Best Practices for VR Education 2019 | Julie Smithson @ Digifest 2019 Educators Forum

Best Practices for VR Education 2019 | Julie Smithson @ Digifest 2019 Educators Forum

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A great, theme today education. And. Virtual, reality and augmenting, that very. Near and dear to my heart as a father of three young boys, Julie. Smith's ins personal, mission is. To inspire and educate the, next generation of, young entrepreneurs, to think, and act, in a socially, economically. And environmentally responsible. Way. It. Is through this lens that she runs the operations, at Mehta, VRS, one, of the world's. Leading XL consulting, and product. Development company. Julie's. Passion for education, and community, has led her to become the, co-president, of the VRA our association, Toronto chapter, she. Is also part of the Education, Committee join. Me in welcoming to, the stage Julie. Smiths and everyone. And. I guess I don't need this one either right. All. Right great thank, you very much hello everybody, welcome. To Friday afternoon, of a very long week I know for myself it's, it's. Relieving. To be Friday afternoon, at this point just to see. Our Saturday. Very. Close ahead of us so thank you very much for having me today my. Name is Julie Smith and I just wanted to clarify I'm the. CEO of Metaverse. Which is one of our companies and today. I wanted to talk about, virtual. And augmented reality in. Education. So. As. I was, introduced. My. Mission, is to inspire and, educate the, next generation of. Youth, to think and act like entrepreneurs. In an, economically. Socially and responsible, if. It's an environmentally, sustainable way. So Who am I to be able to present this to you today to. Give you credibility of, Who I am I'm, the CEO of Metaverse, I'm, also the co-president of the virtual, and augmented reality, Association. For. The Toronto chapter but, I also sit on the committees of the Education chapter, on. Full-scale, I'm, the co the, co-chair of the Education, Committee and we're putting together best practices, and global standards, in place, so that when, it comes to education, we have those in place for next generation, I'm also.

The. Leader, of the student, co-chair, committee as well as I'm also involved in the 5g Committee and again, putting all these best practices, in play, so. Why. Am, I here and where did I start from how. Do I know everything, I want to share a little bit of history with you on where I came from in, 2010. My husband and partner and I and. Our. Team we created the world's first touchscreen. DJ, software controller. And I was back in 2010, that we started working. On innovation, and how quickly technology was. Going to be a part of our lives, we, went on to be part of Dragon's Den and and. Pitched. Our company, we were entrepreneurs. At heart, creating. And innovating constantly. That. Led us into. Our. Family, and this is my daughter when, we. Finished. With our other, company, and building that one we turn to see, how, we could best educate, our own kids and. We. Introduced, our daughter into some education, principles that led her to coming. Up with an idea to. Leave, a heart-shaped Hanul sandal, tan on the, top of your shoes and she created the love sandal, she, was nine years old at this point she was one of the top entrepreneurs, of. Canada. One of the youngest entrepreneurs, and went on to sell, almost 2,000, pairs of these love sandals so, it was in that education moment. With our daughter that we realized that we. Need to change how they're educating. In in classrooms. And, we. Came up with the principles, of the unlimited awesome, Academy, where. The future generations, and and, everyone, today needs to look at different. Ways to persevere. And solve. Problems. Working. In team teamwork. And mentorship. Having. The economic, responsibility, and. Being. A part of that social impact. And taking. Care of our planet in an environmentally, sustainable way. So. What makes me the VRA, our expert, or what we've done we've. Done over 35, XR projects, just so you know what XR means it's a terminology, and encompassing, terminology, for virtual, Augmented, mixed reality. We, were nominated as, one of the top startups for, 2017. And we. Were also, listed in one of the top 100, startups, by tech week and. We were nominated as startup of. 2018. So we've, had our fair, share of innovation, we've had our fair share of.

Learning. A lot about the technology, and I want to show, you a little bit about some of the things that we we. Have developed. This. Technology right. From the start so many things to learn so features we decided to do everything than just build, on these products, so. The, sound okay, so, this is a VR photo booth so I'm introducing. 360. Degree photo capture, in our photo booth we. Developed that we developed, web, AR or a marketing, company. Enhancing. Their digital, assets, and creating, them to create a marketing platform. We, created business cards err business, cards, err menus, for a restaurant. We. Also did. An Augmented. Typography. And a truck we did a bunch of events and. We. Curated, a lot, of 360. Degrees free content, at different events throughout the city like Pride and Queen's Plate. We. Did training videos. Showcasing. Them, and different conferences. That this. Technology, isn't just about. Video. Games it's. More than that it's there's so many business, applications, so many things to learn, and. So. Many business use cases that we can use this technology, to. To. Learn from to use in our everyday processes. And, um and. Communication, methods. So. That's, uh that's, a little bit about Metaverse and that's what gave us the I. Guess the introduction, into. What. We know about the technology and how it will play out in our lives so. One. Of the things that we did when we became. A part of the virtual, and augmented reality. Community. And the global ecosystem, is, we, became, a part of the virtual and augmented reality, Association. It's. An, association, open. To any members, of any, industry. There's. Over, 50 chapters. Globally. We have over twenty or thirty committees. That we meet up every every, other week and we discuss those best practices the, global standards, and you're you're, talking to people not just down the road from you you're you're, talking about these things with people. In in, India with people in New Zealand. In the United States, I share. A call every other week and it's, fascinating to, see the developments, of Education, and how this technology, is is. Starting to work in Ex our libraries, and you, know how teachers are starting, to use that so it's within this association, that I really, started to we, all you know we both started to bridge out into, a global. Connection, of how to introduce, this technology, to create a better education, for everyone. So. Let's, talk a little bit about the evolution of technology, because that's the give everybody the baseline of what all of these definitions mean, what do all these terminologies, mean and you. Know we started with radio, television, we went from mobile, from. And to web and. The. Evolution, of that communications, has, come. About to offer, us virtual, and augmented reality for. Business applications, a, little, bit about the history of VR. Goes. Way back into 1838. Believe it or not they discovered, the, first they, built this first stereoscopic. Microscope, and that, gave that, depth, into. Seeing, other things it. Evolved from there into the viewmaster and the sensorama, that, big huge thing that you see in the middle there that. Has all the senses, in it and that was created in 1962. In. 1995. And then tendo, came out with Virtual Boy that's probably one of the things that we can most relate, to in. The 21st, century we, also get you know these are some of the updates that happened just in the last five. Years everything. From Facebook buying, oculus, and launching. Google cardboards. We. Launched oculus, rift, and all these different things like Sony Playstation. And Google daydream, and. Then in, 2017. The face book launched, their. Camera FX and you can start putting stuff on your face and, and that's, that's, was, the engagement, of augmented, reality and, starting, to put this digital layer between yourself, and your device, in. 2018. A unit, called the magic leap was released, and the, magic leap is actually called mixed reality mixed.

Reality Is where you actually have a headset, and you can see. The. World around you with a digital layer that's overlapped, beyond, that everybody. Remembers the viewmaster that's, a form of virtual. Reality we could look into this headset, and we could see all these little. Screens. That you know we push down and, we saw this other world and virtual. Reality is very similar to this it just didn't have that stereoscopic. Depth that we that, we do today so the, definition again between VR, and AR virtual. Reality, you put your headset on I think we've got a few demos. Over here, completely. Immersing, you into another world, augmented. Reality you. Actually do it on your phone if you have snapchat, already, you've, probably played, around with augmented, reality and, you don't even know it but your device puts, a digital layer between you and your. Surrounding, world so, that you can engage with it. Mixed. Reality is when, you're wearing a headset you can see the rest of the world around you but there's a digital layer between you so, can you imagine how, many applications, you could use in the workforce when, you're using this technology, that could over layer this data for, you that you could engage with, so. Just, a few notes on the different types, of headsets, I, apologize. I don't know what was being, shown over there but everything, from the Google daydream, to the oculus go these, are the units. That you put on your head you have a small controller, and you're, able to move in a three degrees, motion. It's. Called three degrees of freedom now. These bigger systems. That have, virtual, reality, like. The HTC, vive they actually provide you with six degrees of freedom so, three degrees of freedom is right left up down whereas. Six degrees of freedom you can actually engage with that space you can go over, around, move up down and the controllers, in your space provide. You with them a spatial, interaction, within, that virtual world. These. Are examples of some HTH. TC vive. Virtual reality. Headsets, they're a little bit more cumbersome, but as, we evolved through time you'll start to see these actually, weigh, down a bit you, know we're in very very early. Augmented. Reality glasses, these, are going to be very lightweight I see a bunch of people wearing glasses in the audience, today one. Day we'll have a tiny little computer, on the side of those glasses and your, entire world will be augmented. Mixed. Reality these are some of the units that are that. Are in play right now microsoft, hololens, the, meta 2 they were a company that they actually. Raised a whole, bunch of money but due. To innovation, and not lack of adoption they actually just went out, of business about, a month and a half ago and then. Magically magiclip. Is one of the the. Forefront, devices, that, can. Apply a digital world in your surroundings. By headset, and controller so. What are the leaders saying about this technology. You. Know you've got Mark Zuckerberg who, believes, that VR. Will merge and become part of your life. You. Know Satan and Allah from Microsoft, feels like I mentioned, reality is probably the the, utmost, computer. That, everybody has in their hands already and. You. Know Cindy Rand Patel's the next step will be, for. The very concept that the device will eventually, fade away as I said into your glasses and then. Of course Tim Cook, he. Regards, augmented, reality like. The, big idea like the smartphone, that. Is for everyone and it's gonna be huge so. We've, got all of these different technologies coming, in we've got VR, and AR we. Also have 5g, coming in, for. Everybody if you haven't heard about it you will it is going to be the new network. There's also cloud computing. Internet, of Things artificial. Intelligence, and of. Course cryptocurrency, and blockchain so. Putting all of those things together, imagine. What our world is like when. We must focus your entire world is, overlaid. In data. Like. This. Give. You a bit of an extreme you're sitting on a bus you, have a headset on that looks like your glasses, yes.

We Don't have to turn it up because it's actually in Chinese so that's okay but you can see, your. Entire world could be overlaid, with data you can. Ask a question to Google Who, am I there's my profile, I have. So, many friends you're saying I need to get more friends you don't have any achievements, what's. Your job length level entry where. Am I going it gives you the map automatically. Reset. Your identity, do you want to do that that's probably pretty crazy of. Course not, get. Loyalty points every time you pass by certain, things because. It knows where you are you're, wearing those glasses, so. You get off the, bus your. Path will be laid out for you the, people around you, everything. Will be right there at your fingertips. You can hit on any of those ads, on, the top maybe get a coupon just, go, find out with an yours deal is you. Walk out into the street your whole world can be laid out it's, pretty overwhelming I think. Some ways I don't know who would want to live in this particular world. So. Where are we we're here we're, in 2019. And when. You compare it with the brick fun stage we've, got a long way to go towards, you. Know making, it compact, and and portability, the, portability, of the technology, itself. But. When it comes to the progression, of the technology. You. Know how long did it take for. 50. Million people, to adopt the technology itself. Airlines. It took sixty, eight years, for. 50 million people to adopt that technology of, flying in the air. You. Can read along you know the telephone took 50 years television, 22 the, computer only took 14 years for 50 million users the. Internet only took seven years to get 50 million users Facebook. Only took three and Pokemon. Go took 19, days to get 50 million users that's. Crazy the. Adoption of this technology and, the way that it's embedding, its way into our life is. Thing that we need to start, being, concerned about how fast is coming at us how, we adapt to it how do we educate ourselves about it and how do we live within it. The. Transformational. Leadership, around. Being. Able to educate people. Through. This through. This digital literacy, phase when, we're. All human, we, only have 24, hours in a day you, can't buy or sell your time you can't take it back you can't save it we're, only so, we're. We've, only got so much and how do we adapt to this evolution, of technology, that's happening, very quickly around us it's, speeding, up it's getting faster and faster so. How. Do we as humans, start to adapt to learn about it as well, as to, integrate. It into our lives and keep going and innovate, as it keeps going because. It's changing, constantly, just like I said the VR headsets, that we have, today will be obsolete, and a couple of months and there'll be another version that comes in so, how do you keep up with all of this technology in. The. Next five. Years. XR technology. Which. Is the next form of human communications. Will have a trill over a trillion. Dollars in value and. That's. Got. A reflect, on the way that we live the way that we educate the, way that we go and buy our groceries. It's, going it's part of our lives, it's already there there's, a lot of people that don't see. It that way but. Certainly we're, we're. Poised for it to come whether we like it or not, so. Right. Now we're on the fast track racing. Against, the exponential. Growth of this technology and how it's going to be a part of our lives how, do we focus on that well we, need to dream big and you, know think about passion, and purpose, we.

Need To think about how to use that technology, to better our lives we, can't avoid it it's coming whether we like it or not so we need to be able to learn about it and and what, ways it's going to become part of our life. We need to support that speed of innovation because, if we don't support it it's going anyways we have to jump on the train that it's on and we have to figure out how to adapt to it so we use entrepreneurship. And we use technology to be able to support. Ourselves through, that and of, course always maintaining. A healthy digital, mindset, one, of the things that I like to share when I talk about digital health, is that. We always talk about mental. Health of, death of everybody, but. When it comes to a healthy mindset using, that term do, you have a healthy mindset, that's. Something, that changes, the perception of mental health and it's. One of the small tidbits I like to share is that if we start using a positive term like, healthy mentality, then, our, lives will become more better for it, so. What's the market opportunity. In this technology, and, how, do we. How. Are we gonna see it enter our lives as you can see we're gonna be hitting by the end of 2020, our market. Will be a hundred and eight billion dollars, worth so. Think about that we. Have an industry, about, to embed its way into our lives that's. A hundred worth a hundred and eight billion dollars, who's. Working in this industry I want to be a part of it who are we teaching our kids how are we preparing for this for, this industry to be a part of our every single day. Who's. Investing, in the RNA our everybody, knows Facebook, is snapchats. One of them Google vive. Samsung. Microsoft. All, of these companies are heavily, heavily, investing, in this R&D process stage that's going on in the back end but, as we move towards you, know discovering, all these different applications and, how this technology will be, a part of our lives. Who's. Teaching these kids that are coming out of school and that's that's, why I'm here today, so, the, uses of VR and AR technology, you. Can use it are this technology, for engineering, for health, medical, retail, entertainment, purposes. Industrial. Training that's, huge, so. If. You read this term and, anybody. Who has kids and I know there was one too so he's gone now but he was sitting here today but. 65%. Of, raid1 children. Will end up in working, in jobs that don't yet exist. We. That's really hard to take in especially, when we have an education, system that is teaching, for a time. When we didn't have this technology I. Believe. We're all Ontario, here Ontarians, here who we, have a government who isn't supporting, the technology, the way that they should inside, the classrooms, and that's, obviously, a ton of their conversation, but it's it's something that really needs to change drastically in, order, to train and educate this, group, of students that are coming out of schools that need to work in the industry that were we're, preparing for them so.

That's. The education problem, education. Systems are not evolving, to, prepare the students for the future of work plain. And simple. The. Top classroom, challenges from teachers this. Was interesting to, hear from the teachers themselves and. Everything. From lack of teamwork the, teachers are doing too many things you've got a tech. Teacher who's also a gym teacher who, you, know who also teaches a science, class and by, the way they need to make sure that their students are on the up-and-up of virtual, and augmented reality, so. There's a lot of pressures for teachers right now they don't have enough time to plan or upskill, they. Have to plan for the, approval. Process for the, school, administration. And they're. Also purpose prescribing, the same curriculum for every single kid that's in the classroom. The. Five key barriers, to. VR. Adoption, in schools is obviously, cost that's always the top number one, but. It then comes down to the lack of understanding, because, we don't know it either I'm one of the virtual-reality expert. Leaders and every, day I go on my computer and I teach myself about what happened yesterday because. So much has changed so. Can you imagine being a teacher in, a public school in Ontario having. To teach grade one two three four five six about. Technology, when. They. Don't, know, everything. That they should know to be able to teach this the. Rate of changes, is happening, so quickly. And safety concerns around technology being, in the classrooms, and and the, addiction rates and you know can you put VR headsets, on pute on kids heads yet or not and how long can they be there and therefore, and. Not. Being able to understand the benefits of learning, these. Are some of the top key, barriers, that schools, are facing now so. What. Are the solutions, VR, n AR. The. RN air can teleport the students, into another world we can give them experiences. Of of traveling. Somewhere of of experiencing. What the Amazon, warehouse. Is like what did future jobs look like and being, able to immerse them into those experiences. It's, it's an experience, you can't have a teacher, do on a blackboard, or with. A projector, and screen. It. Introduces, contextualized. Learning and, it, focuses on immersion, to. See what I see is the training aspect of being able to teleport. Digital. Layers onto. A piece, of machinery to be able to give directions, and instructions from, a remote assistance, that's, amazing. Data, collection, is also a huge thing teachers. Are expected to, enter data. You. Know collecting, it you know through testing, and enter through data and. You. Know this, is something that can be done through virtual, and augmented reality, applications. Is tracking, and and that. Actually goes into a bit of a deeper one but we'll talk about that in a minute so, this is a classroom in China, China. Is way ahead of us as we all know they're on a little bit of a different, Highway than us but, they're starting to integrate this technology, into, the classrooms, the teachers are leading the course they're, telling. Them you know look all around where, did you go what did you see the. Teacher is able to, you. Know engage with these students, on a level where, he. Actually took, them on a field trip but they didn't leave their desks, that just replaces. The whole classroom environment. So. I want to tell you a little bit about this conference this happened yesterday for, me so I can, I'm.

Excited, As I said I'm excited to be here because it's been an extremely busy week for me yesterday. I produced a conference, it, was called merging realities, and I did it alongside, Centennial. College in Toronto as well, as Lethbridge College in Alberta, we. Had a virtual space called alt space where. We had over a hundred attendees. And then, to land locations. All, learning, about virtual, and augmented reality for, X education. So. I'm proud to become a VR, producer, now because, I had two different groups of interns. I had, one virtual, conference, space, I had, a technical, team a speaker, team my speakers, were from, seven. Different countries. Six. Different time zones and we. Talked about the future of Education and, I want to share some of these things that we learned yesterday and, the, principles, about how to change education today, what can we do today because. We can't wait for governments, to change what's happening, in our classroom, we can't wait for, parents. To let, somebody else lead their children, into a better education, so. There. We go so what, do schools need to support the, virtual classroom so. These, are some of my ideas on how we can change education, today. Three-dimensional. Learning and I'll, go into each one of them after I highlight, but the virtual environment where, you're teaching what the classroom, looks like cognitive. And learning. Assessments. As well as. Gamification. Through reading, coding. Fundamentals. Being. Able to help our teachers, and train, the trainer's is one. Of the most vital, points. Right now on where we're stuck in schools. Teachers. Don't know how to teach this technology, they, haven't they didn't go to school for for that they went to school to be teachers so, finding. Those support systems for the training the trainers is so. Important, right now the, future work what does that look like and how can we be ready for that and then. Lastly is, the. Next generation, we, have a huge, resource, at our hands, and the next generation, is part of that and I'll know I'll introduce you to my student team in a couple minutes so. Why is three-dimensional. Learning so. Important. This. Small. Little gift image. That you're all staring at it right it's. It's enticing its engaging its three-dimensional, it's, got a bunch of different sides. This. Provides, that, engagement, of learning. Through practice, stimulating. The real thing seeing each side of it and we. Live in a three-dimensional world we we all come and we shake hands with each other we walk around each other I'm standing. By this podium I can turn around but. We've been living in a life of 2d, we. Look off of paper we, look at signs we, look at screens, we. Were, taught with textbooks. Teachers. Use blackboards. And smart. Boards, not. So smartly, but they do use them. There's. Also. It. Stimulates, the real thing you, can show this, 3-dimensional, object, and you can engage with it and I think that's one of the key lessons that we can take, to our classrooms, first and foremost is how do we teach these kids to engage, with virtual and augmented reality, environments. When.

They're Still looking on a piece of paper so. How do we engage that three-dimensional, learning, well, it's time to teach in boxes, instead of pixels plain. And simple right, now we all live in pixel, world we we look at everything just like I mentioned and we need to teach everything, now in voxels, with depth this. Is an example of a merge cube merge, cubes can be bought at Walmart for $30. And you can you don't even need to program them you just need to download the apps to gamify, them engage. With them learn about anatomy, you, can learn about different. Different. Games, that, give. You points, and rewards and, things like that what, a really cool concept to be able to engage with students, and show them you. Know what does a heart look like what does that what do the lungs look like and show them this way and give, them that depth of learning. So. That leads obviously, to collaborative, learning being, able to put one of these headsets, on like the mixed reality headset, and. People. Can take a look and see what what are we working on what are we collaborating. And, providing. That collaborative. Tool. This. Is another picture of a virtual classroom they're. Getting bigger and bigger and obviously, there's you, know best practices global. Standards, that we need to put into play so. That this, type of environment, becomes, the best, experience. Possible for, each individual, and nobody. Will come out of that experience with, the same one because they're all looking at something different even, though they're looking at the same experience. So. What if the classrooms look like in the few in the past and how, did we teach in them plain. And simple rows. And desks and chairs with the teachers standing it right at the front of the classroom and today. You know there's a picture of yesterday, and today we. Deal with memorization. And tax. Books, chalkboards. Blackboards. Failures. Discouraged. Teachers. Are marked on the amount, of, the. Level of. Progressive. Students, that are able, to give, ease and you know teacher is rewarded, when their entire classroom does, well and. That's. To, me sounds, very backwards. Mostly. The traditional, classroom struggles. With technology, and they don't know how to integrate, it they don't know how to teach. It so, those are some of the the. Barriers and then when you talk about the classroom and the setups and the way that they're they're set up in the. Past we. Dealt with a teacher center, focused. Learning. Environment, well, what, if the classrooms, were put into groups, or pairs, I. Think, you can, tell a lot about a teacher's. Methodology. When, you walk into their classroom, on day one in September and, what. Kind of environment that teachers, prepared, to teach in and, I think that's a really good way. To kind, of break, that barrier of, collaboration. And teamwork. And be. Able to start, working on project. Focused. Assignments. That have this students, working together, so. Yesterday, in my conference I, had, a company called glue they. Actually have a virtual. Meeting. Space, it's called glue and you, can drop in what they called assets. Into. The space like, an engine, say for example, where. Everybody. Can go from, the classroom, into virtual, space and take, a look at that engine together let's, dissect it, let's pull it apart let's. Walk around it and see if all of them the mechanics, are working. Training. An education, for health and medical being able to. Operate. Virtually, on, a human, human. Body, and being. Able to do that without. Without. Doing it on real life cadavers, this. Particular platform, actually provides, all these different learning environment, environments, of collaboration. So. The, future of education, is very spacial. There's. A lot of engagement, and interaction, that can happen with it and that's something that. Being. A part of these virtual, worlds is really important to understand. Alt. Space they provide different learning environments, hey let's go sit by a campfire in, the middle of the Arctic and talk, about what we learned yesterday you. Know taking. Kids out of that row, by rows, rectangular. Squared, classroom, with. Chairs the same way that they've always been and desks, that have always been there - I. Wanted. To show this because. I wanted to put the three-dimensional, impact. Into. How we're gonna see. Things even from a marketing standpoint this is a an example, of a. Lookingglass, where, three-dimensional. Objects, can be created and put into this sales. Technique, essentially. But.

It's Really taking, those. Three-dimensional. Aspects, and of. The object, and being able to engage with the user, the viewer again. I showed. This earlier but creating, business, cards, or any, kind of 2d. Interaction. That you can enhance the. Engagement, or add an animation. You. Know there's a lot of things that that. You can do now creativity. Creatively. With. To reality, there's. Another view of the merge cube and just the different things like gamification. And taking. A look at different body parts and what they're called. This. Is an interesting video which we. Actually just recently found it I, don't know if you can turn the sound up on it but it's, basically the hollow lab is the key. So. Being. Able to take your students, into different, virtual, labs and experiment. With toxic, chemicals that, would never harm them and they. Can learn themselves we can reward them with their engagement, and these, are the types of experiences, that are starting to take place that we have access to that teachers actually have access to, so, I talked a little bit about the creative mind and this. Is something where I've, actually built my own personal, talent. And self learning, I'm. Not a technologist. I've got a barrier of where I understand, technology to be I'm not, really a creative either, I'm kind, of okay I get there's, got to be a user experience so, I kind of fold. On both sides of the spectrum here, and. That's, kind of made me unique, and what I know in being, able to introduce, and, explain this, technology, and how it works, both, from a creative perspective as well as a technology, perspective. So. This. Is an example just of, our BR photo booth and you can see the creativity, of being able to add layers digital, layers of engagement. Being. Able to drop, into any environment, your photos, or your who, you are or where you are you, can change the background of who. You are of how. To interact and engage the. Augmented reality menu. That's, something that you'll start to see more and more in these marketing applications, and and big brands that are trying to engage you using. This technology. To. Enhance their own products. To learn more about them this one for example was done for Boston Pizza as a POC and. You. Know learning about the the. Caloric intake of all of these different meals. Is something. That people need to know and why not use their their, own devices that they've got in their hand through an augmented, reality app, to give them that engagement, before they order. This. Is another project. Done by a, Toronto company called reap link and some, good friends of ours it's an accurate augmented, reality application. Where. You go into a museum and use, your device to highlight certain portraits, and they. Come to life they. They. Tell the story about where, that's that.

Particular, Painting. Or sculpture, came. To be and I, think we'll start to see a lot of this in, different public, spaces where we can engage with the materials, and the, surroundings, around us, become. More involved and, to. To. Learn more about where. Those pieces came from. So. How, do you develop all of these things where do you even begin well, as I said I'm, not a technologist, but you do need to know the basic fundamentals, of this technology and yesterday. In our conference, we talked about teaching those basic fundamentals, and having. Those access, to those those. Curriculums. To be able to learn, there's. A lot of coding programs, taking place right now coding. Is just the bare minimum of where. We need to go to be able to build for unity or unreal or improbable. Pythons. One of the the. Coding, platforms. That we build for AI but. How would you know that if we don't even offer that in our school systems now so. This is something that I see as being being. Changed very quickly that, schools need to adopt these classes, to teach these fundamentals, to, give everybody, the, basic, concepts, of how things work, my. Husband and I we sent both of our kids to coding, camp at a very early age we. Told them that they needed to go and take one, course of coding to understand, how. The. Device, in their hands was being built and our. Daughter our youngest daughter was actually one of the first to go through an HTML. Course. Before. She could read and she. Was 4 years old at the time so, we introduced her to HTML, and we said ok let's see if she can do this we worked with canada's, learning code and she. Could do it she, really could and it, was like wow she did, that before she could read the. Trick was that when, we tried to move her to CSS, she. Didn't understand, that because she hadn't taken art in school she, didn't know what a border, or a pattern, was like she, didn't know different, colors and different shades and that sort of thing so our. Students, are ready to learn and I'm not saying put your kids in there like we did we had access to be able to do that but, I think it's really important, that the kids today understand. How, things are being developed in the back end they don't need to go in code for unity they don't need to code for any of these things but they do need to know that it is code and that's. Right, now a lack of understanding so. The, engagement of coding and and understanding. What those fundamentals, are and then, also. Opportunity. To learn more about these fundamentals, currently, is not offered in very many, education. Institutions. Across Canada, right now so, let's bridge College in Alberta they just launched their first program, that is starting. In September, and it's, a virtual and augmented reality development. Platform. It's. One only one school there's I think there's three across Canada, that are offering this right now but, when you go back to my slide that I talked about before that this is the virtual and augmented reality industry. Is about, to be a hundred and eight trillion dollars or billion dollars then, we, need some more coders, to be able to understand, that so we need to offer those courses to, educate, this talent, that's going to come out and support the way that we live because, we don't have coders our devices are not going to work put that into perspective. So. Coming. Back to training the teachers and training the trainers in. My, conversations. Of the Education, Committee and virtual hog mented reality this, is something, that we started to see very common, both in the education committee and the training committee it was, how, are we gonna educate all, of these teachers, and the, trainers in corporations. Where. They're gonna have to actually educate and, tell, employees. They need to upskill, and. Teachers, need to tell, the kids okay you need to learn this technology, and this is how we're gonna do it, sharing, a story with you about a teacher who. In. The u.s. was, showing an application, to a child who. Started crying in the, middle of their experience, because of where they went and what it memory, it triggered and, teachers. Need to be prepared to deal with that emotional. Engagement and. They need to be able to be. Prepared to explain. What's next and they don't have those tools at hand for them, this, girl Amanda Fox referring. To this book called, a teachers Survival, Guide to the classroom. Apocalypse, has. Some really good Tibbets she's. Releasing, actually, next week to. Be able to support the teachers in the classroom to, get them to understand, a. Little, bit more about the technology that they have access to and how, to resource.

That Out augmented. Reality and, the applications, on your device and every one of your pockets, is. Something, that you all have access to but we just don't know how to find it yet we haven't been provided, with that resource book to, be able to show us how, to do that and if, we, all haven't then the teachers haven't, so, we need to be able to support that, teachers. Need to learn with kids and right, now keep. The number of kids. In a classroom, that. Are more digitally, literate than. The teachers, is everywhere. Why. Are we not working. With the next generation to. Help the teachers understand, how to use the technology, because. I can guarantee you right now that those kids in that photo probably. Know how to turn it on faster, than a kid then the teacher does so. To, me it just makes, sense, using. The students, in the classroom to, help the teacher understand. How, to turn the devices. On how to use it how to engage with them and. All. Learn together so, again it becomes this collaborative, environment. So. What are the jobs of the future that, the teachers are preparing, us for that's. The big question you. Know we have all of this technology coming but, what, does that mean for the jobs that we have right now and. It's. Pretty clear right now that we've seen some jobs be eliminated, due to robotics, and automation and, that's gonna happen you. Know being an accountant, is unfortunately, not a fruitful, endeavor anymore. It's something that robotics, and automation are, gonna take over even, warehouse packaging, and and, those sort of things so what. Are we going to be training, for what are we what are these kids going to school for and the jobs well. Here's, a list of them and, I can attest to you from yesterday that, my experience, in producing a virtual, conference has now made me a VR producer, a virtual. Conference producer having. Two different locations a production, team on another side a virtual, space to coordinate speakers. From around the world different. Time zones that's, something that's never been done before so take, that what happened to me this week and then, roll that into all these other jobs throughout the world that we can apply to everything. From knowing. More about Big Data and how that's going to apply, to the analytics, of their consumer, base. You know nanotechnology. And voice assistance, are. Gonna change. How. We ask for things already, my, ten-year-old daughters will say to me I'm going to my room to do my tech to do my homework and, she takes her computer, in her room and she turns the text-to-voice on and she, reels out her her assignment, and if, she doesn't know anything she'll speak up and she'll say hey Google tell. Me this, so. Their technology, is sitting right at the fingertips of what they need, to know and what they want to know so, we, need to change that, education. System to adapt and use. These technologies to enhance what they're learning faster. Speedier. With, you. Know lessons, in mind you. Know allowing them to make mistakes understanding. Innovation, and how it will apply to everything, - so. How. Are we gonna get all of these different, technologies in the classroom well. By, the end of this year there'll be over 2 billion devices. That, are AR enabled, in. Our pockets. Today tomorrow. Most. Of the kids I could. Probably say at least from age, 10 years old and up have, a device in their hands and if, anybody doesn't then, kudos, to you but I think that number is going lower and lower both.

My Kids have devices when. They go into school they're handed, devices, but they're also told to put their device in a bucket because they're not allowed to have it until the end of the day but. What if the kids had technology. In their hands and they were told. To open up the augmented. Reality app, that teaches them about VR math or, geometry or. Anatomy. Or science. And this. Is where resources. Of our education, system need, to start using what, is most popular today how can we have, our, education. Systems, use, a technology, that is available to everyone, when. They already have it, so. That thought process needs, to change in our education, system, so. Here's the last question. How. Let's, ask the Gen X generation, how they want to be taught we've never asked them before and they're the ones that are being taught we, all went to school being told what to T to be taught and how to learn and what, chair to sit in and who, to partner with and you. Know you have to take this course in this course in this course and, this. Is where I'm. Really, really proud of this slide this happened yesterday. These. Two kids I'm. Not sure if anybody knows sabra sh is on the left-hand side he's, from Toronto, Savage. Is a fourteen-year-old. Part. Of the tks program, it's called the knowledge Society. Sab, rush being 14 has already traveled the world and spoken, on keynotes, at web summit awwe. Which is an augmented reality summit, because, of the work that he's already done and developing. Augmented, reality virtual. Reality and mixed, reality, applications. For, Google from, Microsoft, and he's. Done a bit of work with with. Some other companies as well. Olivia. She, is a 17, year old and she. Just, finished she's. In the middle of working on an, application. For dementia, she, coated it herself she built out the augmented, reality computer. Vision back-end she's, now working at a clinic in Cleveland, to. Be able to, enhance. This program, and add more cognitive, applications, to to. Be able to help seniors, and as, they progress through their their, dementia, this. Is our future generation, this is a 14, year old and a 17 year old I brought, both of them on as my student, co-chairs, as a part of the virtual and augmented reality Association. Because, it was my belief that we need to start engaging with that next generation to help us through this transformation, of, the, evolution, of technology why, are we not asking the on what. They want to learn and what they want to teach we. Were sorry and how they want to be taught so. It. Was interesting yesterday, because they both presented, they were in virtual, space so Olivia was she was in Cleveland snobbish, he was in his home in Toronto I was, at Centennial College May had a conversation and. One. Of their biggest frustrations. Right now is the fact that teachers are. Roadblock. To the fact that they were. Given all this technology, and they. Just went oh forget. It that's way too much for me and Olivia. Is going to a school right now where the dust is piling, up on the 3d printers and the smart, boards aren't being plugged in because the teachers have just thrown that wall up and I. Think that's you know that's that key, to the barrier that we have right now is how do we get, those teachers, to open that you.

Know The ability to learn and say. Hey kids let's turn this thing on and figure it out together and. The. Conversation, with that next generation is they. Hold a lot of power not just in in brilliance. Like these are two very, unusual. Students let's call them because they are, super-powered. But. My. Daughter who opened. The computer, and started to code before she was, before. She could read also, puts the perspective, of you, know kids can learn a lot if, they're exposed to the technology, the way that they have, the ability to and they. Have the permissions, to they. Could transform, their own education. Into something so much bigger than the teacher could ever provide them or any other education. Institution. So. What's. Changing. The way we teach. So. How do we change the way we teach our kids how do we change those the classroom, the education, we. Need to deliver experiences instead. Of content, that's. Huge kids are looking for experiences, right now everybody knows that you, know throwing snapchat, up and and, providing. That snapchat story was an experience, for them and, one. Of the things just a quick note is I. Always say to businesses, if you don't have a snapchat story. And you're. Not going to survive that next generation because that's the only way they communicate, right now and, I. Think that just comes back to that virtual, experience, that visual, experience, so making the classroom student-centered. Making. The experience social and combining. Physical and virtual. Objects, into the lesson even music, is something that's encouraged. Encouraging. Failures, and learning, from those mistakes as, well, as using technology. To enhance not. To replace the curriculum, and that's one of the other things is we don't want to put kids into virtual reality for the full day are you kidding me they would all like, be have headaches and that that just wouldn't work but, put them in for two minutes take them to the Amazon, come out let's talk about the animals you saw plain. And simple like those types of lessons need to happen to to. Be able to use. That power of technology to, what it could be so. Again. Just a the, reiteration, of my mission my mission is to inspire and educate the next generation of. Future Leaders to think and act in an economically. Socially, an, environmentally. Sustainable way and it's through using these technologies that we're going to be able to do that we, just need to give the next, generation that power, the. Ability, to use. The tools around them and support. The surrounding, mentors around them to be able to enhance their learning -, one. Thing I want to leave with you last is about, self learning and I mentioned at the beginning that. Every. Day I learned something and one of this one, of the things that I laugh about now is that I'm, actually a graduate of George Brown College and, I. Went to school back in.

1997. For. Hotel. Management, and. I stand before you today because it's everything that I've learned myself I'm now, a VR and AR expert, leading. The change in education trying. To change how we teach and how we learn and if. It you can take any lesson away from yourself today is to. Self learn utilize. The resources use, the internet use LinkedIn, follow your passions, dream, big stay, healthy. The only way we're gonna be able to change education is if we do it together so I encourage you to take all of the messages that I provided, you today share, that conversation, with others because it's not something that I can go stage to stage on, I need to spread that power to the rest of the audience to the rest of the world to, be able to start to integrate these small little changes that will change, the evolution, of Technology, and education together, so. Thank, you very much if, you have any questions. Thank. You Julie Smith leaves from Metaverse, yes. We do have you time. For a few questions if, we, can get a mic runner over here if you do have a question for Julie raise your hand up high and we'll have a microphone over to you in the audience anyone. Okay. I talked for a long time. Any. Questions for Julie I have a okay, well let's get the reader sure. If, no one else is gonna step up I'll do it. So, thank you and I. I'll, start, by just saying I'm a true believer so. This question comes from a place of love. But. I'm also somebody, who's very invested. In. Materiality. And. Particularly. In my case textiles. So. My. Your. Emphasis was really, a lot on what. Teachers, do etc. Etc could. You talk a little bit more about what, you think the. The. Imperatives, are for, people developing, VRA, are. Particularly. Around materiality. Smell. Just. Right. Now it's, an impoverished, place for, me as a maker. And an artist okay yeah. Sure I think, that you, know when you think about virtual. And augmented reality you, think it's just by sight and it's, not it's it's about spatial audio it's, about. Smells. And the engagement into, those virtual, experiences. I think. That there's a lot of creativity, that has. Even been touched yet and, understanding. Three-dimensional. Worlds, and and the, possibilities, of engaging, that creativity, into, this technology, it. Really will open up a lot of doors a lot of creative. Minds. Will be able to explore, how they want to engage that creativity. In themselves. With this technology, and I, think once you understand, how that. Can be embedded, you know the animations.

The The, engagement, and I didn't even really touch base on you know how we can reward, people, and and, engage, further, that way through. Creativity. And imagination and. Immersiveness, so, you. Know when it comes to these virtual worlds, the. Pallet is your oyster there's, so many opportunities, and possibilities you just kind of have to wrap your head around what, is, possible, and what, you know what can be done and slowly, we'll start to see the other senses, like the, nose sensor, you, know join, into a virtual experiences, where you can smell that cup of coffee sitting, in your virtual world you know so those types of things are going to happen and it's. Just it's, getting the, headsets on and getting people to use the the augmented, reality and, then it, the gamification it's. All about that gamification because, we love that what's next. Julie. I bought a merge queue on Amazon right after you mentioned it good, look, forward to using it my kids tomorrow. It's. So fun it really is and you. Can do you up for recommended, apps I guess. And. They're, free there's some of them are free some of them you have to buy it. Depends on what the engagement, is but yeah, there's a lot of different, awesome, do another question from the audience do. One little, add-on to that last piece which. Was there's feel real just came in which is sent modules, heat, cold just, came here on Kickstarter okay, so that's one thing for the sense plus there's a whole bunch other things for tactile touch my, question, though was you. Mentioned it a good point that your kids have access to smart, phones things like that and, there are many kids that do have access to it there's, still plenty, of them that don't - so how do we make sure that we're getting those kids engaged. So. This is where, you know when it comes to public education because that's where, these kids are going they're not going to private schools it's the public education. We. Need that backing from the Ontario government and I know we're at a really hard place in education and the Ontario government right, now but, we. Need that funding to go back into our education. System, very quickly and I think that they're, you. Know they're not seeing the point I'm not gonna go political, on this one but it certainly, is, it's. An investment, that needs to be made China, invested. I think it was five billion, dollars, into technology. For education last year we, are way, behind them, way behind even the US and. Canada's. Really got to take a look at at what we're investing into the classrooms, and it doesn't have to you know I'll give you a quick example last, year I got this call from somebody who said I have, thirty thousand dollars to spend and I have to spend it before the end of the school year should, I buy it all on Google expeditions. Which, is a headset, and Mike and, Mike's. All the power to you got thirty thousand, dollars but don't. Blow it all at once first of all on one, system that by the time the kids went back to school in September it was outdated, so. There needs to be, supporting. Systems from these, bigger companies who are producing these the, devices, and the hardware like HTC. Vive Microsoft. And Apple, they, need to become part of that solution, and in being able to support the, funding, behind that because right. Now for us in Ontario we can't depend on our Ontario government to change things tomorrow, so maybe, we have to start drawing on these bigger companies to help supporting, and and sponsoring. That next generation since. We're, the one they're the ones that are gonna be using it in the first place so, maybe it's a different way that we need to take a look at education, and and you. Know maybe the government isn't gonna come in and save us but, these big corporations, and the, way that they're starting to roll out these devices, in the hardware maybe that's the solution. It's. A bigger play but it's you know we're, all trying to figure out what what can we do next to. Help, change how, the kids are in school. Julia's. Son, holds a Bachelor music and works in technology, and design who. Was a great very inspiring talk thank you so much around. Julie Smith son. You.

2019-06-20 12:03

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