#VR

Meaningful, multi-platform VR integration

As many of you will know, I work as Head of Digital Learning and Innovation across JESS Dubai. JESS is a group of three schools – two primary schools and a secondary. In the primary schools we have a bank of Viewmaster headsets and iPod Touch devices to use in them. In the Secondary we have a bank of Bobo VR Z4 headsets and students use their own phones in them. We also have a BYOD iPad scheme in the KS2 years of each primary school and banks of iPads in KS1 and EYFS. In Seco

AR vs VR in Education: Round 3

What's better for education - AR or VR? That's the question I'm exploring across this five part series. Obviously I feel that they both have merit, otherwise this site would only be dedicated to one of them. This series is exploring the pros and cons of each across five rounds of head-to-head analysis using a set of five key criteria. PREVIOUS ROUNDS Click the links be,low to access the previous parts of this series: Round One - ease of implementation. Round Two - range of co

Welcome to the Jungle: Amazon Odyssey

One place that has always fascinated me is the Amazon Rainforest. It also makes for a wonderful topic of study in schools and our Year 5 students have enjoyed learning all about this amazing place for a number of years now. In 2014 I wrote an article about using apps to gamify learning about the Rainforest. More recently VR has proven an absolutely amazing tool for immersing students in the deepest depths of the Amazon. There's actually a brilliant range of Rainforest themed

Using AR/VR to enter fantasy worlds

Do you like the graphic? If you’re a Stranger Things fan, you'll no doubt recognise it and are likely wondering how I made it. The answer is this cool little web app which you can find here. So indeed, this piece is somewhat inspired by the fantastic slice of sci-fi brilliance that is Stranger Things. I absolutely love that show and having recently finished the new season on Netflix, it had me thinking a lot about the whole concept of portals to parallel worlds. It’s a concep

AR vs VR in Education: Round 2

What's better for education - Ar or VR? That's the question I'm exploring across this five part series. Obviously I feel that they both have merit, otherwise this site would only be dedicated to one of them. This series is exploring the pros and cons of each across five rounds of head-to-head analysis using a set of five key criteria. Please do join the conversation by sharing the posts on social media or adding your own comments to each round. ROUND 2: Range of Content So in

VR with purpose: viewing 3D models in Kubity

One of the most fun projects I developed whilst teaching Computing a couple of years ago was a 3D design project with Year 5 students using Google SketchUp. They were studying The Victorians so we researched the key elements of Victorian houses and then they used the excellent SketchUp platform to build their own 3D model. I’ve recently been working to coordinate a VR project with our Secondary DT department. Ultimately I want to get some students using Gravity Sketch and Mak

AR vs VR in Education: Round 1

With Tim Cook and Apple pushing AR whilst Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook push VR, there has never been a brighter light shone on the world of AR and VR. One question I seem to be getting asked quite regularly at events I am presenting at recently is, “What’s better for education – AR or VR?” It’s a fair question - educators are hearing more and more about these emergent technologies and simply want to know if one or the other should be their focus. Their concerns are also often

8 key reasons VR will transform education

It's been a hectic couple of weeks for me. I've just completed a run of four conferences in ten days, with multiple opportunities to share my work with VR. The first of these events was GITEX Technology Week here in Duba. Now in its 37th year, GITEX is the single biggest conference in the region and takes over the entire Convention Centre at the World Trade Centre. It's a technology event but parallel conferences are integrated focusing on specific industries. This year I was

12 things to look for in a mobile VR headset

I remember having to import my first mobile VR headset from the USA back in 2014. Skip forwards to 2017 and mobile VR headsets are available in tech stores, toy stores and even so e supermarkets in a wide range of styles, sizes and price points. I was recently given the green light to purchase 24 headsets for our Secondary school so I started researching our options. I already had about seven different types of Mobile VR headset myself but I ordered another four types based

Virtual time travel using Timelooper

Timelooper is one of the most interesting mobile VR applications I’ve come across lately. A history-themed app, Timelooper offers a bank of virtual experiences set in locations including London, Washington, New York, Berlin, Budapest and more. These are no ordinary 360s in these locations though, nor are they virtual museum tours. Timelooper offers something much more unique – virtual time travel. The app offers a glimpse at iconic locations and moments in history. Experience

Create a virtual gallery using Roomful

A couple of years ago I played around with an iPad app that allowed you to create a virtual art gallery. The app (3D Gallery) allowed you to import images to place on the gallery walls then use a touchscreen interface to move around and view them. It was basic but effective though it lacked a lot of features that could have elevated it (like the ability to screencast or share the gallery.) I featured it in one of my all-time favourite features over on iPad Educators – my Bank

10 amazing virtual museum tours

Virtual Museum Tours are steadily becoming more and more common. VR has the power to transport users to places they might never be able to visit in real life so welcoming digital visitors into the museums of the world is a natural fit. It’s also a huge win for students across the globe as they get to explore some amazing pieces of world history with unprecedented access and ease. This really strikes a chord with me as an international educator, working in a British curriculum

How to find the best 360 videos on YouTube

YouTube has a wealth of free educational 360 videos that can enrich and transform learning. Of course it also has a lot of other content to wade through (360 and otherwise.) I've spent some time trawling through YouTube looking for the best channels for educational 360 videos. First though, a few tips and tricks for using 360/VR content from YouTube: - Once the video is playing look for the VR headset icon in the bottom right corner to switch to stereoscopic VR mode and view

Video footage from #CPDinVR panel discussion

On August 15th, I hosted the most recent #CPDinVR sessions inside Engage. The first was an encore presentation of the original session from June and the second was a new panel discussion exploring AR and VR in education. On the panel were Martin Bukacek (Community Shaman at Lifeliqe), Mercedes Bent (CEO of Ben Toppin and former VP at Upload VR) and Alex Chaucer (host of the #VREDUchat on Twitter and pioneering VR educator.) The team at Immersive VR Education added some amazin

Creating objects with IBM Watson Sandbox

Yesterday I went hands-on with the IBM Watson Sandbox app on the HTC Vive. Harnessing the IBM supercomputer that combines AI and analytical software, this tech demo offers a unique glimpse at what could well become the future of user interfaces – the human voice. The app allows you to create in VR using just speech. Say “dog” and one appears. Want a gorilla or a burger or a table or a dragon? All of these and more can be spawned by simply speaking their name. In fact the app

10 ways to learn about religion using VR

On paper I am Christian, though I would probably call myself an atheist. My wife (also a Christian on paper) is more likely to quote the Buddha than the Bible. Nonetheless we have friends who are Catholic, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu, all of whom we view equally and whose beliefs we accept. We also make a point of ensuring our two daughters appreciate and understand the role that religion plays in people’s lives and grow up respecting other’s beliefs. We live in a world that is

Collaborative Writing using Nature Treks VR

One of my all time favourite lessons was a session I put together and delivered in 2013 with some Year 4 students. They were studying Vikings and the saga of Beowulf and we were helping them develop their creative writing skills by integrating a couple of iPad apps.. We used Morfo to turn the students into the Viking character of their own sagas and then an app called Epic Citadel to help them with the setting. Epic Citadel was a tech demo from Epic Games and provided an empt

5 amazing VR experiences inside Engage

Most of the time I'm talking about Engage, it's generally in relation to the #CPDinVR events (find them here) but the truth is that even though Engage is still in beta, you'd be hard put to find a VR app with such a wide range of amazing educational experiences. Engage is currently free to access and runs on Vive, Oculus or directly on a PC. This means that even schools with a single/limited number of VR headsets can access these amazing multi-user VR learning opportunities.

Exploring the Virtuality Continuum

The one thing about the world of AR and VR in education that I think still confuses the everyday teacher is the terminology. There are so many terms flying around that at times seem synonymous and at others seem very different. Augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality – what do they actually mean? In 2015, I found myself waiting to get my hands on a Vive when Microsoft announced the HoloLens, dubbing it “mixed reality.” I was confused by the terminology being used an

Exploring microscopic worlds in VR

Micro Cosmic World is a new VR app from developers Codon VR. It makes clever use of virtual reality to explore and learn about the microscopic world. I really like this concept; we often think of VR as a tool for travelling to distant lands, or even back in time but being able to gain this unique perspective on the world around us is an excellent idea and one that I'm sure we have not seen the last of. There are four stages to the experience that take you into smaller and sma