The University of Washington’s Foldit game enables anyone to contribute to scientific research through virtual protein folding. The university’s game developers posit that human gamers’ propensity to not give up on a gaming task – resiliency – make them much more adept at solving complex protein structure prediction and design than supercomputers. And in some ways, they’ve already proven that to be so. Foldit game participants have been named in several published scientific journal articles, including one that describes how a protein structure could be solved and used in the treatment of HIV.
The rich, interactive universe of Grand Theft Auto was the inspiration for this game, developed for The World Bank as a way to teach Sub-Sahara African youths to solve social problems in ways that also could provide a sustainable living. The platform is free and available online and can be used by schools to teach social entrepreneurship. A graphic novel serves as the game’s centerpiece, and players build out their gaming profiles as a comic or graphic novel might retell a superhero’s origin story. Participants complete projects in real life to solve real problems, such as securing a community’s food supply or establishing a sustainable power source, then progress through levels of the game. Those who successfully complete their 10-week missions ultimately earn certification from the World Bank Institute. In 2010, 50 student participants saw their entrepreneurship models funded by the World Bank, including Libraries Across Africa (now Librii), a franchise operating in Ghana.
Not all games must be played out in a virtual space. This game – developed by McGonigal with Natron Baxter and Playmatics – combines real-world missions with virtual clues and online collaboration, resulting in young people working together overnight in the New York Public Library to write and publish a book of personal essays about what they learned.
“The game is designed to empower young people to find their own futures by bringing them face-to-face with the writings and objects of people who made an extraordinary difference.”
Participants spend a night wandering throughout the library’s stacks and research materials, scanning QR codes to prove they found and interacted with the objects of their clues or missions. One 2011 participant, upon discovering the library’s early draft of the Declaration of Independence wrote an essay called a “Declaration of Interdependence.”
money and gaming are only the first of being completely pushed into a new all encompassing ‘reality’ of its own.
2021 also popularized the Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) — private property transferred to virtual reality. If on a first level a photo or film keep certain relation to the real, a NFT is a second level of dematerialization of our world and perceived ‘reality’. It simulates, in a virtual world (per se already a simulacrum), the simulacrum of an image/photo/video — and, as if magically, it acquires ‘value’ and it is deemed proprietary.
The future decade’s pressures are more and more on the deterioration of what is left of the real world — climate change, pandemics, automation of work, decreasing populations (first in the West, then in the rest of the world), and scarce resources. The work that produces material things were/are the first to be automated — first in agriculture, then manufacturing and now finally services. In such a decadent material world, continuous growth would not be possible anymore — but with virtual ones
There is never enough data.
super fast internet (5G), increasing data centers, quantum computing, health trackers on human bodies, machine-brain interfaces, internet of things… The goal is for the AI to know how to reproduce material things in a virtual setting.
The COVID-19 pandemic probably accelerated this ‘metaversing’ of reality in many years.
Laubersheimer, J., Ryan, D., & Champaign, J. (2016). InfoSkills2Go: Using Badges and Gamification to Teach Information Literacy Skills and Concepts to College-Bound High School Students. Journal of Library Administration, 56(8), 924.
From online trivia and virtual board games to complex first-person perspective video games and in-person scavenger hunts, libraries are creating games for a variety of purposes, including orientations and instruction (Broussard,2012; Mallon, 2013; Smith & Baker, 2011).
Although the line between gaming and gamification can be blurry, most scholars recognize differences. Games are interactive, involvechallenge, risk, and reward, and have rules and a goal (Pivec, Dziabenko, &Schinnerl, 2003; Becker, 2013). Gamification, on the other hand, utilizes spe-cific gaming elements, often interactivity and rewards, to make an ordinary task more engaging (Prince, 2013). The gamification layer is not the focus of an endeavor, but rather can add enjoyment and a sense of competition toa task.
Battista (2014) argues that well-executed badges could represent an authentic assessment tool, because they often require the student to tangibly demonstrate a skill, competency, or learning outcome.
Use of the badges helped the team organize the Web site and provided a hierarchy to follow once the steps for earning each badge were created.Each badge consists of three to six tasks. A task can be a tutorial, a video, a game, or a short reading assignment on a given topic. An assessment is given for each task
The fourth and final platform the group considered was BadgeOS fromLearningTimes. BadgeOS requires a WordPress installation BadgeOS was designed to work with Credly (https://credly.com/) and Mozilla Open Badges (http://openbadges.org/) as standard features. LearnDash was the most useful plugin for the project beyond BadgeOS. Available for a reasonable fee, LearnDash adds tools and features that give WordPress the ability to be used as a complete learning management system(LMS). Available for free under the GNU Public License, BuddyPress(https://buddypress.org/) is another plugin that was capable of integrating with BadgeOS as an extension. The advantage of BuddyPress for the project group was the addition of social media components and functionality to the project Web site. Go-daddy.com offered comprehensive technical support, easy application instal-lation, and competitively priced hosting packages. A 3-year hosting agree-ment was purchased that included domain registration, unlimited storageand unlimited bandwidth.
What the metaverse will (and won’t) be, according to 28 experts
metaverse (hopefully) won’t be the virtual world of ‘Snow Crash,’ or ‘Ready Player One.’ It will likely be something more complex, diverse, and wild.
The metaverse concept clearly means very different things to different people. What exists right now is a series of embryonic digital spaces, such as Facebook’s Horizon, Epic Games’ Fortnite, Roblox‘s digital space for gaming and game creation, and the blockchain-based digital world Decentraland–all of which have clear borders, different rules and objectives, and differing rates of growth.
TIFFANY ROLFE
different layers of realities that we can all be experiencing, even in the same environment or physical space. We’re already doing that with our phones to a certain extent—passively in a physical environment while mentally in a digital one. But we’ll see more experiences beyond your phone, where our whole bodies are fully engaged, and that’s where the metaverse starts to get interesting—we genuinely begin to explore and live in these alternate realities simultaneously.
It will have legacy parts that look and feel like the web today, but it will have new nodes and capabilities that will look and feel like the Ready Player One Oasis (amazing gaming worlds), immersion leaking into our world (like my Magicverse concept), and every imaginable permutation of these. I feel that the Xverse will have gradients of sentience and autonomy, and we will have the emergence of synthetic life (things Sun and Thunder is working on) and a multitude of amazing worlds to explore. Building a world will become something everyone can do (like building a webpage or a blog) and people will be able to share richer parts of their external and inner lives at incredibly high-speed across the planet.
YAT SIU, COFOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF GAMING AND BLOCKCHAIN COMPANY ANIMOCA BRANDS
Reality will exist on a spectrum ranging from physical to virtual (VR), but a significant chunk of our time will be spent somewhere between those extremes, in some form of augmented reality (AR). Augmented reality will be a normal part of daily life. Virtual companions will provide information, commentary, updates and advice on matters relevant to you at that point in time, including your assets and activities, in both virtual and real spaces.
TIMONI WEST, VP OF AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY, UNITY:
I think we can all agree our initial dreams of a fully immersive, separate digital world is not only unrealistic, but maybe not what we actually want. So I’ve started defining the metaverse differently to capture the zeitgeist: we’re entering an era where every computer we interact with, big or small, is increasingly world-aware. They can recognize faces, voices, hands, relative and absolute position, velocity, and they can react to this data in a useful way. These contextually aware computers are the path to unlocking ambient computing: where computers fade from the foreground to the background of everyday, useful tools. The metaverse is less of a ‘thing’ and more of a computing era. Contextual computing enables a multitude of new types of interactions and apps: VR sculpting tools and social hangouts, self-driving cars, robotics, smart homes.
as carbon is to the organic world, AI will be both the matrix that provides the necessary structural support and the material from which digital representation will be made. Of all the ways in which AI will shape the form of the metaverse, perhaps most essential is the role it will play in the physical-digital interface. Translating human actions into digital input–language, eye movement, hand gestures, locomotion–these are all actions which AI companies and researchers have already made tremendous progress on.
Qualcomm views the metaverse as an ever-present spatial internet complete with personalized digital experiences that spans the physical and virtual worlds, where everything and everyone can communicate and interact seamlessly.
As an active researcher in the security and forensics of VR systems, should the metaverse come into existence, we should explore and hypothesize the ways it will be misused.
CHITRA RAGAVAN, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER AT BLOCKCHAIN DATA ANALYTICS COMPANY ELEMENTUS
I picture [the metaverse] almost like The Truman Show. Only, instead of walking into a television set, you walk into the internet and can explore any number of different realities
We imagine the metaverse as reality made better, a world infused with magic, stories, and functionality at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds.
CAROLINA ARGUELLES NAVAS, GLOBAL PRODUCT MARKETING, AUGMENTED REALITY, SNAP
Rather than building the “metaverse,” a separate and fully virtual reality that is disconnected from the physical world, we are focused on augmenting reality, not replacing it. We believe AR–or computing overlaid on the world around us–has a smoother path to mass adoption, but will also be better for the world than a fully virtual world.
URHO KONTTORI, COFOUNDER AND CTO OF AR/VR HEADSET MAKER VARJO
In the reality-based metaverse, we will be able to more effectively design products of the future, meet and collaborate with our colleagues far away, and experience any remote place in real-time.
ATHERINE ALLEN, CEO OF IMMERSIVE TECH RESEARCH CONSULTANCY LIMINA IMMERSIVE
I prefer to think of the metaverse as simply bringing our bodies into the internet.
The metaverse isn’t just VR! Those spaces will connect to AR glasses and to 2D spaces like Instagram. And most importantly, there will be a real sense of continuity where the things you buy are always available to you.
At its core will be a self-contained economy that allows individuals and businesses to create, own or invest in a range of activities and experiences.
NANDI NOBELL, SENIOR ASSOCIATE AT GLOBAL ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN FIRM CALLISONRTKL
the metaverse experience can be altered from the individual’s point of view and shaped or curated by any number of agents—whether human or A.I. In that sense, the metaverse does not have an objective look beyond its backend. In essence, the metaverse, together with our physical locations, forms a spatial continuum.
NICK CHERUKURI, CEO AND FOUNDER OF MIXED REALITY GLASSES MAKER THIRDEYE
The AR applications of the metaverse are limitless and it really can become the next great version of the internet.
SAM TABAR, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, BITCOIN MINING COMPANY BIT DIGITAL
It seems fair to predict that the actual aesthetic of any given metaverse will be determined by user demand. If users want to exist in a gamified world populated by outrageous avatars and fantastic landscapes then the metaverse will respond to that demand. Like all things in this world the metaverse will be market driven
UCLA Extension seeks XR (augmented and virtual reality) professionals to teach in a new online certificate program housed within the UCLA Extension Center for Immersive Media. This recruitment is for online instructors for remote and asynchronous instruction, three hours per week, for ten-week quarters.
The center is focused on enterprise applications, workforce training in XR, narrative structures for XR storytelling, and (UX) User Experience in XR. This XR program is focused on training individuals to become XR content developers. The emphasis of this certificate is not on advanced coding or hardware development. Areas of recruitment include:
XR Frameworks, an introduction to the XR business, user cases & goal/needs evaluation
XR Tools I, an introduction to a modeling software such as Blender
XR Tools II, prototyping tools with an emphasis on Unity
XR Narratives, the use of non-linear narrative structures in XR development
XR User Experience I, usability applications and studies bringing together previous class course work into VR and XR projects
XR User Experience II, advanced XR experience studies and applications
XR Product Pipeline & Project Management, Best practices including stages of production, critical paths, etc.
XR Capstone Project, creation of final portfolio piece UCLA Extension is the open-access, self-supporting continuing education division of UCLA. The Department of the Arts offers a wide variety of certificate programs and courses, including post-baccalaureate credit-bearing (400-level), continuing education (CEU) credit, and non-credit bearing general interest courses. Course disciplines in the Visual Arts span subject areas such as Design Communication Arts, User Experience, Photography, Studio Arts and Art History. Our courses and certificate programs offer students the opportunity to learn from highly qualified practitioners who are passionate about teaching. Applications to teach are accepted throughout the year in order to fill immediate program needs and to increase the depth of the instructor pool, but interviews will only be scheduled with qualified applicants who can fill anticipated openings. XR Instructor Qualified applicants possessing current industry knowledge and experience in the following topic area(s) are encouraged to apply: AR, VR, MR, XR, User Experience Design, Gaming, Immersive Interface Design, XR Research, Software (Unity, Blender), XR Hardware. Classes are currently online only. Two formats are available: asynchronous, or live Zoom lectures. Each course is 11 weeks, enrollment limited to 20 students. Instructor Duties: • Develop or update course syllabus to meet campus approval requirements, in consultation with the UCLA Extension Program Director and Program Manager. • Use subject-matter expertise to impart knowledge to students and leverage additional resources appropriately to enhance the curriculum (i.e. make arrangements for guest speakers, etc.) • Design interactive and motivational classroom activities to fully engage participants and to reinforce student learning. • Update materials periodically, and regularly monitor course evaluations in order to make adjustments and improvements to the curriculum. • Respond to student questions and learning needs in a timely manner. • Communicate with Program Director and Program Staff in a timely manner. • Complete required administrative tasks in a timely manner including: completing all new hire paperwork, submitting updated quarterly syllabus, posting bio and photo on the UCLA Extension website, accepting quarterly contract, submitting required textbook orders, and communicating classroom needs to the appropriate people. • Participate in required orientations and instructor training programs. • Employ culturally competent teaching methodologies in the classroom inclusive of both domestic and international student populations. • Stay current regarding the professional body of knowledge in the field • Respond to student inquiries about final grades and consult with Program Director as needed. • Maintain a record of final grades for up to 13 months following the last class session. Qualifications: • Creation of XR products, with portfolio examples and specific role(s) in producing • 3-5 years industry experience • Commitment to the highest level of academic standards and integrity. • Current knowledge of and demonstrated proficiency in subject area. • Highly effective oral and written communication skills, including the ability to convey conceptual and complex ideas and information. • Outstanding interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence. • Proficiency in or willingness to learn the use of instructional technology and online teaching tools. • College-level and/or continuing education teaching experience preferred. • Experience designing curriculum and measuring student performance preferred.
UCLA Extension is considered one of the top programs of its kind, offering to more than 35,000 students per year approximately 4,500 classes and non-degree certificate programs to meet the professional development, continuing education and personal enrichment needs of the full spectrum of nontraditional students as well as companies and organizations throughout and beyond the Los Angeles region.
Special Conditions of Employment
Instructors are hired on a quarterly contract basis.
Because Extension is a division of UCLA, all Extension degree-credit instructors and courses must be formally approved according to the regulations of the Academic Senate of the University of California. Eligibility to teach a course is contingent upon this formal academic approval. Once approved, teaching assignments are “by agreement.” The Instructor’s Contract outlines the deliverables for the course, the course schedule, and the compensation terms, subject to Extension policies and procedures. UCLA Extension makes no commitment to hire an instructor until it has sent and received a signed
Instructor Contract. Should the course section an instructor plans to teach be cancelled for any reason, the Instructor Contract, including rights to compensation for future section meetings, is voided.
In an effort to promote and maintain a healthy environment for our students, visitors and employees, UCLA is a smoke-free site. Smoking is prohibited within the boundaries of all UCLA owned, occupied, leased, and associated building and facilities. UCLA Extension is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values a diverse workforce.
To Apply:
Please follow the “apply now” link to submit the following:
Completed application form
Current CV
Link to portfolio or work samples if available
Cover letter”
Basic qualifications (required at time of application)
Creation of XR products, with portfolio examples and specific role(s) in producing
3-5 years industry experience
Commitment to the highest level of academic standards and integrity.
Current knowledge of and demonstrated proficiency in subject area.
Highly effective oral and written communication skills, including the ability to convey conceptual and complex ideas and information.
Outstanding interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence.
Proficiency in or willingness to learn the use of instructional technology and online
teaching tools.
College-level and/or continuing education teaching experience preferred.
Experience designing curriculum and measuring student performance preferred.
On October 12, the Unity for Humanity Summit will once again take place virtually to celebrate creators who are using real-time 3D (RT3D) for social impact.
Since the inaugural Unity for Humanity Summit in October 2020, we have awarded more than $2.5 million to support current and future social impact creators who are building RT3D experiences that have a positive and meaningful impact on society and the planet through the Unity for Humanity program and the Unity Charitable Fund.
four content tracks and some of the exciting topics and workshops
Education and Inclusive Economic Opportunity
Workshop: How to make your first Unity build
Different global models for creating inclusive economic opportunity
How to leverage real-time 3D for workforce development and training
Environment and Sustainability
What the gaming industry can do to support a healthier planet: From decarbonization of gaming operations to activating users
Visualizing the future of climate change
How the fashion industry is innovating for sustainability using RT3D
Digital Health and Wellbeing
Using AI for social good in and beyond the age of COVID
The role RT3D can play in the advancement of patient care, healthcare training, and more
Funding healthcare innovations and real-time 3D tools
For the purpose of this chapter, Cross Reality or XR refers to technologies and applications that involve combinations of mixed reality (MR), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and virtual worlds (VWs). These are technologies that connect computer technology (such as informational overlays) to the physical world for the purposes of augmenting or extending experiences beyond the real. Especially relevant to the definition of XR is the fact that this term encompasses a wide range of options for delivering learning experiences, from minimal technology and episodic experiences to deep immersion and persistent platforms. The preponderance of different terms for slightly different technologies indicate that this is a growth area within the field. Here we provide a few definitions of these technologies.
MR—Mixed reality refers to a blend of technologies used to influence the human perception of an experience. Motion sensors, body tracking, and eye tracking interplay with overlaid technology to give a rich and full version of reality displayed to the user. For example, technology could add sound or additional graphics to an experience in real time. Examples include the Magic Leap One and Microsoft HoloLens 2.0. MR and XR are often used interchangeably.
AR—Augmented reality refers to technology systems that overlay information onto the real world, but the technology might not allow for real-time feedback. As such, AR experiences can move or animate, but they might not interact with changes in depth of view or external light conditions. Currently, AR is considered the first generation of the newer and more interactive MR experiences.
VR—Virtual reality, as a technological product, traces its history to approximately 1960 and tends to encompass user experiences that are visually and auditorily different from the real world. Indeed, the real world is often blocked from interacting with the virtual one. Headsets, headphones, haptics, and haptic clothing might purposely cut off all input except that which is virtual. In general, VR is a widely recognizable term, often found in gaming and workplace training, where learners need to be transported to a different time and place. VR experiences in STEM often consist of virtual labs or short virtual field trips.
VW—Virtual worlds are frequently considered a subset of VR with the difference that VWs are inherently social and collaborative; VWs frequently contain multiple simultaneous users, while VRs are often solo experiences. Another discrimination between virtual reality and virtual worlds is the persistence of the virtual space. VR tends to be episodic, with the learner in the virtual experience for a few minutes and the reality created within the experience ends when the learner experience ends. VWs are persistent in that the worlds continue to exist on computer servers whether or not there are active avatars within the virtual space (Bell 2008). This discrimination between VR and VW, however, is dissolving. VR experiences can be created to exist for days, and some users have been known to wear headsets for extended periods of time. Additionally, more and more VR experiences are being designed to be for game play, socialization, or mental relaxation. The IEEE VR 2020 online conference and the Educators in VR International Summit 2020 offered participants opportunities to experience conference presentations in virtual rooms as avatars while interacting with presenters and conference attendees (see Sect. 2.5 for more information).
CVEs—Collaborative virtual environments are communication systems in which multiple interactants share the same three-dimensional digital space despite occupying remote physical locations (Yee and Bailenson 2006).
Embodiment—Embodiment is defined by Lindgren and Johnson-Glenberg (2013) as the enactment of knowledge and concepts through the activity of our bodies within an MR (mixed reality) and physical environment
Human-Centered Design philosophy that involves putting human needs, capabilities, and behavior first (Jerald 2018: 15). XR provides the opportunity to experience just-in-time immersive, experiential learning that uses concrete yet exploratory experiences involving senses that result in lasting memories. Here we discuss opportunities for social applications with XR.
XR learner activities are usually created for individual use, which may or may not need to be simultaneously experienced as a class together at the same time or place with the instructor. Activities can be designed into instruction with VR headsets, high-resolution screens, smartphones, or other solo technological devices for use inside and outside of the classroom.
Do we address the challenges in the grant proposal?
some learners will be held back from full XR activity by visual, physical, and social abilities such as stroke, vertigo, epilepsy, or age-related reaction time. It should also be noted that the encompassing nature of VR headsets might create some discomfort or danger for any learners as they can no longer fully see and control their body and body space.
“Using #augmentedreality (#AR) and #blockchain technologies, the game featured ‘Vatoms’, virtual objects that players can interact with.
Due to pandemic restrictions, the game, originally developed as an outdoor activity in other markets, was adapted to allow people to hunt for the packs in and around their own homes. Packs contained either Playstation symbol chips or an instant-win prize, which would then be stored in a digital wallet.”
Imagine, if it was not Doritos, but bones to build a skeletal system (Biology, nursing, medicine, etc.), philosophers (Philosophy, political science, social sciences) and the rewards or badges in the leaderboard. #gaming and #gamification