social | Educators in VR

Have we got a month of events for you this month! Oh, where to start?

Let’s begin with our regular weekly Educators in VR workshops on Tuesdays in AltspaceVR. Last month we had some amazing events with Chris Madsen of ENGAGE discussing how to set up a VR classroom and the standards and practices you should consider.

Nicolas Barone of the Universe dazzled us with tips and tricks on how he presents computer science and programming workshops in AltspaceVR.

With these and other exciting workshops and events behind us, what’s coming up?

February Workshops and Social

We will get to the information on the International Summit, but let’s look at what we have for our regular Tuesday Educators in VR workshops and events.

February 4, 2020 – Educators in VR Social: We have a fun Educators in VR Social event where you will have a chance to meet other educators from around the world and network and learn what others are up to in integrating VR into education, from the classroom to research to development. With the International Conference in a couple weeks, this is a great opportunity for speakers and volunteers to meet up, and you to meet them as well. We are expecting a full house, so get there early.

February 11, 2020 – Creating Educational Events in AltspaceVR: This popular event explores creating educational events in AltspaceVR, and in other VR educational and social platforms. It’s a great introduction for those new to hosting educational events in virtual reality, exploring the considerations of the event space or world, making it public, private, or paid, and tips and techniques for immersive classroom experiences.

February 25, 2020 – Educators in VR After Summit Social: Come party with us to celebrate the After Summit Social, an opportunity to network with attendees, speakers, and volunteers who survived the International Summit. We will be partying hardying!

2020 Educators in VR International Summit

Honestly, we started out with a goal of 40 speakers spread across 5 or 6 days in a couple of VR platforms. Little did we realize when we sent out the speaker application during the holidays, the worst time possible to coordinate an event, we would be flooooooded with applications. They were so good, we decided that since we were doing this virtual, and virtual reality is infinite – right? What’s the harm in expanding?

We will find out February 17-22, 2020, in AltspaceVR, ENGAGE, rumii, Mozilla Hubs, and Somnium Space. We have about 170 speakers and panelists lined up for almost 24 hours a day for six days. Are you ready for this? The schedule will be published shortly.

To manage all this, we have volunteer meetings in AltspaceVR and in our Discord server, and training sessions to help speakers.

Speaker 101: Training Sessions: To help speakers prepare for the 2020 Educators in VR International Summit, we’re hosting a series of training sessions exploring options on how to present in VR including the use of the moderation and hosting tools, slides, presentation styles, and how to keep your audience in their hot and heavy headsets in their virtual seats and engaged for the full length of your presentation while fiddling with all the little bits behind the scenes. These are open to the public as well, so if consider presenting educational events in VR, especially in AltspaceVR, you won’t want to miss one of these special presentations.

February 6, 2020 Thursday – Public Volunteers Meetup for Educators in VR International Summit: Considering volunteering for the Educators in VR International Summit, or volunteering to help with Educators in VR in general, or maybe an AltspaceVR event, Lorelle and the Educators in VR team will introduce you to the opportunities to support Educators in VR events and activities, and teach you a little about how this volunteering in VR thing works. Volunteering doesn’t take much time. We need volunteers willing to give an hour or two during the International Summit, or maybe longer. It’s up to you. We need people of all skills and abilities, from office style work (spreadsheets, email, taking notes, project management) to moderating events to filming and recording events in VR. Even if you don’t know how, we are here to help you learn. Stretch a little and learn something new! This is a great opportunity.

These are all open to the public. If you are a speaker or volunteer, you will be provided with private event information.

Many of the sessions will be live streamed and/or recorded and posted to our YouTube channel, but we need volunteers to help make this happen.

The master calendar will be on our website on our International Event page, and we will be announcing speakers in the next few days.

Consider subscribing to our Educators in VR event subscription channel to receive regular reminders of upcoming events there.

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.

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 may be disruptive. For more information on accessing and installing AltspaceVR, check out their download web page.

If you would like to present at one of our weekly workshops, please submit your speaker’s proposal to us. Considering joining one of our many team projects. If you have questions or need more information, please contact us or connect with one of our many social media channels.

It’s time to party! Tuesday, July 30, 2019, Educators in VR members are invited to the first-ever “Educators in VR Social in AltspaceVR.”

This will be a great opportunity it meet and greet your fellow virtual reality pioneers and get to know them. It’s also a great time to look back over much of the last year to celebrate what we’ve accomplished. And we’ve accomplished much.

Educators in VR had our first meetup in AltspaceVR in November last year. We’ve had monthly meetups featuring some of the most powerful voices in spatial technology education ever since, and in June, added weekly Educators in VR Workshops and an Educators in VR on the Road series exploring various educational and social virtual platforms beginning with Engage. We now have so many events in AltspaceVR, we have an event subscription channel for Educators in VR in AltspaceVR to help you keep track of all the things we are doing there.

We created our website, Educators in VR, a VERY active and engaged Educators in VR Discord group, Facebook group, and Twitter to connect and share information and research on virtual technologies in education, celebrate our member achievements, and to bring great like-minds together to collaborate.

In July, Daniel Dyboski-Bryant (Wales, UK) and Lorelle VanFossen (Oregon, USA) officially created the business of Educators in VR Ltd. in the UK. We are working on an international virtual summit across multiple virtual platforms for November, so stay tuned for news on that. This event needs you to make it a success, so please let us know if you are able to help.

After a very busy past few months, with Daniel and Lorelle speaking at various in-world and virtual conferences around the world, developed new workshops and classes, and developed the business plan, we are taking a short break in August. Get ready for a ton of Educators in VR education and fun in September!

Educators in VR represents educators, trainers, researchers, schools, businesses, and learners integrating virtual technologies into education. To become more involved, 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.

Attend the Educators in VR Social Party 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.