Virtual Arena #22 - Immersive Education

In this special feature of Virtual Arena we look at the developments in the educational and technology (EduTech) sector, while attending Europe’s largest teaching and training convention, and see the deployment of the latest VR headsets and classroom applications proving the strength of XR in this sector.

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Transcript

Setting The XR Education Stage

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This is the Virtual Arena, Issue No. 22, Immersive Education, by Kevin Williams. The consumer VR sector has been fixated on the state of recent developments and a failure of the technology to grow at the rate some hoped and banked on. But the reality is that there are other aspects of the deployment of immersive tech into business that have seen growing success. Sadly, those sectors did not have access to the vast marketing and self-promotion budgets as allocated to some in the consumer VR arena. The educational reality. The commercial application of VR into the educational scene is one such example of a successful deployment that has received scant coverage. So it was with much interest that we took time to attend a major educational convention to chart the state of market penetration for VR. The British educational training and technology show, Bet 2026 European Leg, took place in London during the end of January and underpinned the investment that the educational and teaching sector was placing on immersive training as part of what is described as edutech. Held at the Excel London Convention Center, some 700 exhibitors presented to an estimated 37,000 attendees, the latest tech, services and applications for teaching and training, supported by a dedicated conference program, major trends shaping education discussed, along with the invasion of AI into shaping the profession. Along with STEM, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, learning invested in by the UK government, the educational drive towards edutech is also supporting the use of XR into the special educational needs and disabilities send aspects of learning, the ability of immersive technology to be employed in homeschooling, and accessibility through virtual classrooms, all popularizing its application in education and training. Seen on the BETT26 show floor, there are three key tent poles of XR technology deployment in education that were on display. XR hardware in the classroom. The educational market has embraced VR head-mounted technology, fully immersing the user within the virtual environment. This has also been supported by MR, offering a crossover between the physical and virtual environments. The final was the application of AR, offering the ability to overlay virtual elements into the real world. Of these approaches seen at BET 26, they were employed in edutech in either promotional demonstrations, actual classroom applications, or as illustrations of future aspirations of what XR may one day be able to deliver. One of the leading award-winning applications of head-mounted technology into the teaching sector was from Avantis Education, creators of Class VR, the world's leading virtual and augmented reality VR slash AR solution designed exclusively for education. The corporation started in 2017 and has placed their VR platform in more than 200,000 classrooms globally. With their Class VR platform, they offer VR and AR resources. From the original Class VR Explorer headset, offering a 4K Ultra HD display, VR platform, supporting what we would call MR components to present the educational experiences across a wide range of criteria through their Eduverse Plus comprehensive library of content. And this year launching their Eduverse Thrive, a purpose-built well-being and inclusion solution designed to support sensory regulation, emotional readiness, and inclusive learning across mainstream classrooms, an inclusive system for the CEND pupils in many schools. Class VR has expanded their offering with their latest headset. The lightweight Class VR Accelerate platform brings a brand new flip form factor to the educational VR headsets, along with a high-performance platform including increased MR capability with four external cameras. The updated headset paired with the wider Eduverse CTE library of content. Avanti's Education aims to offer a complete solution for education with classroom management, storage and charging of the headsets, and training and support for the professionals, the theme of their booth, a space to thrive. With a far longer track record with regards to VR in the educational environment, Class VR is not a Quest alternative, but is its own standalone ecosystem and reveals the challenges of supporting the commercial VR sector rather than hoping to parachute a consumer headset into the educational maelstrom. The Class VR platform having been used by over 2 million students in more than 90 countries. A factor in the deployment of VR into the classroom has been the perceived utilization of off-the-shelf consumer headsets dropped into the educational process. Rather than a turnkey solution, the reality requires higher levels of support and the need to understand the unique challenges of classroom deployment of multiple units to impart an educational narrative, let alone the issues of software licensing and support contracts. Exhibitor Campystore exhibited at the show their services to provide amenities to the classroom. These included making available access to immersive hardware platforms such as Pico VR Headsets, Neo 3, Neo 4, and Pico G2, Lenovo Think Reality XR, and even MetaQuests, all for deployment into the classroom, supported by charging and cleaning facilities. Operating large numbers of headsets in the classroom, bringing unique requirements to the table, those very VR headset providers were also exhibiting at BET 26, with the likes of Lenovo presenting their range of educational laptops, alongside their partnership with immersive education providers using Quest 3 headsets. On the booth was Engage, a leader in collaborative environments for students and teachers using VR technology. Working with Lenovo, the company was demonstrating their celebrative teaching environment with a demonstrator based in Ireland, walking VR users through their education syllabus at the London show in real time. The corporation promoted real-world case studies of their platforms, used homeschooling groups in Florida, and saw impressive results in retention and educational aptitude for those using the platform. HTC Vive exhibited at the London Education Convention with a selection of VR experiences and applications employing their HTC Vive Focus 3 headset, offering all-in-one XR classroom management systems and compelling immersive experiences, a hub for VR education, which the company has defined as the Viveurs, with content such as from Unframed Collection offering a means to experience artworks in a new immersive narrative, their content linked with HTC Vive Arts, which is the cultural branch of HTC. On the HTC Vive booth at BETT26 was a central Igloo Vision immersive projection screen enclosure that offered a non-headset representation of the virtual environment, pointing to the growth in fidgetal visualization. The BETT26 event was being held in the shadow of the news from Meta of their abandonment of the horizon for business and commercial deployment of the MetaQuest hardware suite. Numerous schools and colleges had signed up to utilize the enterprise application of headsets in education, only now to find that that very support was being abandoned. FormCase exhibited at the education show a suite of ruggedized cases for tablets, as well as for VR headsets and accessories. The booth was shared with Redbox VR, a well-known commercial/slash enterprise supporter of VR hardware. The company supports schools and colleges deploying VR headsets into the classroom, as well as commercial training applications and even working on deployment of VR into location-based entertainment environments. The company reflected on the issues surrounding Meta's withdrawal from supporting enterprise, but pointed out that they were agnostic regarding hardware with strong relationships with Pico and HTC, feeling that any vacuum created by Meta Reality Lab's decision would be filled by other hardware manufacturers. The migration towards MR over VR application was best illustrated on the Samsung booth at the education event. The company demonstrated alongside their classroom display technology their return to the head-mounted display business. An exclusive demonstration was given of the Galaxy XR headset. Running through its MR demo, the hardware showed the light form factor and power of the platform. A platform more like a cost-effective Apple Vision Pro in presentation than a dedicated VR headset. The new headset, powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon XR2 plus Gen 2 chipset and running the Google Android XR operating system. The company confirmed that while still not available, it is intended for the commercial sector, and education will play an important part in their business plans when made available later in the year. On the Logitech Education booth, the wide selection of accessories they developed for educational application was joined by a Quest III paired with the new Logitech stylus employed in MR. The company seeing this as a companion to new suites of MR platforms. Actual classroom applications revealed. On some of the pavilion booths of various partner countries at BET 26, presentations of classroom VR applications included the UK booth attendee Metaverse Learning, offering a personalized learning experience, building a virtual classroom able to be shared with students, the system being demonstrated on a Quest III. While across on the Kazakhstan booth, they promoted their own VR educational applications. The French Pavilion demonstrated VRAI Learning, an education tool on Quest hardware. While on the Italian Pavilion, the TinALP application for classrooms learning experience developed by Fifth Ingenium was revealed. The deployment of head-mounted displays into the classroom also includes those innovative applications to support partially sighted, blind, or with learning, communication or reading difficulties. Exhibitor Vision A demonstrated their unique headsets and applications created to support this aspect of the educational sector and C End, while IXR labs promoted their higher education courses with a MetaQuest III demonstration. Beyond the application in the classroom of VR headsets being used to offer virtual field trip content, other classroom VR applications on the show floor included Fumble Land, VR Content Teaching Spelling, developed by JB Productions SRL, Building off a popular children's TV show to create VR edutainment based on the popular narrative and characters, future educational applications. Away from the wearable application of XR, BETT, 26 revealed the continued growth of the fidgetal environment, the marriage of digital elements within a physical environment. This was seen on the interactive X-Wool booth that had a projected wool system that could be used with balls or object interaction, offering a competitive digital environment. X-Wool also applying their immersive experience to location-based entertainment, LBE, along with edutainment. Several projection-based physically active platforms with wall and floor-tracked projection mapped systems were on display at the show, this supporting the big AV corporations offering their latest projection systems to the sector, such as ViewSonic. The frictionless nature of this kind of approach, the simplicity of installation and operation, and a wide variety of physical fitness and accessible interactive activities from these compelling along with their send application. As stated previously, these immersive projection systems are also finding a home in the LBE venues. The level of engagement and interactivity, along with STEM initiatives from educational institutions, to include esports and game theory to the educational curriculum. The large exhibitors promoted the gamification of the educational process, with the likes of Microsoft promoting their Minecraft education platform. The education division of the tech giant deploying a learning-based application to the popular game format. Another major exhibitor at the convention was Google for Education, presenting their applications tailored for the classroom and the management of school and public's needs. These include the deployment of modified versions of popular apps aimed for research and collaboration for school and colleges. While on the Yoto Tech booth, the company promoted esports for education, partnering with PC Hardware and Software to offer the best esports rigs, along with the British Esports Federation, applied in educational competition, and the growing of the new generation of competitive esports athletes, predominantly on flat screens. Overall, BET 26 reflected the continued adoption of XR technology into the classroom, as actual case studies proved its value and benefits from collaborative immersive classroom environments far beyond the hype of the metaverse, and a deployment of headsets that are being regularly used with a much stronger retention than seen from the equivalent consumer application. Whether we will see AI and AR smart glasses make an impact in this sector seem questionable, but MR does seem to offer a new level of engagement that we will see reflected in the coming conventions. This concludes our BET 2026 feature, the next part of our coverage of the XR landscape following shortly.