AR/VR Week 1

 Before Jesse's presentation, I knew about Google Translate in its basic form. During my summer jobs, we experience high volumes of tourism and google translate has come in handy on several occasions. I would just use it in its most basic form though- simply plug in what you want to say or translate. When I saw what Jesse was showing and then during my own exploration of the AR feature, I was so excited. I think back to the first trip I took abroad to Greece. It was just me and a friend on our own during high school. I had such culture shock the first few days I was there and having this feature definitely would have helped me, at least with navigating around. A lot of the times, there would be signs that we didn't understand and to think that I could now hold up my phone and have a (perhaps rough) translation appear is so amazing. Since I am stuck at home, I just googled some signs in other countries to play around with in the app and it performed pretty well!

Turning towards Google Earth, the last time I interacted with this feature was back in elementary or middle school. I haven't experienced it since and let me tell you, it is WAY cooler now (not to say it wasn't cool then but) and much more interactive. It truly is something special that we get to click an app and go anywhere in the world that we want to. I would argue that I still would like to visit these places in person, but it is a good substitute. This would be a great tool to use in the classroom to really help place my students there. I think a lot of the books I read growing up would have taken a different form if Google Earth VR was implemented. I got to visit the Matterhorn in Switzerland (which is on the bucket list to visit in real life) and it was awesome!

While I was more familiar with Google, Hubs by Mozilla at times felt like a different, but similar world. I guess for simply "hanging out" I don't exactly get the point (although with Covid I could be swayed), but it was fun to create an avatar and build different rooms. Since I was doing this portion by myself, I do think I was missing that interaction piece that seems pretty pivotal for Hubs. 

Spatial definitely felt weird to me. Again, since it was just me, I wasn't getting the full effect. It was weird, but it also was astonishing. The fact that we can create and simulate such a similar "board room" feeling while still being virtual was impressive. I think the old school in me feels like it is still weird- I want that actual face to face interaction. With Covid, I think it is a creative way to simulate real work and would be a fun mix up with Zoom. Those virtual meetings have taken a toll on a lot of people and while people would have to learn about this program, it was way more engaging to me, even if I was the only person. Instead of just waiting for the host or your boss to end the meeting, this can feel like you're playing a video game almost as you do real work. 

Similar to Google Earth, Civilisations by BBC would work really well for putting students back in time to imagine what they are learning about more. Thinking in terms of schools, those that may not have the budget for museum trips could use Civilisations so that their students do not miss out. They can still view mummies and sculptures that otherwise they may not be able to experience. On the flip side, some students may not feel particularly engaged when going to museums so this may be more beneficial and interactive for them. It was fun to view different artifacts and hear some facts about them while using the app.