Kieran Nolan is a network administrator who has been creating different elearning applications with immersive technologies. He’s 3D printing objects that students either create or modify from Thingiverse withing Google SketchUp. He’ll take a digital photograph of their objects, and then upload it to a virtual art gallery that can be viewed with an Oculus Rift and networked to another school system. He’s also been teaching classes in Minecraft, and even had his students collaborate on building a working QR code.
Kieran also talks about how he sees cryptocurriences like BitCoin playing a larger part of the future infrastructure that’s going to enable all sorts of things that we haven’t even thought of. He sees BitCoin as a protocol that will enable all different types of decentralization of our infrastructure. One example that he provides is Namecoin, which is like decentralized DNS and a “decentralized open source information registration and transfer system based on the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
He says that there’s a lot of potential for using immersive technologies in education, and he sees that it’s going to bring in a whole new curriculum because it’s so engaging and compelling for students.
TOPICS
- 0:00 – e-learning and using oculus rift with the virtual arcade. Have a 3d printing networking set up with another school. Design 3d object, 3d print it, take picture
- 1:14 – Workflow. Using sketch up to design objects. Eventually want to use Minecraft for designing objects. 3D print and take photos, hashtag and upload to virtual arcade to be viewed. Built a QR code in Minecraft. Lots of collaboration with Minecraft. Kids adapt to the Oculus Rift pretty quickly.
- 3:57 – 3D printing and then put virtual images within in and use btsync. Enigma portal to get schools to work together and get older students mentoring younger students. Use QR codes to move between places. Using Titans of Space with students with Aspergers. Most interested in interschool 3D printing
- 7:04 – Immersive education keys for engagement. Downloading 3D objects from Thingiverse, and changing it. Each student took photo, and then took turns walking through virtual art gallery to see their work.
- 8:52 – Potential for using immersive technologies. Going to bring in a whole new curriculum. Running classes in Minecraft to do math and English.
- 10:16 – Excited for BitCoin in education. Wanted to use BitCoin as an incentive for learning. Using the BitGigs model to do tasks to learn, and get paid in BitCoin to do small jobs. It’d teach kids about money and cryptocurrencies.
- 12:03 – Bitcoin and the future of virtual worlds. BitCoin is a protocol like TCPIP that you can build on top of it. Namecoin is like decentralized DNS. It’s a “decentralized open source information registration and transfer system based on the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.” It’ll revolutionize things, and it’ll play a big part of decentralizing everything.
Theme music: “Fatality” by Tigoolio
