EDVR SINNERS Think Tank Conference

Soon after launching Educators in VR in 2018, we realized that we had literally bitten off more than we could chew. The demand for training, consulting, and information and resources on XR immersive education was so needed, we could barely keep up with the demand. We learned quickly that Educators in VR (EDVR) served as the connective tissue between those with the desire and goal to integrate immersive technology into their classrooms, schools, and business, and achieving those goals. We've helped tens of thousands of educators, researchers, students, trainers, and businesses take those next steps with confidence.

Technology was advancing quickly. The popularity of Google Cardboard and Samsung's Oculus Gear introduced VR to a wide and diverse population, and educators sat up and realized that this was a truly disruptive force in education. The transition from blackboard to whiteboard, from book to PowerPoint and video, happened in less than 100 years. The move to VR in the classroom may have technically taken over 20 years, but in the past 5, teachers and schools have embraced AR and VR at a pace rarely seen in history.

Our Educators in VR team raced to keep up with the evolving technology, methodologies, and pedagogical approaches in the classroom and business training. Today we host over 25 special interest groups we call "Teams" that explore the diverse XR industry verticals with education in mind. It wasn't enough.

We needed more. We needed to bring together the thought leaders, the innovators, and think beyond the box. We needed to explore the past to understand the present and prepare us for the future. At the end of 2019, I created the Society of Intellectual Novices Team, aka S.I.N.ners or SINNERS, to be the Educators in VR think thank.

Over the years we've met quarterly. We've had in depth discussions on lessons learned by those involved in the development of education in Second Life and how we can bring those techniques, and avoid the mistakes, into the evolving metaverse. Seeing the demand for educational virtual experiences and worlds, we set up systems to build educational worlds for teachers to ease their transition into the virtual educational space.

We've explored over 20 different VR social and meeting platforms to learn more about what works and what doesn't in these engagement virtual spaces. We've explored the limits and potential, the affordances and barriers, for learning techniques in VR, and discussed recent research into the capacity for expanding XR learning in the classroom.

One of the most exciting discussions was a challenge to list as many jobs and career paths in the metaverse. We realized that our focus on the visual and social metaverse was limited as the opportunities in the architecture of the metaverse is even bigger. It is going to take armies of employees and engineers to support the metaverse vision with server farms, programming, security, development, and infrastructure support systems.

Friday, June 24, 2022, EDVR's SINNERS Team is hosting a public conference as part of our Educators in VR UniVirtual Experience 2022 free monthly conferences. The conference is not a typical presentation and lecture format. It is an open discussion with leading experts and experienced enthusiasts.

You are one of our thought leaders, a pioneer and innovator exploring the power and capabilities of XR in education. We need your voice. We need your thoughts. We need your expertise to help us see into the future and help prepare educators.

We will be talking about the definition and mythology in and around the concept of the metaverse, discussing how XR is changing medicine and healthcare around the world with new and innovative therapies and treatments, and exploring the social in social VR in and around the intimacy and relationships so easily developed.

The two final events tackle two key issues that challenge us in VR: Is VR a game and how do we build and feed a community in and around it?

Join us in AltspaceVR, Friday, June 24, for this day-long conference and be a part of the future.