Spring CUE 2019 Wrap-up

Year two is in the books!

For the second year in a row, CUE has high-lit augmented and virtual reality in education. By gathering exemplary companies and non-profits whose aim is to have their hardware or software change the dynamics around educational opportunity, CUE has become the premiere ED conference showcasing AR and VR in education.

The CUE ARVRPlayground is a gathering of hardware and software offerings under the guise of educating attendees around the practical use cases of immersion technology in education. By coordinating volunteer educators who are using the technology in the classroom attendees can speak to practitioners and gain specific insight into logistics, pedagogy and make connections for on-going support.

If you’re an educator, please reach out to any one of the practitioners in the playground if you have questions:

Steven Sato – Twitter @stevensato
Nick Clayton – Twitter @crikeypotter
Kris Boneman – Twitter @EdtechBUSD
Katie McNamara – Twitter @KatieJMcNamara
Bobby Applegate – Twitter @CucaTech

I love the fact that CUE has taken responsibility for this emerging area of learning and has dedicated space to the technology from a conference level as opposed to relying on vendors in the expo hall or “hosted” playgrounds. You can find the CUE ARVRPlayground in the main lobby of the Palm Springs Convention Center all three days of the conference.

This year we had amazing offerings from:

The California State Parks PORTS program or Parks Online Resource for Teachers and Students was on hand to showcase their free program that includes virtual field trips that teachers can take their students on with Park Rangers. These interactive teleconference sessions over Skype or Zoom allow for an interactive experience with people and places unreachable without high cost or time. In addition the PORTS program has a number of virtual reality experiences they have produced which are available through a number of channels including the Google Expeditions library.

Learn more here: http://www.ports.parks.ca.gov/

XRLibraries is an organization that places high end VR systems into libraries in California and Nevada. They have deployed upwards of 200+ systems along with 70+ curated educational titles into libraries for anyone to use. XR libraries partners with many companies to support their efforts and as such had volunteer staff from Lifeliqe and XRMarin.On demonstration in the playground were NGSS aligned 3D science content, tilt brush, and a host of other applications. XRLibraries and staff were also on hand to speak to attendees and provide an industry level overview of the hardware and software available to the market and they provided valuable insight for those with questions on how to integrate these technologies into their classrooms.

Learn more here: http://xrlibraries.com/

The Angari Foundation joined this years conference all the way from West Palm Florida! Angari focuses on ocean, shark and coral reef education and conservation. They provide real opportunity for local students to join research excursions with scientists on their research vessel “Angari”. This 65’+ vessel gives local students an opportunity to experience ocean research first hand, however Angari took it a step further and has begun filming their experiences in immersive 360 VR so that others can benefit from these experiences.

Learn more here: http://angari.org/

The USC Shoah Foundation’s focus is to document, preserve and share the testimony of genocides. Specifically at Spring CUE this year they showcased two amazing products which are or will be a part of iWitness, a free program for educators that provides curriculum and resource, such as 55,000 genocide survivor testimony. The Foundation showcased Lala, a 360 VR immersive couch style interview with a Holocaust Survivor. They also showcased Dimensions in Testimony which is an interactive immersive experience where users can dialog with a Holocaust Survivor. Users can ask questions in real time and in natural language. Artificial Intelligence then deconstructs the question and returns the best primary source answer the survivor gave back to the user. Survivors were filmed over the course or five days and asked between 1000 and 2000 questions. Asking them, what is your name, how old were you or do you have any regrets will return personal testimony from the survivor that is now preserved indefinitely.

Learn more here: https://sfi.usc.edu/

CGW-G, the hardware, software and training resource many schools use was on deck to showcase their portfolio of offerings. Within their booth they showcased HTC Vive running on MSI gaming hardware, Samsung tablets, the Lenovo Mirage Solo and EON Reality’s immersive VR/AR educational offerings. Attendees got to freely experience a variety of immersive technologies from the high end HTC Vive, to the standalone HTC Vive Focus and the standalone Lenovo Mirage Solo.

Learn more here: https://www.cdwg.com/

Google was again in the ARVRPlayground showcasing Google Expeditions. Still an amazing opportunity for educators to take students on journeys near and far, Expeditions VR and AR offer students access to things and places they may not otherwise have access too. With Tour Creator, teachers and students can create AND publish their 360 VR tours into the Expeditions library.

Learn more here: https://vr.google.com/