The Tech Edvocate

Top Menu

  • Advertisement
  • Apps
  • Home Page
  • Home Page Five (No Sidebar)
  • Home Page Four
  • Home Page Three
  • Home Page Two
  • Home Tech2
  • Icons [No Sidebar]
  • Left Sidbear Page
  • Lynch Educational Consulting
  • My Account
  • My Speaking Page
  • Newsletter Sign Up Confirmation
  • Newsletter Unsubscription
  • Our Brands
  • Page Example
  • Privacy Policy
  • Protected Content
  • Register
  • Request a Product Review
  • Shop
  • Shortcodes Examples
  • Signup
  • Start Here
    • Governance
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Terms and Conditions
  • The Edvocate
  • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
  • Topics
  • Write For Us
  • Advertise

Main Menu

  • Start Here
    • Our Brands
    • Governance
      • Lynch Educational Consulting
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
    • Contact Us
    • Books
    • Pedagogue
    • Edupedia
    • The Edvocate Podcast
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
  • Apps
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • P-20 Ed Careers

logo

The Tech Edvocate

  • Start Here
    • Our Brands
    • Governance
      • Lynch Educational Consulting
      • Dr. Lynch’s Personal Website
        • My Speaking Page
      • Careers
    • Write For Us
    • The Tech Edvocate Product Guide
    • Contact Us
    • Books
    • Pedagogue
    • Edupedia
    • The Edvocate Podcast
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Topics
    • Assistive Technology
    • Child Development Tech
    • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech
    • EdTech Futures
    • EdTech News
    • EdTech Policy & Reform
    • EdTech Startups & Businesses
    • Higher Education EdTech
    • Online Learning & eLearning
    • Parent & Family Tech
    • Personalized Learning
    • Product Reviews
  • Advertise
  • Apps
  • Tech Edvocate Awards
  • The Edvocate
  • P-20 Ed Careers
  • Getting a Job as a Teacher in New Hampshire

  • Teaching Soft Skills is Essential

  • Product Review of Proloquo2Go

  • Product Review of Project Foundry

  • Product Review of ProgressBook Suite

  • Product Review of ProFile planner

  • Product Review of Prodeceo

  • Product Review of ProctorTrack

  • Product Review of ProClass

  • Product Review of Procare Software

EdTech NewsHigher Education EdTech
Home›EdTech News›Shifting the field of view: science stories in virtual reality

Shifting the field of view: science stories in virtual reality

By Matthew Lynch
July 5, 2016
21231
0
Spread the love

This article was written by Kate Patterson

Since first donning a Virtual Reality (VR) headset only eight months ago, my personal relationship with this technology has progressed at lightning speed, way past the awkward getting-to-know-you phase.

VR in action. Photo by @andylilja Andrew Lilja

In the broad scheme of things, I probably could be described as an early adopter of the technology and a VR content producer, rather than a mere passive consumer (although, one could argue that ‘passive’ and ‘VR’ shouldn’t be used in the same sentence).

I find being in this position exciting, yet, highly unlikely. I’m not a gamer and I’m sadly a complete movie inexperient. I think I spent most of my youth barefoot in the dirt rather than being immersed by screen-based storytelling. It’s ironic I guess, given that screen based science storytelling is my adult passion and profession.

‘COLOSSE’ was my first VR adventure, a real-time virtual reality storytelling experience, with a stylised, character-focused visual language. I spent a mere two minutes inside the beautiful, simple animated world but it was inexplicably transformative.

I won’t even try to explain how amazing it is inside a well-designed virtual story – there are no words that can describe the power of the immersive experience. VR is something you have to actually try in order to understand. Despite the simplified visual language and restricted colour palate, COLOSSE manages to physically and cognitively transport the viewer into a world that, thanks to VR technology is unbelievably believable.

Image from Colosse

VR technology has come a long way since the motion-sickness inducing early days. Gaming enthusiasts, developers and film studios have embraced the recent release of the fist consumer-ready VR headgear and the buzz has been huge. VR offers a truly immersive experience and promises to transform how we play, interact and learn but exactly how this will evolve is uncertain.

I am particularly interested in how VR can be utilised for education and awareness in medicine and science, beyond its superficial appeal as a mere gimmick. (Secretly, I believe science and medicine could lean on gimmicks more, serving as an ice breaker and communication platform… but that’s a story for another time).

Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook

In previous work, I created animated biomedical stories about cancer and epigenetics, the focus of research carried out at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. The animations show how biological molecules behave inside our cells, and how things can go wrong in disease.

As the biomedical scientist-artist in this context, I present a visual ‘review’ of a science story. In my head I can see the scenes in three dimensions, then the animation software and editing process allows me to convert this for two dimensional viewing on a screen – providing a ‘window’ into the molecular world. One of the most common things people ask is how they can get beyond the field of view. People don’t just want to look through the window, they want to jump through the window.

With VR, I can make that happen. The question is, do I want to? what would this achieve?

Could VR facilitate embodied cognition, linking our thoughts to our physical experience? Pedagogical approaches that tie experience to thinking have been shown to enhance learning in a number of contexts, dating back to experiential learning theories of John Dewey (1938).
Students of anatomy can now progress beyond looking at an illustration within a text book and interact with anatomical structures in 3D.

A rendering of DNA.

VR and education has also featured in the TED and TEDx speaker series over the past 12 months. Michael Bodekaer, founder of Labster which teaches life sciences through gamified education talks about immersive 3D virtual worlds and laboratories. Alex Faaborg, of Google Cardboard talks about how VR is providing incredible opportunities for the future of art, journalism, and education.

Working at the frontiers of interactive technology, Chris Milk stretches virtual reality into a new canvas for storytelling. You will notice that this last example does not have a strong focus on education, but I can’t help but imagine how science storytelling will be transformed by VR and then how those stories will influence education.

My challenge is to tell science stories about epigenetics, a topic that is complex, dynamic and extremely abstract to most people. Epigenetic structures and events are essentially invisible, smaller than the wavelength of light. Yet, epigenetic mechanisms are incredibly important. They underpin our health, tie us to our ancestors and commonly go haywire in disease.

Communicating this in a visually engaging, informative way can be hard, but biomedical animation has been able to bridge the gap for many through scientifically accurate, beautiful animations that can be awe inspiring. But, imagine being able to go past the field of view, through the window and be physically inside the cell.

Some early projects that have explored this include Molecule VR, one of many educational tools developed by Unimersiv that aims to support and integrate classic teaching and learning methods.

This 360 degree video demonstration from Nucleus Medical Media looks amazing even on a mobile device. Scientific communication studio Random 42 have also produced an incredible VR experience that uses signal transduction pathway to transport the viewer into the cell (starting at approximately 45s).

Random42’s VR 360 showreel is spectacular.

This is surely just the start of science visualisation in VR, but will immersive experiences actually translate to better understanding? What science stories are the most suitable for telling in VR? How do we overcome the technical limitations that still exist?

As a practitioner and visual communication researcher, while I love viewing science content in VR, it is the research questions and challenges that I find the most exciting.

The Conversation

Kate Patterson, Visual Science Communicator, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Lab Research Fellow, 3D Visualisation and Aesthetics Lab UNSW Art and Design, UNSW Australia

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

TagsEdtechedtechchatelearningSTEAMSTEM
Previous Article

Social media and video games in classrooms ...

Next Article

Can ed-tech inequality be solved by roving ...

Matthew Lynch

Related articles More from author

  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTech

    Creating the Tech Leaders of Tomorrow: How to Inspire Your Students to Lead in the Digital Age

    June 7, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechHigher Education EdTech

    How to Gamify Your Classroom

    January 9, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Higher Education EdTech

    How to involve students in your college’s IT strategy

    August 25, 2017
    By Matthew Lynch
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech Futures

    Buses with Broadband: The Key to Expanding Internet Access

    October 29, 2016
    By Matthew Lynch
  • EdTech News

    State-of-the-art education software often doesn’t help students learn more, study finds

    June 29, 2016
    By Matthew Lynch
  • EdTech News

    Next Generation Science Standards are Smart

    June 12, 2016
    By Matthew Lynch

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyMath EducationProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Beyond Cats! Grade 2 Math Standards

  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechFeaturedFreshHigher Education EdTech

    To Succeed in Edtech, Become a Voracious Learner

  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Flat

Search

Login & Registration

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Getting a Job as a Teacher in New Hampshire

    By Matthew Lynch
    June 28, 2022
  • Teaching Soft Skills is Essential

    By Matthew Lynch
    June 28, 2022
  • Product Review of Proloquo2Go

    By Matthew Lynch
    June 27, 2022
  • Product Review of Project Foundry

    By Matthew Lynch
    June 27, 2022
  • Product Review of ProgressBook Suite

    By Matthew Lynch
    June 27, 2022
  • 20 Top Virtual Reality Apps that are Changing Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 11, 2017
  • 7 Ways Technology Is Impacting Modern Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    March 4, 2017
  • Why Mobile Technology Enhances Instruction

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 14, 2016
  • 7 Roles for Artificial Intelligence in Education

    By Matthew Lynch
    May 5, 2018
  • Digital Literacy is the Most Important Lifelong Learning Tool

    By Matthew Lynch
    December 30, 2017
  • The Changing Role of Social Responsibility – Perfect Release
    on
    June 27, 2022

    How to Teach Kids Social Responsibility in a Connected World

    […] Lynch, M. (2018, ...
  • Teaching Early Geometry Concepts – Ask a Tech Teacher
    on
    June 23, 2022

    Teaching Early Geometry Concepts

    […] spend a lot ...
  • Product Review of Counting Bills & Coins – The Tech Edvocate | Gold – Silver – ...
    on
    June 21, 2022

    Product Review of Counting Bills & Coins

    […] Product Review of ...
  • The Edtech Industry Has An Oversaturation Problem - latecareer
    on
    June 20, 2022

    Is the Edtech Industry Flunking Out or Making the Grade?

    […] Lynch at The ...
  • The Edtech Industry Has An Oversaturation Problem - News Badshah
    on
    June 19, 2022

    Is the Edtech Industry Flunking Out or Making the Grade?

    […] Lynch at The ...

EdTech Policy & Reform

  • Curriculum & InstructionEdTech Policy & ReformEducation Leadership

    Why We Should Leave Behind the Cookie-cutter Education

    Spread the loveChange appears to be the only “constant” factor in the educational field. However, what happens when a more significant shift becomes necessary? To provide students with the best ...
  • Adaptive LearningCurriculum & InstructionDigital & Mobile TechnologyDigital Age TeachersEarly Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech & InnovationEdTech Policy & ReformInstructional Technology

    Exploring New Ideas: Student-Driven Remote Learning

    Spread the loveRemote learning is taking its toll on our students. They miss the social side of school. Not seeing their classmates or teachers is leading to nervousness, anxiety, and ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyEdTech & InnovationEdTech Policy & Reform

    Implementing Education Technology by Pursuing Technology Education

    Spread the loveTechnology is used for many great things in our world. It’s a powerful tool when used correctly. As such, this powerful tool can be used to transform learning.  ...
  • EdTech Policy & Reform

    How Much Bias Is Okay in Your School?

    Spread the loveThe algorithm has proven itself to be a handy tool when it comes to solving education problems. It’s also not without bias.  You may be wondering how some ...
  • EdTech Policy & ReformFeaturedFresh

    Edtech Should Complement Good Pedagogy, Not Attempt to Replace It

    Spread the loveThe newest generation of edtech is downright amazing; it’s no wonder that various education stakeholders might be a little excited about its potential to transform education. However, edtech ...

EdTech Startups & Businesses

  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Edtech Companies Can Learn What Not to Do From Delta Airlines

    Spread the loveIt seems that edtech companies still have a lot to learn about their business models and practices. With that being said, there is a lot they can learn ...
  • Digital LeadershipEdTech Startups & BusinessesProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Collegix

    Spread the love This is a comprehensive ERP solution for colleges and universities that provides modular, totally integrated learners services, finance, HR, and advancement. Collegix provides online and offline workarounds ...
  • Early Childhood & K-12 EdTechEdTech Startups & BusinessesProduct Reviews

    Product Review of Discovery Education

    Spread the love Discovery Education is a big player in EdTech. The company has established itself as the leading provider of digital curriculum resources, digital content, and professional development for ...
  • EdTech Startups & BusinessesProduct Reviews

    Product Review of AptaFund

    Spread the loveAptaFund is a business management software that provides essential functions to educational institutions, such as web access to educators, parents, and learners. It allows elementary schools and other educational ...
  • EdTech Startups & Businesses

    Understanding the Fundamentals of a Sales Script in Your Customer Interaction Journey

    Spread the loveSales scripts are crucial to any business and can be the main difference in achieving the set targets. A well-written sales script that factors in customers from different ...

Digital Equity

  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyDigital EquityDigital Literacy

    Teaching Learners Digital Content Creation Skills

    Spread the loveContent curation is nothing new and has always been a coveted skill. It has been this way for hundreds of years — think of art galleries, museums, or ...
  • Digital & Mobile TechnologyDigital EquityEdTech & Innovation

    Promoting Online Access With Hotspots, Laptops, and Planning

    Spread the loveWhen becoming a leader in the field of education, it is important to consider equity. Some students may not have access to devices or the internet from their ...
  • Digital EquityDigital Leadership

    How Can You Assess the Tech Needs of Your Students Outside of School?

    Spread the loveToday, I received an email from the middle school principal in Los Angeles. She explained to me that the school that she ran was in one of the ...
  • Digital Equity

    It Is Time for the Edtech Industry to Stop Denying Its Equity and Race Problem

    Spread the loveThe EdTech industry is dominated by white employees, white leaders, and white entrepreneurs. If you doubt this statement, just attend an Edtech conference. Admittedly, educators and others don’t ...
  • Digital Equity

    How OER Can Help Overcome the Higher Education Equity Barrier

    Spread the loveThe cornerstone of the American dream is the ability to succeed in life regardless of one’s family of origin. And, for most people, that requires a college education. ...

EdTech Futures

  • Adaptive LearningAssistive TechnologyEdTech FuturesInstructional TechnologyTeachers

    Will AI Replace Teachers?

    Spread the loveThrough the years, robots have taken over many jobs. First, they replaced horses and wagons and horses and plows, then they started to replace people. A few examples ...
  • EdTech FuturesHigher EducationHigher Education EdTechUncategorized

    The Future of Higher Education Must Avoid Returning to the Past

    Spread the loveColleges and universities can make higher education safer, smarter, and more accessible through automation and collaboration technologies – if they commit to it. Author: John Hulen, Director of ...
  • EdTech FuturesOnline Learning & eLearning

    IT Trends To Watch As Higher Education Moves Into a New Decade

    Spread the loveEdtech couldn’t have hoped for a better launch into the new decade than the push the industry received from COVID-19. Even the most tech-resistant institutions and individuals have ...
  • EdTech Futures

    4 Emerging EdTech Trends in 2022

    Spread the loveCovid-19 has not only changed education as we know it, but it has forced education technology (EdTech) to up its game. EdTech has been crucial since the start of this ...
  • Adult EducationEdTech & InnovationEdTech FuturesEducation LeadershipEducational LeadershipHigher EducationHigher Education EdTechThe Future of Education

    Education Technology and the Future of Higher Ed Leadership

    Spread the loveEducation Technology (EdTech) has had a more significant impact on education than anyone expected. Now its effects are reaching into the field of higher education. In this article, ...

About Us

Since technology is not going anywhere and does more good than harm, adapting is the best course of action. That is where The Tech Edvocate comes in. We plan to cover the PreK-12 and Higher Education EdTech sectors and provide our readers with the latest news and opinion on the subject. From time to time, I will invite other voices to weigh in on important issues in EdTech. We hope to provide a well-rounded, multi-faceted look at the past, present, the future of EdTech in the US and internationally.

We started this journey back in June 2016, and we plan to continue it for many more years to come. I hope that you will join us in this discussion of the past, present and future of EdTech and lend your own insight to the issues that are discussed.

Newsletter

Signup for The Tech Edvocate Newsletter and have the latest in EdTech news and opinion delivered to your email address!

Contact Us

The Tech Edvocate
5322 Markel Road, Suite 104
Richmond, VA 23230
(601) 630-5238
[email protected]

Follow us

Copyright © 2022 Matthew Lynch. All rights reserved.