Tag Archives: Augmented Reality

MERGE Cube – bringing the virtual into the palm of the hand⤴

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MERGE cube – lets the teacher or learner move a 3D object as if it’s right there in their hand! A 3D viewer app (for Apple or Android devices) which can let you move the object round and over, letting you interact with it, all while viewed through a tablet device or projected onto a classroom screen. Whether it’s an inanimate historical object, which viewed in 3D lets you turn it round, look underneath, zoom in closer to examine details, or a simulation or game which lets you interact with the scene, changing what happens as you make choices.

You can use the MERGE cube with a wide range of resources created by others elsewhere (as can be found on MERGE Miniverse or shared in Co Spaces), or a teacher or their learners can create their own virtual 3D objects or environments using Paint 3D or TinkerCAD (once you’ve created a 3D object or scene in TinkerCAD simply use the save-as option to save as a stl format file, then upload this to your Miniverse account, from where you’ll be able to then share the code to view in the MERGE object viewer app, or Open your Tinkercad design, click “Send To”, then choose “Object Viewer for MERGE Cube”), or even use the Qlone app to scan a real object to convert it into a virtual object, all stored in Co Spaces online so that a user can access the shared virtual creation simply by entering the code and downloading to the app.

So how do I get started?

  1. First you need a MERGE cube. Once a teacher has registered a free MERGE account, verified the email address and entered one activation code (which is included with the MERGE cube), you will be able to log into  multiple different devices with that email, and without the need for additional activation codes. You can create your own additional MERGE cubes from paper or card just by downloading a template (click here for a printable pdf of each of the faces of a MERGE cube by Jaime Donally which you’ll be able to print and stick onto a cardboard cube – you can also use this to try out a MERGE cube before purchase) which you can print out, cut out and fold into a MERGE cube – click for a printable net by Clint Carlson of the MERGE Cube faces  (you can also enlarge these templates to any size of cube – click on this video to view Gabe Haydu showing how to make an enormous MERGE cube from cardboard):

2. Then you need the app MERGE Object Viewer app on a tablet device to view MERGE cube 3D creations – the MERGE cube is compatible with a wide range of devices (click here for information about devices).

3. View the 3D creations included in the MERGE Object Viewer app – or sign up for a Miniverse account or CoSpaces account where you can find 3D objects/environments created by others – then all you need to do is take a note of the shared code for the object you wish to view, type it into the MERGE Object Viewer, wait for it to download and then start interacting with the 3D creation. Click on this link for some additional Object Codes ready to try on your MERGE Object Viewer app

More help for getting going?

Click here for  MERGE cube getting started guide on the Miniverse website

https://miniverse.io/cube-start

This getting started guide takes you through the same steps as above with additional videos as well as further information which may be helpful.

So how can a MERGE cube be used in the classroom?

There’s a host of places to have a look at how others are using a MERGE cube in a classroom setting. Click on the links below to browse to find something which might spark the imagination of your learners and fit in with what you’re planning to teach:

  1. Miniverse.io – browse through the range of Miniverse MERGE cube experiences https://miniverse.io/cube
  2. MERGE Educators Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/mergeeducators/
  3. MERGE Educators Activity Plans https://mergevr.com/edu-resources
  4. MERGE VR on Twitter https://twitter.com/mergevr
  5. Guide to the MERGE Cube in the Classroom – presentation by Mary Howard
  6. #ARVRinEDU – a hashtag in Twitter where anyone can share examples of the use of VR or AR in education, including the use of MERGE cube.

 

 

Reflections from the #IntelVisionaries Launch Event, October 2015: 6 of 17 – Transmedia⤴

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IntelVisionaries Banner

This is part of a short series of posts where I reflect on the inaugural Intel Education Visionaries meet up in Santa Clara, California in October 2015.

 ________________________________________________________  

I really enjoyed Dr Wayne Grant's Presentation on Transmedia Education. Much of the presentation was covered under NDA so I can’t share some of the things that we saw here but I am able to cover some of the more general points.

Firstly, if you unfamiliar with Transmedia Education then you might find this definition from Wikipedia helpful?

“Transmedia Storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling, cross-media seriality) is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats including, but not limited to, games, books, events, cinema and television.“

I liked this this short animation that was shown at the start of the presentation that shows quite nicely the sorts of things that are now possible within the domain of real-life and digital story telling in a rapidly interconnected world.

 

Wayne was all about engagement (and why wouldn’t he be!) and I liked the model he shared on the stages of student engagement from rebellion through compliance to true (and deep) engagement.

Levels-of-Student-Engagement

I hadn’t really though about stages of engagement linked to student classroom behaviours before and I can see how I might use this as we continue to develop and build on our already successful our self-evaluation procedures at the school.

Wayne also talked about some emerging transmedia elements on the horizon and encouraged us to think about the power of custom software and custom hardware and how much more effective they can be if they are combined. 

To illustrate this we took a sneak preview of a number of quite interesting kickstarter projects such as:

 

 

Linkitz Kickstarter video May 2015 from linkitz on Vimeo.

 

We also looked at some more established products in the context of transmedia education such as:

 

 

 

 

Finally, he also mentioned Project MC2 (a Netflix commissioned original series).

 

Products like Project MC2  are exciting for me as they have very high production values but the learning behind them is also very sound. Kind of reminds me of lots of the work we used to do around commercial off the shelf (COTS) games at the Consolarium. I’ll be checking out MC2  as soon as I get a chance because the short piece that I saw was very impressive – I also heard that it has been recommissioned for a second season?

With Intel’s acquisition of Kno (now Intel Education Study) in recent times hopefully we will start to see more Transmedia elements built into their software stack?

BTW – if you like the idea of Transmedia Education then do check out Inanimate Alice which is just a first class super product.

Reflections from the #IntelVisionaries Launch Event, October 2015: 6 of 17 – Transmedia⤴

from

IntelVisionaries Banner

This is part of a short series of posts where I reflect on the inaugural Intel Education Visionaries meet up in Santa Clara, California in October 2015.

 ________________________________________________________  

I really enjoyed Dr Wayne Grant's Presentation on Transmedia Education. Much of the presentation was covered under NDA so I can’t share some of the things that we saw here but I am able to cover some of the more general points.

Firstly, if you unfamiliar with Transmedia Education then you might find this definition from Wikipedia helpful?

“Transmedia Storytelling (also known as transmedia narrative or multiplatform storytelling, cross-media seriality) is the technique of telling a single story or story experience across multiple platforms and formats including, but not limited to, games, books, events, cinema and television.“

I liked this this short animation that was shown at the start of the presentation that shows quite nicely the sorts of things that are now possible within the domain of real-life and digital story telling in a rapidly interconnected world.

 

Wayne was all about engagement (and why wouldn’t he be!) and I liked the model he shared on the stages of student engagement from rebellion through compliance to true (and deep) engagement.

Levels-of-Student-Engagement

I hadn’t really though about stages of engagement linked to student classroom behaviours before and I can see how I might use this as we continue to develop and build on our already successful our self-evaluation procedures at the school.

Wayne also talked about some emerging transmedia elements on the horizon and encouraged us to think about the power of custom software and custom hardware and how much more effective they can be if they are combined. 

To illustrate this we took a sneak preview of a number of quite interesting kickstarter projects such as:

 

 

Linkitz Kickstarter video May 2015 from linkitz on Vimeo.

 

We also looked at some more established products in the context of transmedia education such as:

 

 

 

 

Finally, he also mentioned Project MC2 (a Netflix commissioned original series).

 

Products like Project MC2  are exciting for me as they have very high production values but the learning behind them is also very sound. Kind of reminds me of lots of the work we used to do around commercial off the shelf (COTS) games at the Consolarium. I’ll be checking out MC2  as soon as I get a chance because the short piece that I saw was very impressive – I also heard that it has been recommissioned for a second season?

With Intel’s acquisition of Kno (now Intel Education Study) in recent times hopefully we will start to see more Transmedia elements built into their software stack?

BTW – if you like the idea of Transmedia Education then do check out Inanimate Alice which is just a first class super product.