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12 Free VR Apps for the Classroom

12 Free VR Apps for the Classroom

One of the teachers I work with recently asked me to look for some mobile AR/VR content on the theme of Natural Disasters which her students were studying after the Christmas break. My first port of call was YouTube where I curated an appropriate set of 360 videos about volcanoes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. This has become a go-to move for me as I can navigate the content quickly and produce staff a sheet of QR codes that students can scan to directly access the

VR Tour Apps - an interactive map

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

The Periodic Table of Apps for AR and VR

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

Meaningful, multi-platform VR integration

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

Animated diagrams in AR using JigSpace

Animated diagrams in AR using JigSpace

I initially held off on discussing any of the new ARKit developed apps when iOS 11 launched for one main reason - I couldn’t actually use most of them! My iPhone 6 was hanging by a thread as I waited out the X whilst my iPad Air 2 is doing just fine and I have no plans to upgrade it any time soon. Neither of them could run the vast majority of the ARKit apps though as they simply weren’t powerful enough. Now I have the iPhone X, I have finally been able to dig into these new

VR with purpose: viewing 3D models in Kubity

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

5 AR mask apps for Halloween

5 AR mask apps for Halloween

I’m a huge fan of Halloween, probably due to a somewhat unhealthy obsession with horror movies growing up! I also love bringing the spooky fun of Halloween into the classroom and have implemented a wide range of ghoulish activities over the years. One thing that we all associate with Halloween is masks and this is something that augmented reality can do very well. Indeed it was the Snapchat/Facebook live filter phenomenon that (along with Pokemon Go!) brought AR to the masses

Aurasma: a retrospective

Aurasma: a retrospective

Like anyone interested in augmented reality, I have been closely following the launch of iOS11 and the debut of the much heralded ARKit apps. Like many other educators though, I’m not in a position to harness them in school as our devices are not powerful enough to actually run them. The buzz around AR has made me reflect on my own experiences with augmented reality though and in the five years I’ve been using AR in education, one platform has definitely been harnessed more c

12 things to look for in a mobile VR headset

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

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

Early Learning in AR with NeoBear

Early Learning in AR with NeoBear

Recently I caught wind of an augmented reality company based in China called Neobear. What struck me about their AR products was that they were purely educational and aimed squarely at younger learners. This week I was fortunate enough to get my hands on three items from the NeoBear range – the AR Globe, The AR Pop-up Zoo flashcards and the NeoBear’s World Tour Pop-up AR Paintings book set. Each product comes with access to a free app (iOS or Android) which brings the content

Create a virtual gallery using Roomful

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

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

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

10 ways to learn about religion using VR

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

Augmented Feedback using Gabsee

Augmented Feedback using Gabsee

A couple of weeks ago I came across Gabsee on Twitter. Its a fun little app for creating AR avatars that has the unique feature of taking your selfie and applying it to the avatar (you just add the hair and clothes.) You can select one of several actions for your character and then place it on a surface in the real world via AR. It's a fun, simple tool and not one that is necessarily aimed at the classroom. That being said, other avatar creation apps like Tellagami were nev

Manipulating Markers: changing the scale of AR

Manipulating Markers: changing the scale of AR

There are essentially four ways that you trigger an augmented reality experience using a mobile app: 1. Using a product that you have to buy to access the AR content. Examples of this would be the new Merge VR Cube, the 4D+ cards from Octagon Studio and the augmented reality puzzles from Ravensburger. 2. Using a printable marker that you download from the developer. These are usually free but you will sometimes have to pay for specific experiences within the related app. Exa

The Augmented Reality Dinosaur Safari

The Augmented Reality Dinosaur Safari

A few months ago a colleague of mine who works in EYFS asked me for ideas to enrich their new dinosaurs topic. I suggested several applications that provided opportunities for these young students to learn more about dinosaurs during independent learning and free flow activities. Then I remembered an augmented reality app that I’d stumbled across a couple of years ago called Dinosaurs Everywhere and we used it to create quite a powerful hook for the start of their topic: she

Five reasons I love the ZooKazam app

Five reasons I love the ZooKazam app

One AR app I have loved using with students over the last few years is ZooKazam. This mobile app offers a bank of augmented reality animals in 3D. There are several similar apps that can bring animals into AR but ZooKazam is by far the best and the one I recommend most regularly to other educators. There are two versions of the app available: the free version has a limited selection of models available but lets you try the app and experience it for yourself. What you want t

Building multi-user AR/VR experiences with Eon Creator AVR

Building multi-user AR/VR experiences with Eon Creator AVR

There are lots of platforms available that offer AR and VR experiences for the classroom. There are far fewer though that allow educators to actually design the learning experience by framing the content effectively. Nearpod lets you build presentations around 360s, Expeditions scaffolds their experiences with information and focal points whilst other apps will enrich their virtual content with facts and figures. Eon Creator AVR offers something quite different - the ability