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mini conference on virtual reality in education

Our first Library 2.022 mini-conference: “Virtual Reality and Learning: Leading the Way,” will be held online (and for free) on Tuesday, March 29th, 2022.

Virtual Reality was identified by the American Library Association as one of the 10 top library technology trends for the future. The use of this technology is equally trending in the education, museum, and professional learning spheres. Virtual Reality is a social and digital technology that uniquely promises to transform learning, build empathy, and make personal and professional training more effective and economical.

Through the leadership of the state libraries in California, Nevada, and Washington, Virtual Reality projects have been deployed in over 120 libraries in the three states in both economically and geographically diverse service areas. This example, as well as other effective approaches, can help us to begin a national conversation about the use of XR/immersive learning technology in libraries, schools, and museums; and about making content available to all users, creating spaces where digital inclusion and digital literacy serves those who need it the most

This is a free event, being held live online and also recorded.
REGISTER HERE
to attend live and/or to receive the recording links afterward.
Please also join this Library 2.0 network to be kept updated on this and future events.

Everyone is invited to participate in our Library 2.0 conference events, which are designed to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among information professionals worldwide. Each three-hour event consists of a keynote panel, 10-15 crowd-sourced thirty-minute presentations, and a closing keynote.

Participants are encouraged to use #library2022 and #virtualrealitylearning on their social media posts about the event.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:The call for proposals is now open. We encourage proposals that showcase effective uses of Virtual Reality in libraries, schools, and museums. We encourage proposals that also address visions or examples of Virtual Reality impacting adult education, STEM learning, the acquisition of marketable skills, workforce development, and unique learning environments.. Proposals can be submitted HERE.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS, SPECIAL GUESTS, AND ORGANIZERS:

Sara Jones
State Librarian, Washington State Library

Sara Jones previously served as the director of the Marin County Free Library since July 2013. Prior to her time in California, Jones held positions in Nevada libraries for 25 years, including serving as the Carson City Library Director, the Elko-LanderEureka County Library System Director and Youth Services Coordinator, and Nevada State Librarian and Administrator of the State Library and Archives from 2000-2007. Jones was named the Nevada Library Association’s Librarian of the Year in 2012; served as Nevada’s American Library Association (ALA) Council Delegate for four years; coordinated ALA National Library Legislative Day for Nevada for 12 years; served as the Nevada Library Association president; was an active member of the Western Council of State Libraries serving as both vice president and president; and served on the University of North Texas Department of Library and Information Sciences Board of Advisors for over 10 years. She was awarded the ALA Sullivan award for services to children in 2018. She is a member and past-president of CALIFA, a nonprofit library membership consortium.

 

Tammy Westergard
Senior Workforce Development Leader, Project Coordinator – U.S. Department of Education Reimagine Workforce Preparation Grant Program – Supporting and Advancing Nevada’s Dislocated Individuals – Project SANDI

As Nevada State Librarian (2020 – 2021), Tammy Douglass Westergard was a leader in envisioning the dynamic roles of libraries in the future of learning and democracy in America. Tammy was also named the Nevada Library Association’s 2020 Librarian of the Year. She deployed the first certification program within any public library in America where individuals can earn a Manufacturing Technician 1 (MT1), a nationally recognized industry credential necessary to get many of the high paying careers in advanced manufacturing. In parallel with California public libraries, Westergard launched in Nevada the first State-wide learning program in American public libraries delivering augmented reality and virtual reality STEM content and equipment, resulting in immersive learning experiences for thousands of learners. Westergard imagined and then became the project design leader for the first-ever initiative deploying 3D learning tools for the College of Southern Nevada’s (CSN) allied health programs. As a result, CSN is the first dialysis technician training program in the world to use a virtual reality simulation for instruction and CSN was able to accept remote, online learners into its program for students who were previously unable to access the program.Tammy received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, a Master of Library Science from the University of North Texas and is a member of Beta Phi Mu, the international library and information studies honor society. She is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation. The Library Journal named Westergard an “Agent of Change Mover and Shaker.” Tammy’s great passion is advancing educational opportunities through the library. She believes there is dignity in work, which is why she is expanding first-in-the-country programs she created that help displaced workers reskill and upskill so they can step into living wage jobs.

 

Greg Lucas
California State Librarian

Greg Lucas was appointed California’s 25th State Librarian by Governor Jerry Brown on March 25, 2014. Prior to his appointment, Greg was the Capitol Bureau Chief for the San Francisco Chronicle where he covered politics and policy at the State Capitol for nearly 20 years. During Greg’s tenure as State Librarian, the State Library’s priorities have been to improve reading skills throughout the state, put library cards into the hands of every school kid and provide all Californians the information they need – no matter what community they live in. The State Library invests $10 million annually in local libraries to help them develop more innovative and efficient ways to serve their communities. Since 2015, the State Library has improved access for millions of Californians by helping connect more than half of the state’s 1,100 libraries to a high-speed Internet network that links universities, colleges, schools, and libraries around the world. Greg holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from California State University San Jose, a Master’s in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California, and a degree in communications from Stanford University.

 

Milton Chen
Independent Speaker, Author, Board Member

Milton says that he has had a very fortunate and fulfilling career on both coasts, working with passionate innovators to transform education in creative ways. His first job out of college was at Sesame Workshop in New York, working with founder Joan Cooney and some amazingly talented colleagues in TV production and educational research. From 1976 to 1980, he worked in the research department, creating science curricula for Sesame Street and testing segments for The Electric Company, the reading series. He then served as director of research for the development of 3-2-1 Contact, a science series for 8- to 12-year-olds. Eventually, Sesame Street circled the globe, with broadcasts in more than 100 countries and versions in Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and many other languages. He then came to the Bay Area to pursue doctoral studies in communication at Stanford. His dissertation looked at gender differences in high school computer use, including new desktop computers we called “microcomputers.” After two years as an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he joined KQED-San Francisco (PBS) in 1987 as director of education. They worked with teachers to incorporate video into their lessons, using VCRs! He wrote my first book, The Smart Parent’s Guide to Kids’ TV (1994) and hosted a program on the topic with special guest, First Lady Hillary Clinton. In 1998, he joined The George Lucas Educational Foundation as executive director. During his 12 years there, thjey produced documentaries and other media on schools embracing innovations such as project-based learning, social/emotional learning, digital technologies, and community engagement. They created the Edutopia brand to represent more ideal environments for learning. Today, the Edutopia.org website attracts more than 5 million monthly users.

 

Karsten Heise
Director of Strategic Programs, Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) i

Karsten Heise joined the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) in April 2012 initially as Technology Commercialization Director and then continued as Director of Strategic Programs. He leads Innovation Based Economic Development (IBED) in Nevada. As part of IBED, he created and manages Nevada’s State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) Venture Capital Program. He also leads and overseas the ‘Nevada Knowledge Fund’ to spur commercialization at the state’s research institutions and to foster Research & Development engagements with the private sector as well as supporting local entrepreneurial ecosystems and individual startups. In addition, Karsten is deeply familiar with the European vocational training system having completed his banking-apprenticeship in Germany. This experience inspired the development of the ‘Learn and Earn Advanced career Pathway’ (LEAP) framework in Nevada, which progressed to becoming the standard template for developing career pathway models in the state. He is deeply passionate about continuously developing new workforce development approaches dealing with the consequences of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Prior to joining the GOED, Karsten spent five years in China working as an external consultant to Baron Group Beijing and as member of the senior management team at Asia Assets Limited, Beijing. Before relocating to Beijing, Karsten worked for 10 years in the international equity divisions of London-based leading Wall Street investment banks Morgan Stanley, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ), and most recently Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). As Vice President at CSFB, he specialized in alternative investments, structured products, and international equities. His clients were entrepreneurs, ultra-high net worth individuals and family offices as well as insurance companies, pension funds, asset managers and banks. Karsten speaks German and Mandarin Chinese. Karsten completed his university education in the United Kingdom with a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Economics from the University of Buckingham, a Master of Science with Distinction in International Business & Finance from the University of Reading, and a Master of Philosophy with Merit in Modern Chinese Studies, Chinese Economy from the University of Cambridge – Wolfson College. He is also an alumnus of the Investment Management Evening Program at London Business School and completed graduate research studies at Peking University, China.

 

Dana Ryan, PhD 
Special Assistant to the President, Truckee Meadows Community College

With a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Nevada, Reno, Dana has decades advancing education and training solutions to meaningfully link, scale, enhance and further develop digital components in healthcare, advanced manufacturing, logistics, IT and construction trades. She understands the WIOA one-stop-operating-system programs and processes and can communicate how delivery of services to clients through local offices, regional centers and libraries is achieved. Skill with analysis of a variety of labor market and other demographic information creates excellence in explaining the relevance of labor market data and local, state, and national labor market trends. Dana interfaces with labor and management groups/leaders, and others.

This is a free event, being held live online and also recorded.
REGISTER HERE
to attend live and/or to receive the recording links afterward.
Please also join this Library 2.0 network to be kept updated on this and future events.

The School of Information at San José State University is the founding conference sponsor. Please register as a member of the Library 2.0 network to be kept informed of future events. Recordings from previous years are available under the Archives tab at Library 2.0 and at the Library 2.0 YouTube channel.

VR and empathy

Virtual Reality Helps Hospice Workers See Life And Death Through A Patient’s Eyes

December 27, 201812:18 PM ET KATHLEEN BURGE

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/27/675377939/enter-title

Researchers have discovered that virtual reality simulations like this one, can make viewers more empathetic to people they virtually embody: people of different races; people with colorblindness; even an avatar of an older version of themselves.

The United Nations has created about 20 virtual reality films, including one about a 12-year-old Syrian refugee and another profiling a Liberian woman whose family died from Ebola.

Last month, Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, which studies the link between virtual reality and empathy, found that people shown an immersive VR film built around the experience of a homeless man

In medicine, virtual reality has been used to reduce pain, help stroke victims recover, and allow doctors to plan and watch surgery.

At the Royal Trinity Hospice in London, a dying woman and her husband revisited Venice, where they had gotten engaged — the simulation was part of a larger study about VR’s effect on physical and psychological symptoms at the end of life. Another woman walked the beaches of the Maldives. A third returned to Jerusalem, the city where she grew up.

Virtual reality may also encourage people to plan for the end of life, says Marilyn Gugliucci, director of geriatric education and research at the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

 

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More on virtual reality and empathy in this IMS blog:
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=virtual+reality+empathy

Ethical Considerations For Using Virtual Reality

Five Ethical Considerations For Using Virtual Reality with Children and Adolescents

Five Ethical Considerations For Using Virtual Reality with Children and Adolescents

G+ link https://plus.google.com/+TessPajaron/posts/8YYgjoPrQvq

In an address to the VRX conference in San Francisco, noted game developer and tech wizard, Jesse Schell predicted that over 8 million VR gamer headsets will be sold in 2016. Facebook purchased Oculus Rift, presumably laying the groundwork for a future where friends and family will interact in rich virtual spaces. All the major players, including Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Google and an HTC and Valve partnership are jostling for the consumer headset market.

Experimenting with VR in his classes as part of a project piloted by Seattle-based foundry10, a privately funded research organization that creates partnerships with educators to implement, research and explore the various intersections of emerging technologies and learning, including VR..

And the technology’s potential for good is vast. It has already been used to help with autism, improve personal financial management, treat PTSD and manage pain. More and more news outlets, including the New York Times, are adopting immersive journalism, where news stories can be experienced through VR.

As an educational tool, VR might prove transformative. Google Expeditions allows students to take over 100 virtual journeys from ancient Rome to the surface of Mars. It might also have a big impact on social emotional learning (SEL), as VR’s unique ability to produce empathy recently led Wired magazine to explore its potential as “the ultimate empathy machine”. Addressing a persistent anxiety, Suter used Samsung Gear’s Public Speaking Simulator to successfully prepare a few nervous students for class presentations, reporting they felt “much more calm” during the live delivery.

Ethical Considerations

In a recently published article, researchers Michael Madary and Thomas K. Metzinger from Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany review a series of ethical considerations when implementing VR. The illusion of embodiment may provide VR’s greatest value to education, but also lies at the heart of its ethical implementation. Madary and Metzinger believe that VR is not just an evolution from television and video game screens, but a revolution that will have an enormous social impact. In their paper, they claim that:

VR technology will eventually change not only our general image of humanity but also our understanding of deeply entrenched notions, such as “conscious experience,” “selfhood,” “authenticity,” or “realness.”

It’s important to remember that many current VR uses in schools, like Google Expeditions, are not interactive VR, but simply 360-degree video experiences. In these cases, students experience immersive 3D pictures or panoramas, but do not deeply interact with the content. The illusion of embodiment is a product of interactive content and motion tracking, where users can alter and affect their environment and engage with others who share their virtual space. Headsets like the Vive and Occulus Rift fall under this latter category, but it won’t be long before most, if not all, consumer oriented VR technology will be completely immersive and interactive.

1. Long-Term Effects and Prolonged Exposure

2. The Impact of Environment on Agency and Behavior

3. Aggravating Preexisting Psychological or Emotional Issues

4. (Un)Reality and Diminished Real World Interactions

5. Privacy and Data Gathering

 

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more on virtual reality in this IMS blog

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=virtual+reality

immersive journalism, games, and empathy

Virtual reality breathes life into immersive storytelling

http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2015/01/virtual-reality-breathes-life-into-immersive-storytelling/

Virtual Games Try To Generate Real Empathy For Faraway Conflict

James Delahoussaye

Project Syria, a virtual reality experience built by a team of students at USC.

“I sometimes call virtual reality an empathy generator,” she says. “It’s astonishing to me. People all of a sudden connect to the characters in a way that they don’t when they’ve read about it in the newspaper or watched it on TV.”

What Peña’s doing — using virtual reality in combination with reporting — is part of a wider landscape of video games being created to explore the news. And they’re called, appropriately enough, “newsgames.”

“There’s an argument to be made that games are perfect at getting at the systemic problems and challenges in the world,” says Ian Bogost, a professor at Georgia Tech.

He says games are really good at showing the complex underbelly of stories.

Take a game that he helped make called Oil God. In the game, the player controls an oil-rich region, waging wars and inciting coupes. The player learns that oil prices are contingent on all sorts of factors rarely mentioned in a story about the price of a gallon of gas.

The Sociology of Videogames

http://sociologyofvideogames.com/2015/01/25/can-video-games-create-empathy-and-awareness-for-real-world-issues/

creating games to bring awareness to social issues for over a decade.  The game to create the biggest waves was arguably MTV’s “Darfur is Dying” released online in 2006, in which players took up the role of a family displaced by conflict in Darfur.

distance learning and immersive tech

Emergent Technology beyond the Pandemic – Preparing for the Future

My annotations here:
https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Freadylearner.one%2Femergent-technology-beyond-the-pandemic-preparing-for-the-future%2F&group=__world__

So while we know that there are incredible applications for emergent technologies such as VR/AR, the goal for organizations isn’t to look to implement these types of solutions immediately while in the midst of a pandemic, adding layers of training and cost concerns to the already existing uncertainty. Rather, an approach that involves short and long term planning as well as data collection to inform decision making is a much more prudent approach.

“VR Learn: Virtual Reality in Learning”

  • Learners are able to learn more in less time. They are engaged.
  • Learners have a physical and emotional response that is based on empathy.
  • Learners develop mental muscle memory on new tasks and new procedures.
  • Learners show greater retention rates.
  • Learners are able to fail forward without real-world consequences.
  • Learners can do things in VR/AR that they can’t do in real-life.

2020 Immersive Learning Technology

2020 Immersive Learning Technology

https://www.jff.org/what-we-do/impact-stories/jfflabs-acceleration/2020-immersive-learning-technology/

2020-Immersion-012420 per Mark Gill’s finding

Technology is rapidly changing how we learn and grow. More and more, tools and platforms that make use of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (ER)—collectively known as immersive learning technology—are moving from the niche world of Silicon Valley into retail stores, warehouses, factory floors, classrooms as well as corporate education and training programs. The value is clear: these immersive learning tools help companies, training providers, and educators train workers better, faster, and more efficiently. Of course, the impact doesn’t stop at the bottom line. Immersive learning presents an opportunity to reliably train employees for situations that are expensive to support, challenging to replicate, and even dangerous. And it can be done efficiently, safely, and with better learning outcomes.

1 in every 3 small and mid-size businesses in the U.S. is expected to be piloting a VR employee training program by 2021, seeing their new hires reach full productivity 50% faster as a result.1

The worldwide AR and VR market size is forecast to grow nearly 7.7 times between 2018 and 2022.

14 million AR and VR devices are expected to be sold in 2019

By 2023, enterprise VR hardware and software revenue is expected to jump 587% to $5.5 billion, up from an estimated $800 million in 2018.

Virtual Reality VR  A computer-generated experience that simulates reality. VR may include visual, auditory, or tactile experiences.

Augmented Reality AR A live experience of a physical space, where computer-enhanced visualizations, sounds, or tactile experiences overlay the real-world environment.

Mixed Reality MR A blend of virtual experiences and the real world where virtual and augmented experiences are presented simultaneously

Extended Reality ER  An immersive experience involving interactions with the real world, virtual reality, augmented reality, as well as other machines or computers adding content to the experience.

Soft Skills Technical Skills Immersive learning technologies can help people develop human skills, such as empathy, customer service, improving diversity and inclusion, and other areas

Technical Skills.  Immersive learning technologies enable workers to learn through simulated experiences, providing the opportunity for risk-free repetition of complex or dangerous technical tasks.

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more on immersive learning in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=immersive+learning

IM 690 VR and AR lab part 2

IM 690 Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. short link: http://bit.ly/IM690lab

IM 690 lab plan for March 3, MC 205:  Oculus Go and Quest

Readings:

  1. TAM:Technology Acceptances Model
    Read Venkatesh, and Davis and sum up the importance of their model for instructional designers working with VR technologies and creating materials for users of VR technologies.
  2. UTAUT: using the theory to learn well with VR and to design good acceptance model for endusers: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/02/20/utaut/
    Watch both parts of Victoria Bolotina presentation at the Global VR conference. How is she applying UTAUT for her research?
    Read Bracq et al (2019); how do they apply UTAUT for their VR nursing training?

Lab work (continue):

revision from last week:
How to shoot and edit 360 videos: Ben Claremont
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAjSHLRJcDfhDSu7WRpOu-w
and
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUFJyy31hGam1uPZMqcjL_A

  1. Oculus Quest as VR advanced level
    1. Using the controllers
    2. Confirm Guardian
    3. Using the menu

Oculus Quest main

    1. Watching 360 video in YouTube
      1. Switch between 2D and 360 VR
        1. Play a game

Climbing


Racketball

View this post on Instagram

Hell yeah, @naysy is the ultimate Beat Saber queen! 💃 #VR #VirtualReality #BeatSaber #PanicAtTheDisco

A post shared by Beat Saber (@beatsaber) on

Practice interactivity (space station)

    1. Broadcast your experience (Facebook Live)
  1. Additional (advanced) features of Oculus Quest
    1. https://engagevr.io/
    2. https://sidequestvr.com/#/setup-howto

Interactivity: communication and working collaboratively with Altspace VR

https://account.altvr.com/

setting up your avatar

joining a space and collaborating and communicating with other users

  1. Assignment: Group work
    1. Find one F2F and one online peer to form a group.
      Based on the questions/directions before you started watching the videos:
      – Does this particular technology fit in the instructional design (ID) frames and theories covered
      – how does this particular technology fit in the instructional design (ID) frames and theories covered so far?
      – what models and ideas from the videos you will see seem possible to be replicated by you?
      exchange thoughts with your peers and make a plan to create similar educational product
    2. Post your writing in the following D2L Discussions thread
  2. Augmented Reality with Hololens Watch videos at computer station)
    1. Start and turn off; go through menu

      https://youtu.be/VX3O650comM
    2. Learn gestures, voice commands,
  1. Augmented Reality with Merge Cube
    1. 3D apps and software packages and their compatibility with AR
  2. Augmented Reality with telephone
  3. Samsung Gear 360 video camera
    1. If all other goggles and devices are busy, please feel welcome to use the camera to practice and/or work toward your final project
    2. CIM card and data transfer – does your phone have a CIM card compatible with the camera?
    3. Upload 360 images and videos on your YouTube and FB accounts
  4. Issues with XR
    1. Ethics
      1. empathy
        Peter Rubin “Future Presence”
        https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2019/03/25/peter-rubin-future-presence/

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Enhance your XR instructional Design with other tools: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2020/02/07/crs-loop/

https://aframe.io/

https://framevr.io/

https://learn.framevr.io/ (free learning of frame)

https://hubs.mozilla.com/#/

https://sketchfab.com/ WebxR technology

https://mixedreality.mozilla.org/hello-webxr/

https://studio.gometa.io/landing

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Plamen Miltenoff, Ph.D., MLIS
Professor
320-308-3072
pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu
http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/faculty/
schedule a meeting: https://doodle.com/digitalliteracy
find my office: https://youtu.be/QAng6b_FJqs

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