VR in Education

Episode 90- Ways to Sustain VR in Your Institution

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode,  we explore a recent post I did on LinkedIn.  In the posting I talked about 4 ways to keep your VR lab or program from suffering a slow death.  Some of the strategies to sustain a VR lab and program might be:  1. Work closely with instructors and educators on how to integrate Virtual Worlds that connect to bigger concepts within their curriculum.  2. Refrain from “type-casting” the VR lab and headsets to just one department or section within your school.  3. Scale up professional development that teaches educators how to use and build no-code virtual worlds and experiences and how to connect these to learning outcomes. 4. Develop a “learning in 3D” academic policy that outlines the mission and vision around how , when and why VR can enhance learning.  In this episode, I want to unpack some of these in greater detail. 

Episode 89- The Efficacy of Using VR for Medical Needs

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode,  we are looking at how the medical industry is using Virtual worlds to educate each other.  From virtual conferences, to learning from experienced doctors, to practicing real-life procedures and scenarios, the metaverse  has huge potential for doctors.  Today, we have invited Dr. Steven Houston III who is a Vitreoretinal surgeon and founder of METAMED.  And we also have Dr. Eric  Rosenberg who is a Cornea, Cataract, and Refractive Surgeon and Co-Founder of MetaMEd.

Episode 88- Time to Break up The Lecture in Higher ED Using VR

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode,  we are looking at how VR might enhance Higher Education.   The primary form of instruction for many college and university classes is via lecture.  This methodology might leave some students unengaged and bored.  So, how can professors break up their lectures and provide more active learning modalities in the lessons?  On the show we are talking with Gary Burnett.  Gary does research and teaching related to human Factors/Ergonomics within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham.

Episode 87-Exploring New Frontiers: Speech and Debate in VR

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode,  we explore the frontiers of speech and debate in the Virtual World.  Covid  pushed many schools to participate in Speech and Debate via video conferencing through zoom or google meet.  Even though covid has slowed down, many speech and debate tournaments continue to offer video conferencing options.   Although this is a more cost effective way for schools, the lack  of presence embodiment makes it less engaging than a physical face-face speech and debate tournament.   We have invited Stefan Bauschard, founder of DebateUS, Co-Executive Director of the New York City Urban Debate League and long time debate coach at Lakeland schools.  And, We also have Joe Rankin, Head Speech and Debate coach at Bettendorf HS in Bettendorf, IA and in his 17th year teaching/coaching.  You can reach Joe at jrankin@bettendorf.k12.ia.us and Stefan at stefan.bauschard@gmail.com.

Episode 86- My Exclusive Interview with ChatbotGPT3 about VR in Education

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode,  we are exploring the controversial world of AI intelligence.  ChatGPT3 applies machine learning algorithms to a massive corpus of text to respond to users' requests using language that sounds surprisingly human-like.  ChatGPT3 is has agreed to sit down with me to explore the topic of VR in Education.

Episode 85- A Deep Dive into Avatars and Identity

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode,  we are exploring how virtual worlds might affect our evolving identity.   We have invited Giovanni Castillo, a senior metaverse designer for aquent.  He is a design thinker, architect and creative technologist that was born for the spatial computing revolution.  I reached out to him based on an insightful article he recently wrote and posted on LinkedIn.  He is here today to help us understand more about his work with understanding how avatars might impact our virtual world experience.  You can contact Giovanni by email at gcastillo@aquent.com 

Episode 84- Lessons from the VR Classroom

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode, we are talking with teachers who are using vr in the classroom  to make a difference.  They are pushing the boundaries of innovation and blazing a path for other teachers to follow when it comes to the adoption of immersive learning tools.  Terje Pedersen is from Norway and has been teaching there for around 14 years. He has been using oculus quest headsets in his school for various learning engagements.  Kim Aarberg , also from Norway, is  a teacher with interests in gamification and VR and a former google workplace specialist.  You can reach out to them on linkenIn at linkedin.com/in/terje-pedersen-935268175 and linkedin.com/in/kim-aarberg-b22b8169

Episode 83-Teaching and Learning in The Metaverse with Dr. Karl Kapp

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode, we are talking with Dr. Karl Kapp.  Dr. Kapp  is a professor at Bloomsburg University and co-author of THE book on learning in a metaverse written back in 2010 called Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration. The model described in the book is as relevant today as it was back then. It is a blueprint for designing learning experiences in the metaverse.  He is here today to talk more about this model and how it translates to effective learning design for 3D virtual worlds.  You can learn more about Dr. Kapp's work on Linkedin.  

Episode 82- VR, Participatory Research and Pedagogy with Erica Southgate

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode, we are talking with Erica Southgate.   Erica is Associate Professor of Emerging Technologies for Education in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia.  She is author of the book “Virtual Reality in Curriculum and Pedagogy for secondary classrooms”.  In her book she shares findings and stories of research related to using immersive virtual reality at a secondary school in Australia.  Additionally, she keeps a robust website https://vrschoolresearch.com/  where she blogs about her research with teachers in real time and provides free research papers and classroom resources. Erica is here today to help us unpack some of her findings.

Episode 81-Tech Adaptika and Immersive Learning

Hello everyone.  Welcome to another exciting episode of VR in Education.  In today’s episode, we are talking with Hosni Zaouali, the CEO of Tech Adaptika.  Hosni knew, even at a young age, that education would be the catalyst to propel him forward and empower him to help others.  He has an impressive formal education background.  Hosni has a B.A ENG in Nuclear Engineering from the Sorbonne in Paris and a MBA in International Development from Laval University.  He was founder of Voilà Learning, a company that offered online French education, mostly for people in Africa, and taught an Online Executive Program for Stanford University.  What an impressive background.  You can reach him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/hosninio/