Tag Archives: AR

On Thursday, September 14, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and the XR Association present the third annual AR/VR Policy Conference in Washington, DC. The event will feature a series of expert talks and panels discussing critical policy questions covering privacy and safety, the use of AR/VR in education, children and teenager safety, and more. Panel #4: Back to School in the Metaverse (2:25 PM ET) As AR/VR technology becomes a valuable tool for educational purposes, developers and educators…

Technology may promise to disrupt. Yet, all too often in education, tech tools simply digitally replicate the ways we’ve always gone about teaching and learning. From gradebooks to slide decks, to gamified learning, many ed tech offerings tend to be fancy window dressing more than new approaches.  XR– or “extended reality,” the umbrella term for immersive tools including virtual and augmented reality– has the potential to be truly different. These emerging technologies can unlock learning opportunities never before known in…

Technology can be a transformative learning tool in the classroom. According to The National Education Technology Plan (NETP), technology has the potential to “affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent our approaches to learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.” While these are lofty goals, to be truly effective, educators need to have the skills and support to take full advantage of technology-rich learning environments.…

In July 2022, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center hosted a panel at the Games for Change Festival in New York City. Led by Cooney Center Executive Director Michael Preston, the panel featured Idris Brewster, founder of tech nonprofit Movers and Shakers, which creates augmented reality (AR) experiences centered around uplifting Black and Brown narratives within the classroom with Kinfolk and Unsung; Kevin Merges, executive director of immersive technology programs at Rutgers Prep, a private K-12 school in Somerset, NJ; Peirce…

Augmented reality (AR) allows users to see and interact with virtual objects while still seeing their environment. AR is increasingly becoming more common and is being applied to gaming, healthcare, and education. For example, if you have ever played the worldwide phenomenon Pokémon Go, then you have used an AR application, with which you saw and collected virtual Pokémon in your environment. AR applications can be created for a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, as well as headsets. Compared…

With the recent announcement of the new umbrella name “Meta,” the Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp behemoth is shifting its place of business to the “metaverse.” It seems timely, then, to consider what we mean when we use that term and, particularly, how it can be made transformative and beneficial for children and teens. There is, as yet, no true metaverse, so it’s early enough that all stakeholders can shape a positive trajectory. In Dubit’s vision, we might start by imagining the metaverse as…

On June 15, 2019, we—along with the JGCC’s Deputy Director and Head of Research Lori Takeuchi and foundry10’s Co-founder and CEO Lisa Castaneda—convened a group of experts at the Interaction Design and Children (IDC) conference in Boise, Idaho to participate in a one-day workshop on kids and immersive media.  At this workshop, we focused on how to ensure immersive media—or augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR)—for kids is designed responsibly by taking into account kids’ developmental…

In designing VR/AR devices and applications for children, it is critical to keep in mind the active and inquisitive nature of children, the key developmental tasks of each age and stage, and the profound influence of environmental stimuli and challenges on their physical, mental, and social development and health.

Do you remember when Niantic’s Pokémon GO was released in summer 2016 and how a craze with kids and families ensued? Are you excited for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite to be released sometime later this year and expect it to be a similar hit? Perhaps you’ve heard of Google Expeditions, which integrates VR and AR into classroom lessons? Or Nintendo Labo’s VR Kit, which has already sold out online, in just one week after its release? And what about all…

Before the Future of Childhood: Immersive Media and Child Development salon took place in November 2018, we invited experts to share their visions about the ways VR and AR might impact childhood 10 years from now. Jesse Schell is the CEO of Schell Games, the largest full-service education and entertainment game development company in the United States. Here, he explains why we should explore VR and AR—despite our current concerns—and their potential benefits for children. While many people think of virtual reality as…