Spin the Yarn

One of my biggest takeaways from this semester is that technology is something to be excited about. Through this course, I have been able to research and play around with a lot of interesting tech and apps that I am genuinely excited about incorporating into lessons. The two that I am most excited about are VR and AR. I wrote about the Oculus Quest 2 in my fourth blog post, and I am probably going to pick one up in the next couple of weeks. With the price of VR becoming more realistic, I think that it is going to start becoming more attractive as a tool for learning. Just recently, Oculus (or Meta) updated their hand tracking software, so now the headsets can track more fine movements which I think will lead to more immersive experiences. In my ninth blog post, I was able to play around with the free augmented reality app Halo AR, and it gave me so many ideas for how you could tag digital content to real world objects in your library that can be viewed with just a phone. The cost of te

A couple of months ago, I wrote about virtual reality (VR), specifically the Oculus Quest 2, and its ability to take you places and provide virtual experiences without needing to leave the classroom. Today I want to talk about augmented reality (AR), which gives you the ability to alter and enhance the space around you, offering new ways to interact with everyday objects, all with just the use of a phone. While I was reading about AR and VR this week, I found myself getting really excited about the potential of the Aurasma app. I was disappointed to find out though, that it was now defunct. At some point it had been bought by HP, renamed HP Reveal, and then shutdown a few years later ( What Happened to Aurasma.com? , 2020). I think that I found a replacement Aurasma though called Halo AR. It is similar to Aurasma, which allowed you to affix "Auras" (AR visuals) to an object, only with Halo AR they are appropriately referred to as "Halos." Created by the company Ligh