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Showing posts from April, 2022

SLIS761: the nature of the terrain

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Family dinners were a staple in my life growing up- never formal or fussy, most nights it was just my parents, sister and me at the kitchen table, often with local news or Jeopardy! on in the background. My dad made it a point to ask us about our days or what we'd learned, and often shared something he had recently learned or some example of how he'd used what we learned in school in the real world. He also loved to give us funny facts and sayings to apply to various situations, and I remember them all fondly and often. One of his best was a saying for answering a question whenever you didn't actually have a ready answer: you thoughtfully respond with "it depends chiefly on the nature of the terrain." Now I know that this phrase is essentially meaningless, and it is unlikely to satisfy someone who expects a real answer to a real question, but I also think it's a clever way of easing into a discussion rather than firing off a disingenuous response. It's ha

Holo-SDK: Introducing Students to (affordable!) Augmented Reality

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AR creates opportunities for teachers to help students grasp abstract concepts. By using the interaction and experimentation that AR technologies offer, teachers can enhance classroom experiences, teach new skills, inspire student minds, and get students excited about exploring new academic interests. (Maryville University, 2021) Immersive technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality are SO COOL. The technology itself, and the new ways they allow us to experience the world just are undeniably exciting and fun to explore, teeming with even more potential uses as technology continues to improve and evolve. When I was in school, AR referred to the reading incentive program that let students rack up points by taking quizzes on books read- points which were later cashed in for rewards and pizza parties. Fast forward an undisclosed number of years to today, and discussions of AR in education refer instead to augmented reality, or a sort of digital enhancement to some real world e