Virtual Patients, VR, Online Sims and Serious Games for Education and Care

A much needed opinion piece and product review ensuring that we all keep our feet on the ground when thinking, talking and processing information from others about VR. A well argued critique that although focussed on the marketing associated with the product Elsewhere, could be applied to much of what is written about VR today. 

First original VR short film to receive an Emmy award!

With so much hype surrounding VR and to a much lesser extent AR it's easy to forget that these technologies are far from becoming mainstream media options for most consumers let alone people interested in educational applications like myself. This survey seeks to look beyond the hype and provides some insights into how a tranche of key stakeholders perceive the issues shaping  VR and AR's steps towards mainstream. Link to the full survey is provided.

One of the best AR/Hyper reality concept films I have seen!!

Spending time thinking about the educational potential of VR can sometimes mean less time is given to how this technology can be exploited by others towards less altruistic aims. This article highlights some of the dangers that may come with in VR world avatar - client communication. 

This takes wearables to the extreme. MSI have produced a wearable backpack computer and allows hardcore VIVE VR gamers to cut the tethers and immerse themselves in far more mobile gameplay. This also opens up even more possibilities for educational VR applications.

VR for the masses!! Whilst full system VR headsets like the Vive and Rift provide the most immersive and interactive educational experiences, their tethering and need for a high spec PC are significant barriers to wider and scaled up adoption. Mobile VR headsets provide a technology hardware tier that brings VR, albeit limited, within reach of all. Always trying to look for synergies between different education modalities I think this provides an interesting challenge and potential opportunity for educators and developers whose objective is to provide VR experiences to learner cohorts that may contain 100's of students. How can we "cycle" large cohorts through geographically fixed full system VR experiences and then potentially extend or pre-load this learning via mobile VR . Is anybody doing/thinking about this at the moment?

A win for the Hololens as 3d anatomy app scoops prize!

Another example of the therapeutic application of VR is described here in a piece which summaries research from the University of Texas. The research found that VR provided a safe place for children with autism to practice social situations leading to some positive outcomes. The idea of donning a headset to effectively exclude the real and social world is anathema to many who are involved in facilitating social skills. The same type of sentiment is often leveled at any form of online media, particularly by those that prefer face to face or face to physical interaction towards learning. Surely, and this is a view that seems to be building momentum, the way to see virtual as a teaching or therapeutic strategy, is that it is one of a number of approaches that can be designed and combined with other modalities to create outputs greater than could be achieved using one modality alone!

Nick Di Carlo, VP at Samsung extols the virtues of 360 VR video and the Samsung Gear VR headset. he describes how 360 video content consumption outstrips, just, games consumption, on the VR and how the release of so many 360 video cameras and stitching software has led to the media pipeline for 360 video to be much bigger than they had originally planned. 360 video it's argued is the media that will drive VR adoption by the masses. Possibly true, however, whilst the Gear is an exciting product and whilst 360 video production is within reach far more people, the Gear itself, only work with a small number of flagship smart phones i.e. Galaxy S7 edge, S7, Note 5, S6 edge+, S6 and S6 edge. This makes using the Gear within learning and teaching far more problematic, given the wide variation in smart phone brands used by students. 

an interesting collaboration for Queen fans and VR fans alike!!! can't wait to try 

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Making VR content creation even easier and accessible to the masses, Google have released their VR Cardboard 360 degree photo app for iOS and updated existing android app. 

Utilising VR to help people with phobias. It's strange why some people are scared by things that others just take in their stride. My daughter's reactions to spiders are slightly over the top and i assumed more of the same when one morning she found a bat in our bathroom! After shouting down the stairs, "Dad, there's a bat in the bathroom" I ran up only to see her disappear from the bathroom sharpish as I arrived. Understandable I thought, what eight year would want to be tapped in a bathroom with a bat flying around her head, and given her response to spiders just assumed that this was something else she had decided just wasn't her thing. Imagine my surprise, well actually astonishment, when she re-appeared three minutes later, stepped into the bathroom, shut the door behind her, held up my smart phone and started filming the said bat, which was bouncing around our heads off one wall then another managing to miss the windows we had opened to help it on its way!! In this scooped story from Next Web, we hear about a number of people who have real phobias related to spiders and snakes and in one case water and learn that for many these phobias can be paralysing. The piece describes the role that VR is playing in gradually exposing people to the sources of their phobias and in one fascinating insight this includes a Swedish swim team who coaxed and guided a child with hydrophobia to gradually become accustomed to water. The story argues strongly in support of VR playing a central role in helping people manage their phobias and i wonder whether this is something that parents could one day use to help their children as they start to display irrational reactions to their environment, whether it be spiders in the sitting room or bats in the bathroom!

Interesting infographic based on a survey by Samsung of 1000 K-12 teachers. 83% of teachers believe that VR could enhance learning outcomes, only 2% actually use VR, despite 2/3's considering themselves innovators. Samsung have provided a 4 step plan to help teachers get started. Step 1? "Buy the gear", very cunning Samsung:) Also check out the health warning at the bottom of the infographic, this is an interesting story in itself.