Author: Michael McDonald

2019 Virtual Reality Day – 24 Hours in VR

/ Michael McDonald / Leave a comment

VR Day 2019 - 24 hours in VR.Educators in VR is very proud to announce our participation in the 2019 Virtual Reality Day celebrations of twenty-four hours in VR on November 22-23, 2019. Events will be hosted in person around the world as well as in a variety of VR social and educational platforms. You may track all the activities and updates with the hashtag #24HoursVR or check the VR Day website for details.

Along with other amazing VR educators, experts, world builders, creators, and researchers, Educators in VR will be hosting conversation, training, and educational workshops throughout the day in AltspaceVR.

Subject to change, Educators in VR will be hosting special events in AltspaceVR beginning Friday and running through Saturday on November 22-23, 2019, depending upon your time zone:

  • World Building in VR with Unity and World Tools: Carsten Pluntke and Lorelle VanFossen. Washington, DC – 3:00am
    • Dubai, UAE – 12:00pm
    • London, UK – 8:00am
    • San Fran – Midnight
  • vLanguage Learning: Foreign Language Learning in VR: Michael McDonald of Gold Lotus.
    • Washington, DC – 4:30am
    • Dubai, UAE – 1:30pm
    • London, UK – 9:30am
    • San Fran – 1:30am
  • Students in VR: Michael Zhang of ICXR.
    • Washington, DC – 9:00am
    • Dubai, UAE – 6:00pm
    • London, UK – 2:00pm
    • San Fran – 6:00am
  • ConVRsation with Educators in VR: Lorelle VanFossen and the Educators in VR team.
    • Washington, DC – 8:30pm
    • Dubai, UAE – Sun 5:30am
    • London, UK – Sun 1:30am
    • San Fran – 5:30pm
  • Educators in VR 101 Forum: Lorelle VanFossen and the Educators in VR team.
    • Washington, DC – 9:30pm
    • Dubai, UAE – Sun 6:30am
    • London, UK – Sun 2:30am
    • San Fran – 6:30pm
  • Tips and Tricks for Teaching in VR: Lorelle VanFossen and the Educators in VR team.
    • Washington, DC – 10:30pm
    • Dubai, UAE – Sun 7:30am
    • London, UK – Sun 3:30am
    • San Fran – 7:30pm
  • Cyberbullying and Bullying in VR: Lorelle VanFossen and the Educators in VR team.
    • Washington, DC – 11:30pm
    • Dubai, UAE – Sun 8:30am
    • London, UK – Sun 4:30am
    • San Fran – 8:30pm

Other guest presenters include some of the most innovative evangelists in VR, especially education in VR:

  • Andrew Conklin
  • Anne McKinnon
  • Eve Weston
  • Jim Malcolm
  • Ken Ehrhart
  • Lara Bucarey
  • Nicolas Barone
  • Olivia Goldman-Szwajkajzer
  • Sana Farid
  • Steve Bambury
  • Syed Akbar

World VR Day, in its third-consecutive year now, is the brainchild of Bob Fine, founder of the popular VR news website VRVoice.co.  The aim of this annual celebration is to help virtual and augmented reality become more mainstream, and you’d be hard pushed to find such a rich selection of events and guest speakers all crammed into one day.  We’re sure that you’ll be so inspired by what’s on offer that by the time the Cyber Monday rolls around, you’ll want that latest headset to take your teaching or learning to the next level using this exciting technology.

Whether we meet in person or in VR during this international celebration of the power of VR, we hope to meet you.

Educators in VR vLanguage Learning: Giuseppe Fantigrossi of Play2Speak

/ Michael McDonald / Leave a comment

After the success of our inaugural Educators in VR vLanguage Learning event in late September with special guest Dr. Aaron Ralby talking about memory palaces in virtual reality, we’ve another heavyweight guest lined up for our next vLanguage Learning event.

Thursday 14th November our special guest is Giuseppe Fantigrossi, CEO of Play2Speak.

Play2Speak logo.

The VR app, Play2Speak, teaches conversational English with virtual characters to improve fluency, with a little help from AI, too. A speaker of four languages himself, Giuseppe has a diverse background – he is a Food Scientist, with an MBA from Concordia University and in a previous life worked as a process improvement consultant, specializing in IT projects. Today he follows his passion in connecting others and creating solutions in the entrepreneurial world through the Play2Speak English-learning VR app.

Secret of Puffin Cove app cover.

As always, the presentation will be followed by a Q&A where you can put your questions to Giuseppe to understand more about how VR can support the way your learn or teach languages.

Educators in VR is dedicated to providing educational events, trainings, and workshops for educators and learners to prepare them for the future of spatial technologies in education. We offer weekly workshops in AltspaceVR and other platforms, and a monthly meetup featuring key educators, trainers, and developers in VR, AR, XR, and MR technology and education.

Join our Educators in VR Discord group, Facebook, and follow us 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.

To Attend Educators in VR Events 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 users. If you do not have a VR device, you may also install the 2D version for use on your Windows desktop computer. 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.

If you would like to join our Educators in VR vLanguage Learning team project, or one of our other team projects and possibly present at one of our VR educational workshops, please contact us or connect with one of our many social media channels.