Latest education updates from around the world

4 Ways One Professor Uses AI to Save Time and Help Students

By |October 28, 2024|

Philosopher Graham Clay uses AI to help write letters of recommendation, convert lectures into quizzes, and answer student questions when he’s not available. Here’s how.

3 keys to success when introducing robotics to young learners

By |October 28, 2024|

Key points:

Robotics may seem intimidating, but student engagement will soar

Bringing robots to early education classrooms in rural Nevada

Robotics plays a key role in early STEM education

For more news on robotics, visit eSN’s STEM & STEAM hub

In my role as the school library media specialist and enrichment teacher at Garfield Elementary School, I was researching student-centered robotics products for K-2 students last year when my school won a grant from Montclair State University.

Montclair State University Professional Resources in Science and Mathematics (PRISM) was working with the New Jersey Department of Education to research computer […]

‘Bigscreen’ Launches Paid Cloud Browser to Let Quest Users Screen Share Without a PC

By |October 25, 2024|

Bigscreen, the social VR screen sharing platform, is spectacularly good at letting users hold communal watch parties dedicated to anything they can show on a PC’s screen, Quest users included. But now the studio is launching a paid cloud-streaming service that aims to make it even easier for Quest users looking to get away from their PC entirely.

Bigscreen already offers a remote desktop client for Quest, which allows you to cue up content on your PC for playback in the Quest-native app. It’s a really handy way of sharing your screen without technically needing a […]

Vision Pro Owners Hopeful Apple Event Will Bring News of Unreleased Panoramic Display Feature

By |October 25, 2024|

Apple announced in June it was planning to release a wider, higher-resolution version of Mac Virtual Display for Vision Pro. Now, the company says its holding a bevy of Mac announcements starting Monday, October 28th, which many are hoping includes the still unreleased mode.

“We have an exciting week of announcements ahead, starting on Monday morning. Stay tuned,” Apple marketing executive Greg Joswiak recently revealed on X.

The coming week of announcements seems to be a replacement for its annual Mac event, traditionally held in October, which in the past has seen the release of new iPads and Macs. […]

Sci-fi Shooter ‘Arken Age’ Coming to PSVR 2 & PC VR in January, New Gameplay Revealed

By |October 25, 2024|

VitruviusVR, the studio behind Shadow Legend VR (2019), finally announced the release date for its upcoming single-player sci-fi shooter, Arken Age.

Coming to SteamVR and PSVR 2 on January 16th, 2025, Arken Age promises a 10 to 15-hour story-driven campaign set in the lush arboreal environment of a terraformed world.

Here’s how VitruviusVR describes it:

Celestial Custodian’s Tower on the shores of the Bio-Chasm, a terraformed realm created to harvest Arkenite Energy. Its divine founder, the Grand Arborist, has ceased cultivation of your planet and every transmission sent to him has been met with abject silence. Uncover the truth behind the disappearance […]

Getting pre-service teachers comfortable using and teaching with STEAM tools

By |October 25, 2024|

Key points:

Hands-on learning can build teacher-students’ STEAM confidence

A surefire way to make science relevant to kids

Pandemic-related science losses hit underrepresented groups harder

For more news on STEAM, visit eSN’s STEM & STEAM hub

In my fall 3rd-year “STEM in Early Childhood” class, I noticed a common trend: The pre-service teachers, who were all women, shared a stereotypical belief that they were not math or science people, and therefore not equipped to teach STEAM. I typically assign a hefty 20-page final project in my STEM course, but I decided to take a more playful and hands-on approach for […]

Orion & Quest 3S Signal a New Era for Meta, Here’s What it Means for the Industry at Large

By |October 25, 2024|

Meta continues its reign as the XR industry’s dominant player, with its most recent moves signaling a shift into a new era for the company—and thus the industry at large. This year saw the introduction of the Meta Orion AR glasses prototype and the Quest 3S headset—two pieces of hardware that are not only crucial to Meta’s future but will be pivotal in shaping the industry’s direction as a whole.

Meta Orion AR Glasses Are a Flag in the Ground

Image courtesy Meta

The News

One of Meta’s most significant announcements this year was the unveiling of the Meta Orion AR […]

Cisco Boosts Vision Pro Meetings with New ‘Webex’ Spatial Video Streaming Update

By |October 24, 2024|

Cisco updated its Webex networking app to include even more immersive support for meetings on Vision Pro, which now marries the app with its spatial video streaming hardware.

Cisco released Webex on Vision Pro back in February, allowing for mostly everything you’d expect from a Vision Pro version of the cross-platform video chatting app, letting users meet via Webex using their Persona avatars, and do things like place 2D chat windows around their mixed reality environment.

Now the company has gone one step further with the release of Cisco Spatial Meetings for Vision Pro, which now lets users stream stereoscopic […]

‘Shattered’ is a Mixed Reality Escape Room That Aims to Thrill, Coming to Quest 3 in December

By |October 24, 2024|

PlaySide Studios, developer behind the upcoming Quest 3 party game Dumb Ways: Free for All, announced it’s releasing a psychological thriller on later this year that turns your physical space into a mixed reality escape room.

Called Shattered, the single-player MR game promises to turn your living room into a labyrinth of escape rooms and mind-bending puzzles.

“Investigate and alter memories to bend reality itself to your will as you collect evidence to expose the secrets of Greyvale and escape to safety,” the studio says.

[…]

Watch NBA Courtside in Quest, Including 52 Immersive Games This Season

By |October 24, 2024|

The 2024-25 NBA season is here, and Meta has again partnered with the NBA to bring a fat slate of 180-degree immersive games to Quest.

Now in its fourth consecutive year, Quest users will be able to watch 52 immersive games in the Xtadium app (US only) and the NBA Arena in Meta Horizon Worlds.

In addition to watching those 180-degree immersive games from virtual courtside seats, NBA League Pass holders will also be able to watch live 2D game nightly in Xtadium, complete with real-time stats. Xstadium also includes the ability to hold a […]

‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’ Review – Arkham Comes to VR in (almost) All the Right Ways

By |October 24, 2024|

Batman: Arkham Shadow stays true to the series formula, but did developer Camouflaj manage to make the game feel truly at home in VR? Read our full review to find out.

Batman: Arkham Shadow Details:

Publisher: Oculus Studios
Developer:
 Camouflaj
Available On: Meta Horizon (exclusive to Quest 3 & Quest 3S)
Reviewed On: Quest 3
Release Date: October 21st, 2024
Price: $50

Gameplay

Image courtesy Camouflaj

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a lot like Half-Life: Alyx. No, not in the gameplay. Or the story. Or the graphics.

It’s a lot like Half-Life: Alyx in the way that the creators managed to completely reimagine how the game actually works, without losing the essence […]

Apple May Halt Vision Pro Production by Year-End Amid Report of Sharply Reduced Output

By |October 23, 2024|

Apple appears to be scaling back production of Vision Pro, and may even halt manufacturing entirely by the end of the year, The Information reports.

According to the report, Apple started reducing production this summer, with supply chain sources maintaining that the company has built up enough inventory to meet projected demand for the foreseeable future.

Apple hasn’t released overall sales figures for Vision Pro, which launched first in the US in February 2024 before coming to a select number of countries. Independent research firm Counterpoint Research however maintains the company has sold 370,000 […]

VR’s Favorite Combat Sandbox is Bringing Long-awaited Campaign to Quest Next Week, Trailer Here

By |October 23, 2024|

Blade & Sorcery: Nomad, the physics-based combat sandbox for Quest, has essentially been the little brother to the PC VR game ever since it released in 2021. With the addition of the game’s long-awaited ‘Crystal Hunt’ campaign on Quest next week, that’s set to change.

Warpfrog announced that Quest users can expect Blade & Sorcery: Nomad’s ‘The End Update’ on October 28th, which the studio calls the game’s “final major update.”

Crystal Hunt marks a clear departure from Nomad’s sandbox-focused arenas, serving up a campaign with full narrative, progression upgrade system, and a ton of linked maps to battle through, explore and loot for […]

How to Organize a Blended Lesson with FigJam

By |October 23, 2024|

EdTech can and should be a balanced approach. Paperless is not a pedagogy and not everything we do should involve tech. For the parts of the lesson that do involve technology, how to we seamlessly integrate them with the non tech elements? Lesson planning is challenging and particularly challenging for planning for students who aren’t…

The post How to Organize a Blended Lesson with FigJam appeared first on Teacher Tech with Alice Keeler.

‘Minecraft’ is Also Now Dropping PC VR Support in 2025 in Addition to PSVR

By |October 23, 2024|

Mojang announced last month it was dropping PSVR support for Minecraft in 2025, which was mostly understandable considering the headset is now eight years old. In the release notes of the latest Bedrock update though, the studio says PC VR is getting the boot too.

Like PSVR support for Minecraft, the popular block-building game will end support for PC VR headsets after March of 2025.

“After you receive the final update, you will still receive updates on your PC and be able to play without a VR/MR device,” the Bedrock 1.21.40 changelog reads, echoing […]

Despite rising interest in STEM, girls face persistent obstacles

By |October 23, 2024|

Key points:

The world needs more girls in STEM–but their confidence is lagging

A surefire way to make science relevant to kids

Supporting gender equity in AI and tech education

For more news on STEM learning, visit eSN’s STEM & STEAM hub

While efforts to increase girls’ interest and participation in STEM learning and careers are working, girls still confront significant obstacles in STEM endeavors, leading to drops in their confidence.

Unveiled at the STEM Innovation Forum, The Girls’ Index: Girls & STEM Impact Report, a groundbreaking study from Ruling Our eXperiences (ROX) involving 17,502 girls in grades […]

Meta Explains Why It Sees Wide Field-of-View Headsets as a ‘bad tradeoff’

By |October 22, 2024|

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth revealed last week a mysterious wide field-of-view (FOV) headset prototyped in the Redmond, Washington-based Reality Labs offices. Bosworth now reveals the research prototype had something close to a 210-degree FOV, however wide FOV displays are a critical tradeoff the company isn’t ready to make.

And if you were hoping this was the wide FOV Quest yet to come, you’ll probably be disappointed. Bosworth revealed in a recent Instagram Q&A the device is actually a mixed reality headset, however he tempered expectations by calling the prototype “very, very, very low resolution,” which notably featured “giant […]

Top NFL QB Credits VR Training as a Big Part of His Success, Calling It a “flight simulator” for Football

By |October 22, 2024|

The Washington Commanders’ offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury is all-in on VR training, something the team’s star quarterback Jayden Daniels credits for accelerating his development, the New York Times reports.

A former quarterback for Texas Tech himself, the intense realism was clear to Kingsbury from the snap.

“The first time I put [the VR headset] on, I backed into the wall,” Kingsbury told NYT. “It felt like the [pass] rush was coming.”

Daniels is a big driver behind the Commanders’ adoption of the app, which was initially developed by German company Cognilize for top flight soccer players. Daniels says he owes […]

ThinkCERCA: How to Use It to Teach

By |October 22, 2024|

ThinkCERCA helps students work on literacy skills with lots of digital tools to develop skills.

Elijah Wood Revealed as the Voice of Scarecrow in ‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’, Coming to Quest 3 Tomorrow

By |October 21, 2024|

Camouflaj, the studio behind upcoming Quest 3 exclusive Batman: Arkham Shadow, revealed that none other an Elijah Wood both voiced and did motion capture for Scarecrow, aka Dr. Jonathan Crane.

“When Camouflaj initially approached me about joining the cast for [Arkham Shadow], I was super intrigued for a few reasons,” Wood revealed in a video message during the studio’s latest Q&A. “I’m a massive Batman fan, both in films, games, [and] comics. I’ve collected the toys when I was young, and I was super intrigued at the notion that the next chapter in the Arkham would be done entirely in VR.”

U.S. Army Needs Microsoft AR Headset to Be “substantially less” Than Projected $80K Price Tag

By |October 21, 2024|

Microsoft’s contract with the U.S. Army to build a combat-ready AR headset is worth up to $22 billion, but only if the company can deliver the goods at “substantially less than” the projected $80,000 per unit, the Army tells Bloomberg. Requirements also include definitively positive field testing, set to take place early next year.

Based on HoloLens 2, Microsoft’s specially-built Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) has faced multiple challenges since being awarded the Army contract in 2019, including poor field testing results due to reliability and ruggedness issues. Despite recent improvements in the […]