Author: Elliot

  • VR Tools for Public Speaking

    As a student who majored in languages and currently living in a foreign country, how to use technology to promote language learning is one of my focus areas.  Expressing ideas clearly and presenting them properly in different public situations is essential to many domains of life. Public speaking is one…

  • Great Graphic for Educational VR Apps

    Thanks to Steve Bambury over at Virtualiteach.com, we have a great visual resource for identifying some great educational VR apps on Steam, VivePort, and the Oculus Store. Please check out this excellent collection of VR apps.

  • Xennial Digital’s XDVR Learning Portal: Playing with Science in VR

    Recently, I had the opportunity to try out a new collection of STEM-centered virtual reality learning experiences, Xennial Digital‘s XDVR Learning Portal. The Learning Portal contains roughly 10 different VR experiences touching upon topics across physics, chemistry, and biology. All of the learning experiences have some form of built-in tutorial that…

  • How VR Has Transformed Medical Training

    Written by Kristy Andrews. We’ve previously discussed the various ways virtual reality (VR) can potentially change the face of education at different levels and areas of expertise. Of the many fields this technology is disrupting, medical training is one of the most exciting in terms of application and adoption. Whether or not…

  • Virtual Reality and its Learning Potential

    This past year, I and Dr. Joey Lee published a short literature review on the educational potential of virtual reality. In the paper, we discuss how VR can play a unique role in addressing certain educational challenges. We look at the affordances of VR and how they can be used…

  • VR Storytelling with Inanimate Alice: Perpetual Nomads

    From the creators of the Inanimate Alice interactive story series comes a new foray into the VR world. Perpetual Nomads is an immersive and visually impressive short story that contains great potential for discussions on technology and human behavior. The entire experience takes about half an hour to complete and could easily…

  • Understanding the Potential of AR and VR for Autistic Children

    Written by JungYeon Choe. Edited by Elliot Hu-Au. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 1 out of every 68 school-age child has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (CDC, 2016). In the United States, more than 3.5 million American live with this disorder (Buescher et al, 2014).…

  • Merge VR, the Cube, and Mixed Reality: A Review of the Apps

    After working with the Cube by Merge VR last year during an internship I finally got to try out a few of its published apps. I and some colleagues played with the Cube, using only our smartphones, and then tried the same experiences in VR with a Google Cardboard. The number of…

  • 3D Organon’s VR Anatomy: Thoughts on Design and Theory

    Recently, some colleagues and I wrote a paper identifying the cognitive and learning theories underlying the virtual reality (VR) learning application, VR Anatomy, by 3D Organon. In essence, it is a program that contains a highly interactive, detailed, and customizable 3D human anatomy model. It allows for users to manipulate different…

  • VR and Education Highlights from the VR for Change Festival 2017

    Finally, here is a late follow-up post with my thoughts on what I saw at the VR for Change Summit in New York City on August 2nd. Overall, it was quite encouraging to witness the dedication and innovation that exists in this arena. While money and funding issues are always…