GM, from the Future of Education3.0 HQ. The email that tells you what’s going on in education technology, from a team of actual educators.

In Today’s Email

• 🐘 Putting the ‘Ed’ back in EdTech

• 🎓 Launch your own Immersive Classroom

• 🕹 AI for Educators

• 🌱 Premium Subscribers receive - Future of Education Podcast, AI Prompt of the Week 0 Lesson Planning, Unity Tutorial 1

Putting the ‘Ed’ back in EdTech

Chaps,

We are in for a wild ride as we look to the next Academic Year. Technology is moving at pace, and there is simply no looking back for Education. My personal and professional belief is that only the fittest will survive 💪🏻

But wait! What’s that you say?

📣Technology has been around for decades, we’ve embraced all sorts of new tech, software, systems and tools in our classrooms and yet nothing much has changed?

Well I agree with you here. We have lots of ‘Big Tech’ in education, but frankly all we seem to have is innovation which has led to a different whiteboard!

Except this time, what makes me so excited for a paradigm shift in the sector is that educators, just like you and me, school leaders, parents and indeed our own students, are driving the change.

We are building, creating, stepping out of the classroom, embracing the ‘Edupreneur’ mandate or developing new tools for education in our spare time, powered by incredible new technologies, AI and XR tools like Unity and Unreal Engine.

This is why what’s happening is sticky. Educators and Students understand the problem and they know what’s needed to solve the problem. Now we have the tools to build them.

🦄 Trust me when I say the next Unicorn in Edtech is going to be built by a team and community of educators.

Launch your own Immersive Classroom

Are you thinking about bringing Immersive Education into your classroom or schools this September? Here are a few ideas on where to start:

1.  WebXR + VR Learning Environments.

   Did you know that you don’t have to have a website to start to use virtual reality based learning in the classroom? Many of the platforms we use are set up for both web and VR and are free to explore. Some of our favourites that we use at Sophia High include EngageVR, FrameVR, Virbela. Just download the platform to your computer or device if you have one, and start exploring. At Sophia Tech we are also building our our own bespoke digital campus for our online school, Sophia High School so if you want to be kept up to date here, let me know.

2. Build with Unity

   Unity is completely free for Educators and you can get your entire school free access. Unity is a 3D game engine that students love to use, and as they are already spatially native learners, find it so easy to pick up quickly and build some incredible games and Virtual experiences. Unity have a great program of training for Educators which is free - check that out here

3. VR Training for Educators

   The team at Sophia High School have been pioneers in learning the ropes when it comes to learning how to learn and teach in VR based environments. During August, we will be offering some Teacher Training Sessions in order to get you up and running in a virtual based classroom and linking with our team on how to effectively plan spatial learning experiences into your curriculum. If you are keen to take part, please email me at [email protected] and I will share further details.

AI for Educators

There are some incredible educators in my network leading from the front in their work and exploration of AI for Education.

Three that I would recommend you follow is Darren Coxon, Chris Goodall and the incredible Dan Fitzpatrick. All are on Linkedin.

Their posts provide great advice for educators as they use AI to help educators refine their workflow, find creativity in the blackboard jungle (the classroom), assist processes in the Ivory Tower (Senior Leadership), but most of all give practical hands on experiences and prompts that Educators can take away and put into practice immediately.

Looking for help with prompts: Subscribe to my newsletter and get access to real prompts for AI tools, being effectively used by real educators!