Author: Daniel Dyboski-Bryant

VR/AR High School Virtual Hackathon

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VRoKC VRX Extended Challenge 2020 logoEducators in VR is proud to support the VXR Extended Challenge 2020 by VRoKCs (VR Rocks), the non-profit, software development mentoring program for high school students out of Kansas City. While usually a real-life challenge and event working with student teams and teachers, this year it’s gone totally virtual with students working from home.

To help you learn more about this virtual hack-a-thon style collaborative event, Rohit Chaube of VRoKCs will present an overview and discussion of the VXR Extended Challenge 2020 in AltspaceVR Tuesday, April 14.

The VXR Extended Challenge 2020 is a pressure-test in utilizing design thinking and collaboration with virtual teams to build a functioning VR/AR prototype that addresses a specific problem. After the challenge, teams may receive help to build their prototype into a minimal viable product (MVP), working toward making it a commercially viable product.

The challenge will be issued April 17 at 12PM GMT, igniting the spirit of collaboration and teamwork in VR and AR development.

The final project and pitch video is due online by May 3 at noon GMT, then submitted to a panel of VR/AR and industry partners for judging. Winners and prizes will be announced at the upcoming Students in VR conference, May 7-8, 2020, in AltspaceVR and ENGAGE.

Throughout the challenge, there will be workshops and Q&A sessions hosted online for the student participants to help them learn from industry expertse the latest VR/AR tools, techniques, and problem-solving. Technical mentors and subject matter experts will also be available to help the student teams.

This is a powerful educational and self-directed learning challenge and experiment for the students every year, but this year is even more challenging. The challenge is also now open to any high school student (9th-12th grade). Students must provide their own devices, and any VR/AR device is acceptable including the use of smart phones, Google Cardboard, and Oculus, VIVE, and other VR devices. Don’t have one, they recommend the students be creative and borrow one or sue web browser based VR tools like A-Frame, or build your own. That’s part of the challenge.

If you are a high school student, or a teacher of high school students, and wish to be involved, attend our special event Tuesday in AltspaceVR for an overview, and visit VXR Extended Challenge 2020.

April 2020 Events and Workshops

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Educators in VR is busier than ever as the world stays self-isolated, working from home, reaching out to virtual reality and Educators in VR to help provide resources, consulting, and training on producing and hosting virtual events in VR.

This past month found us busier than ever as we moved from the success of the 2020 Educators in VR International Summit into consulting, training, and production support for schools, governments, businesses, and conferences changing from real-world to virtual.

Michael McDonald of Gold Lotus and the Educators in VR 24 Hr English Lesson in VR.We also had a very successful first-ever 24 Hour English Lesson and fundraiser with Michael McDonald of Gold Lotus, an Educators in VR sponored and produced event that raised over 2,000 Euro for Red Cross Italy Lecce and had hundreds of attendees across 3 virtual platforms in those 24 hours. Well done, Michael!

In addition to our regularly weekly Educators in VR workshops on Tuesdays in AltspaceVR, we have special events, open discussions, and great news for you. We’ve also updating our Educators in VR events calendar on Google to help you find all our events across multiple platforms, including our Educators in VR AltspaceVR channel. For a look at all the events across the VR metaverse, check out the VR Events by VRevents.io.

Educators in VR Workshops and Trainings

Educators in VR Workshop with Sonya Haskins, esports and VR games expert.Tuesday Weekly Workshops: We meet in AltspaceVR and the workshops are free and open to the public.

Educators in VR International Summit - Workshop.Training Workshops: Educators in VR is dedicated to providing training programs and workshops for educators, learners, researchers, and anyone interested in creating educational events in VR. The workshops are a combination of free introductory programs and paid workshops.

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Weekly Workshop: Creating Educational Events in AltspaceVR

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Educators in VR Weekly Workshops bannerThe next Educators in VR Weekly Workshop is Tuesday, July 16, 2019, in AltspaceVR, and will feature Lorelle VanFossen presenting “Creating Educational Events in AltspaceVR.”

Imagine teaching students from around the world in a single virtual space. Or bringing your students to a virtual world where they can explore climate change, Notre Dame, or museums and galleries. Take this a step further and consider the possibilities of encouraging your students to build their own museum, gallery, or homework project in a virtual space. The possibilities are endless, but we are going to start simple and introduce you to step one in creating an educational event in AltspaceVR, a similar process to other social VR platforms, to help prepare for the possibilities. And if you are looking for an easy-to-use platform for educational programs and events, be it high school classes or corporate training, AltspaceVR is an excellent choice. It offers a vibrant community to support public events, and an excellent and professional events team to work with to help you make your event a success.

The hour-long workshop will cover the logistics of creating an educational event in AltspaceVR, event location, layout, structure, and how to integrate video and slides. While she will be touching on some aspects of world building and interactivity in Altspace, stay tuned for a workshop this fall that covers this complex area.

Educators in VR Immersive Classroom Event in the Last Glacier with Lorelle VanFossen.When it comes to credentials for tips and techniques on education and events in Altspace, few come more qualified. Lorelle spent the last year teaching and presenting an average of 3 events a week in AltspaceVR, evaluating it as an educational and social platform. Normally she travels 5-7 months a year presenting keynotes, workshops, and trainings on web publishing and digital storytelling across the planet, traveling more through virtual space than physical this year. Lorelle VanFossen as Relle in AltspaceVR.Pushing AltspaceVR to its limits, she presents topics rarely found with the virtual experience, creative writing, genealogy and family history. She also hosts and moderates social and meetup events along with community service training and world building. She is the co-host for the News & Updates in AltspaceVR every Saturday. Lorelle helped produce several highly successful collaborative projects, including the Halloween VR Maze events that attracted over 3,000 users. News and Updates Studio for Pride Month in AltspaceVR.She works with the AltspaceVR events and community teams to teach, promote, and encourage training, mentoring, and collaborative projects within the AltspaceVR community as part of the Community Helper program.

Educators in VR presents weekly workshops as part of our mission to train and prepare educators and learns for the future of technology with virtual and augmented realities. We offer workshops on the basics of VR with Educators in VR 101, on teaching within an immersive classroom, and workshops with special guest speakers covering the diverse topics of education in spatial technologies. We also have a monthly meetup to discuss the educational industry and network, usually the third week of the month. Coming soon are special event programs like Educators in VR on the Road, journeying to other social and educational platforms, and the Educators in VR Showcase, highlighting products and services in the virtual education industry.

Please note that we will take a break in August, but already have exciting workshops and meetups planned for September.

Join our Educators in VR Discord group, Facebook, and follow up on Twitter for information on meetups and how to become more involved. Consider subscribing to our Educators in VR event subscription channel to receive regular reminders of upcoming events there. We publish member brags and news you can use about virtual reality in education across the entire spectrum of usage from childhood education to health and science to corporate.

Educators in VR Meetup in AltspaceVR

We meet in AltspaceVR, a free virtual reality social app and community. You may RSVP on our events page and AltspaceVR will send you a reminder an hour before the event.

You may attend as a guest or member using the free AltspaceVR mobile app or 2D version. AltspaceVR is available for Samsung Gear, Steam Store for HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, and the Oculus Store for Rift, Go, and Quest (sideloaded) users. If you do not have a VR device, you may also install the 2D version for use on your Windows desktop computer version. A headset and microphone (quality earbuds acceptable) is required to participate. Otherwise please stay muted during the event as the background noise and echoes can be disruptive. For more information on accessing and installing AltspaceVR, check out their download web page.

VRX2019 Conference – Amsterdam

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One of our founders, Daniel Dyboski-Bryant, presented last week at VRX 2019 in Amsterdam to about 70 industry professionals about the opportunities and challenges of VR in Education. Daniel is the Project Lead – Exploring VR in Further Education, Remote Learning and Language Learning – at Coleg Menai, North Wales, UK. His background is in English Language Teaching where he teaches refugees and migrant workers and he is now focusing on immersive technologies to explore this field in education.

Representing his College and Educators in VR, he had many conversations throughout the event about the future of virtual reality in education. He also made contact with experts and businesses on behalf of Educators in VR and made the following arrangements:

  • Hewlett Packard added Educators in VR to their new HP Reverb headset testers team, ready in June.
  • Xennial Digital will grant access to test their content for testing to members.
  • Finnish Company 360MediaHouse offered testing accounts for their 360 online editing platform.
  • Funding potential for RemoteVR Classes and Academics at conferences and expos.
Daniel Dyboski-Bryant trialing the Magic Leap with Xennial Digital content.

The industry is working hard on driving adoption and building quality content across the spectrum of education. Educators in VR members are on the cutting edge of that industry with our experience and expertise in delivering quality virtual reality experiences, research, apps, and training across multiple age groups and disciplines.

An interesting area of growth of LBE (Location Based Entertainment) as a means of reaching and marketing to new customers offers an opportunity for education to collaborate with companies. We believe that our global members are key players in offering LBE experiences and education. Don’t you?

More conferences and expos are coming up, and we’d like to have Educators in VR represented at these events. If you will be attending or speaking, please let us know how we can help you spread the word. Thanks!