review: All About Virtual Reality

A trip to the amazing Kinokuniya bookstore in Dubai Mall today paid off as I was able to grab myself a couple of interesting VR related books - “Dawn of the New Everything” by Jaron Lanier (the guy who actually coined the term “virtual reality”) and the recently released “All About Virtual Reality” by DK Books. This one is a reference book for children produced in conjunction with acclaimed AR/VR studio Curiscope – developers of such fantastic experiences as the VirtualiTee

The Ready Player One #CPDinVR event

Last night saw the return of #CPDinVR with one of the biggest groups yet in attendance. The session had a Ready Player One theme and explored the way education in the future is portrayed in the book. With the film version due this month, there was great interest from the educational VR community to discuss this theme. We started with an abridged version of the keynote presentation on this theme that I had delivered earlier in the week at the Education Experts Conference in Du

Next Level Nearpod VR Integration

As I write this, I'm sitting in Florida at the Nearpod #PioNearSummit - a gathering of edtech enthusiasts and Nearpod evangelists from across the globe. I want to say a HUGE thank you to the Nearpod team for inviting me to be a part of this amazing event (and getting me back in America for the first time in 31 years!) As a part of the event, I was asked to deliver a session on the use of VR within Nearpod. I was one of the original clutch of authors that produced Nearpod's fi

Google Blocks - 3D Modelling in VR

Guest post by Alex Johnson There is a line in Steve’s article about Tilt Brush from last year that echoes my own initial impressions of Google's VR painting application - “While I enjoyed the process of using the app immensely, I was never producing anything with any real artistic skill.” Now, as with most things, the more time you spend practicing something, the more you learn and grow. At first, I wasn’t able to achieve very much artistically with Tilt Brush. Slowly, howev

VR Tour Apps - an interactive map

I have my wife to thank for this one. You see every year at JESS Dubai the school hosts an International Day and this year's event is right around the corner. We have over 40 nationalities represented at the school and the whole community comes together to celebrate diversity, culture and heritage from these countries. Different countries will set up a stall and give students the chance to enjoy food, complete activities and learn about the country from JESS parents. This yea

Exploring Human Anatomy with YOU

I love the way new realities have the ability to transform medical education and thus, at an earlier stage, biology classes. I’ve tested a whole range of content in this field, including both AR and VR experiences. Some are very good but often they can be pricier than other apps (likely because they are simultaneously being pitched as tools for doctoral students in medical colleges) which can make educators more hesitant to look into them. To be fair you get what you pay for

Experimenting with WebVR

Google have been producing some truly ground-breaking VR experiences for some time now. From simple mobile apps like Street View, Arts and Spotlight Stories to the majesty of Tilt Brush, Blocks and Google Earth VR, they’ve long been a source of creative inspiration for educators looking to integrate VR in their classrooms. The Google WebVR Experiments are no exception – offering glimpses of various new ideas and concepts all through the platform-agnostic medium of WebVR. Ther

Ready Learner One - shared VR experiences

Guest post by Dr Micah Shippee “During our World History lesson that morning, Mr. Avenovich loaded up a standalone simulation so that our class could witness the discovery of King Tut’s tomb by archaeologists in Egypt in AD 1922. (The day before, we’d visited the same spot in 1334 BC and had seen Tutankhamen’s empire in all its glory.) In my next class, Biology, we traveled through a human heart and watched it pumping from the inside, just like in that old movie, Fantastic Vo

In Their Shoes: VR for empathy

Anyone who follows my work in VR will know that I am a firm believer in the idea of Virtual Reality as a tool for creating empathy. Late last year I hosted the special VR for Empathy #CPDinVR event with Sean Gilroy from the BBC as one of the panellists (alongside David Romero from Vive and Dominic Eskofier from NVIDIA). Sean shared with us his powerful autism experience, developed as a part of the BBC Cape initiative. This stunning 360 video recreates the experience of being

The Periodic Table of Apps for AR and VR

Without a doubt one of the most innovative educators I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with is Mark Anderson aka ICT Evangelist. Mark and I met in 2015 at the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute in Amsterdam and since then we’ve collaborated on several projects including the App Wars event on iPad Educators, Mark’s #AppShareLive shows and even the first JESS Digital Innovation Summit (which Mark came over to Dubai to keynote for me.) Over the last year, one series of p

AR vs VR in Education: Round 4

Apologies to those who have been following this series and wondering what happened to Part 4. Traditional Christmas chaos kicked in at school and then I travelled home for the holidays for the first time in eight years so the amount of time I could spend on writing was limited. We're back now though and ready to see this thing through to a decisive conclusion. For those that are just diving into the series, here are the links to the previous rounds: Round 1: Ease of Implement

Top 10 #ViveEDU apps of 2017

It’s that time of year when people share their Best of the Year retrospectives and since this year has been so dominated by all things VR for me, it seemed appropriate to add my own selection to the mix. Now I considered doing something that incorporated mini-lists of mobile VR apps, AR apps, 360s etc but to be honest, a lot of the content in these categories that I’ve utilized this year was released before 2017. As such I decided to focus solely on Steam VR apps that I’ve us

Into The Deep: Operation Apex

I’ve always had an interest in aquatic life, likely born from my dad being a keen fisherman and my uncle owning a tackle shop when I was young. These days I have a large aquarium in my house full of Amazon Discus fish. I’ve also enjoyed swimming with Turtles here in the UAE (read a blog about that on iPad Educators here) and hand feeding Stingrays (that one is here.) My fascination in the underwater world has been well-catered for in virtual reality, with the obvious experien

The #CPDinVR Panel - December 2017

After a month off due to a combination of illness, moving house and a bunch of other commitments, I hosted the final #CPDinVR event of 2017 last night. This session was a panel discussion about AR and VR in education and joining me were Steven Sato from the USA, Alex Johnson who is based in India and special guest Hervé Fontaine - European VP of HTC Vive. We also welcomed one of our biggest crowds yet with educators from the UK, USA, China, the UAE and many more in the audie

Working with virtual SEN students

The biggest and longest running educational conference here in the UAE is GESS which takes place at the World Trade Centre each year. This year was the sixth time I have attended and in between presentations, I wandered the vast trade show looking for something new and inspiring. Over the years I have come across many little gems in amongst the sea of interactive whiteboards including meeting a little augmented reality company in 2014 called Zientia who went on to become the

Space: The Virtual Frontier

Last week saw the launch of something quite special though – Home: a VR Spacewalk for the HTC Vive. Not only is this a stellar (no pun intended) example of an educational resource for this theme but it also marks the beginning of a new era in VR production for the BBC. Definitely exciting times ahead if this is an example of the quality they will output. Inspired by the launch of Home, I decided to take a little spacewalk of my own – through the App Store, YouTube and Steam.