Virtual Worlds and Augmented Reality for STEM Labs

Why build a dedicated science lab building/addition in the real world when we instead could use Virtual Worlds and Augmented Reality for our science labs at a much lower cost?

Potkonjak et al. (2016) Virtual laboratories for education in science, technology, and engineering: A review present a comprehensive review and assessment that makes it clear the technology is not there just yet - but I would expect the for-profit, competency-based higher education industry to lead the way. Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything provides a nice compilation of resources for using Augmented and Virtual Reality in the Classroom.

Want more? Heradio et al. (2016) Virtual and remote labs in education: A bibliometric analysis presents a literature review on the role of virtual and remote labs in STEM education.

One interesting example is the remotely-operable electron microprobe (EMP) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) at Florida International University.

Other examples:

• Online SEM and EPM 
• Virtual Robotics Lab (The Mind Project)
• Robot Virtual Worlds
• USARSim
• Biology Labs On-Line
• Virtual Chemistry Experiments
• Virtual Fieldwork Experiences
• OpenSimulator (Use in K-12 Schools)
• Open Wonderland
• Open Cobalt

Spherical Photos and Videos

Are your students bored with your flipped classroom? Impress them instead with 360 degree videos (example) using the Ricoh THETA series that they can watch on Facebook.

Kathy Schrock offers some nice examples and a simple way to host your spherical panoramic images:

Times Square in United States - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

Another option: the Orah 4i by VideoStitch.

Or, try the Samsung Gear 360 and associated hardware and Virtual Reality experience (example):

This is just simply cool: Space X rocket landing as a 360 video.

Smartphone DIY Scanner and Microscope and DIY Smartphone

Need to digitize your class notes? Sure, you can just snap a picture by-hand with your smartphone, but that always creates problems with shadows, roll, and yaw. Solution: Build A Smartphone Scanner To Digitize Your Notes

How about a microscope? Foldscope is a great initiative, but their initial 10K Microscope beta-trial is now closed. They are working on a commercial version, but in the meantime your only option is the follow the instructions in Foldscope: Origami-Based Paper Microscope (Cybulski et al., 2014, PLOS One). Or, try this $10 Smartphone to digital microscope conversion!

Of course, why not go the other way and Build Your Own Smartphone - the TyPhone:

Does Technology Reduce the Cost of Teaching?

Corinne Ruff has a nice article in The Chronicle of Higher Education titled Does Technology Ever Reduce the Costs of Teaching? and the answer is, as expected, whatever you want it to be to support your agenda.

One thing seems clear, however: using open-source content, open textbooks, and open-source platforms does save real money, especially for the student.

For more on the business side of ed-tech consider The Business of Ed-Tech (2015), Bundling Textbook Costs with Tuition, or this interview with Audrey Watters.

http://www.socialhacks.com/education/the-skinny-on-buying-cheap-textbooks

Wearables in Education

Wearable technology - if you believe it - is the next big thing so Bower and Sturman (2015) looked at educator’s perceptions of how such technologies could be used in teaching and learning, specifically augmented or virtual reality devices such as Google Cardboard, Google Glass, Oculus Rift, Zeiss Cinemizer OLED 3D, or Samsung Gear VR. They summarize 14 potential uses and 10 potential concerns in their Table 1 and introduce the main issue on page 345:

Wearable technologies raise the question of whether people can adequately multi-task in order to utilize wearable devices safely and effectively.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/video/hands-review/using-zeiss-cinemizer-oled-3d-glasses

Exactly: TMI! I’m convinced that most people simply cannot multi-task ‘fast’ enough to keep-up with the richness of the information (try The Invisible Gorilla if you disagree). Still interested? Explore Augmented and Virtual Reality in the Classroom by Kathy Schrock.

Still, wearables are definitely cool!

• Try, for example, The Garden by H. Bosch in VR.
• Or Loop where you can reprogram your Oculus Rift Virtual World as you are experiencing it in 'real' time - The Matrix anyone? Read more about it over on Co.DESIGN.
• Or, PsychicVR by MIT.

Loop from Stefan Wagner on Vimeo.

The Garden as a Story Map and in Virtual Reality

The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch features prominently in the The Bonobo and the Atheist by Frans de Waal. Of course, to see it you need to visit the Museo del Prado in Madrid, so here are a couple of less expensive options:

• You can experience The Garden in Virtual Reality if a) you own Google Cardboard and b) download the free Bosch VR app.
• Or, download the Bosch Non-VR app for your iPad.
• Jheronimus Bosch, the Garden of Earthly Delights is an interactive and narrated documentary or Story Map.
• Or, keep it simple with this one: The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Bosch VR app trailer from BDH on Vimeo.

The Quantified Student

Adam Markowitz and Ryan Craig have proclaimed 2016 as the Year Of The Quantified Student. For context, Markowitz is the Founder and CEO of Portfolium and Craig a Managing Director at University Ventures. Here are two quotes:

Quantified Students will be able to map current skillsets against the requirements of target careers, evaluate the gap, and then select the educational program or path that gets them to their destination quickly and cost effectively.

As Quantified Students declare majors and continue to accrue skills, four years of academic work will find a permanent home in the cloud rather than in the trash. All of the underlying data will be indexed and eventually cashed in by students to prove competencies to skills-hungry employers.

Not surprisingly, Markowitz and Craig propose/promote e-portfolios for that 'permanent' home in the cloud - in some ways a logical extension of Claim Your Domain! and adaptive-learning tools like Knewton.

Of course, why would a Quantified Student spend 4-year on the campus of a small public college as opposed to filling the skill gaps identified by Big Data on the vast international private market of higher education? For a more nuanced discussion, consider From the Quantified Student to the Quantified Self by Audrey Watters.

http://dilbert.com/strip/2014-05-11