Wil je je studenten beter betrekken bij de les? Ze veilig laten oefenen in een simulatie? Ze onzichtbare dingen laten zien via een Virtual Reality bril? Immersieve technologieen (XR) maken het mogelijk maar vragen wel een goed device beheer.
What do teachers think of the influence of GenAI on computing education? Are their teaching practices changing due to GenAI? What policies (if any) do they find important to implement regarding this new technology?
In this article, we present the results of a survey conducted at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences at Utrecht University (UU), aiming to better understand the values and experiences of our department’s teachers regarding GenAI and how they compare with those of computing educators worldwide.
This survey is part of an educational research project titled "Generative Artificial Intelligence in Programming Education". The project investigates the impact of Generative AI within computer science study programs and gathers knowledge on how teachers could deal with the underlying threats and opportunities.
SXSW treated us nicely this year and inspired us with lots of new ideas and insights. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, South by South West (SXSW) is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. The event features sessions, showcases, screenings, exhibitions and a variety of networking opportunities. SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen where diverse topics and people meet.
This year, SURF was represented by three colleagues, Thijs van der Horst, Mark Cole & myself, and we were accompanied by many more Dutch R&E organisations, like Hogeschool Inholland, Hogeschool Utrecht, ROC Mondriaan & Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam. Even our Minister for Digitalisation, Alexandra van Huffelen, took part in the event.
We immersed ourselves in an 8-day program full of keynotes, featured sessions, workshops and experiences. Here are a couple of takeaways we would like to share with you, out of over 4500 sessions.
A few weeks ago, SURF launched the XR Innovation Forum, an online forum for knowledge exchange and discussion of the use of XR in research and education.
The platform, a pilot project that will initially last a year, is intended for teachers, researchers, developers, staff, students and anyone within our institutions interested in XR.
National XR Day will be at the University of Twente this year on 3 july 2024, and is organized by SURF, University of Twente and Saxion, also partnering with Npuls and DUTCH.
It is the second edition of National XR Day, again a full day by and for the SURF community on everything that is happening with eXtended Reality for education and research.
We are looking for contributions to the programme, either a presentation, workshop, demo or poster, see below!
The focus of this XR Developer Network meeting is on Responsible XR, and specifically the practical aspects you face or are involved in as a developer. How much time and resources do you spend on responsible XR aspects, such as privacy, accessibility of inclusiveness? Do you think these topics are important? Would you like to be more focused on them within your projects, but don't have the means to do so? Etc.
In the session we will have a presentation on Responsible XR from John Walker (from the team Futures & Values at SURF), followed by a more interactive part where you will discuss this topic with the others present.
During lunch after the meeting you can try some new, or less common XR devices.
Te midden van het snel veranderende onderwijslandschap wordt het Samenwerkingsplatform voor Educatieve Applicaties (SPEA) ontwikkeld als een belofte voor informatiemanagers, docenten en instellingen die op zoek zijn naar een georganiseerde benadering van educatieve technologieën. Vanaf de eerdere proof-of-conceptfase van het project tot de huidige, veelbelovende pilotfase, ontvouwt zich een verhaal van samenwerking, innovatie en kennisdeling binnen het onderwijs.
Shouldn’t you be in school?
25 years ago for some may feel like yesterday, and for others, their first steps on this planet. For education, 25 years has been a long and demanding task of understanding how technologies can quickly transform, disrupt, and re-shape the work our educational institutions.
Iris & Barend welcomed me to work on a project that tried to grasp this transformative period while highlighting notable changes and impact of technologies that changed the educational landscape.
The slides will be available to view at the Onderwijsdagen next week in the future campus exhibition, so please be sure to stop by and remind yourself how much has changed in just a quarter of a century!
Some time ago SURF got their hands on the Augmented Reality device previously shrouded in mystery, the Magic Leap 2. Early in the current XR wave (2014) when the term XR wasn't even a thing yet, Magic Leap got spotlight with the release of a few patents for their new mystery AR device called the Magic Leap; which would add realistic 3D elements to the real world (see marketing video). Magic Leap got the attention of big investors, including even Google and Alibaba, which resulted in US$2.6 billion being invested in their company. Due to these investments and marketing videos showing very convincing visuals the Magic Leap 1 hype went very high, while the device itself was eventually quite a let down when it was finally released in 2018.
To our surprise Magic Leap announced the second iteration of their Magic Leap headset in 2021. The Magic Leap 2, unlike the first iteration, is more geared towards the enterprise market. Shortly after they announced that it would be commercially available from September 2022 onwards, SURF took the opportunity to take the leap and buy one of the devices. SURF then tested out its capabilities and wanted to share the outcome here. This has taken somewhat longer than planned, as will become clearer below.
