The publicity said it all!
Bournemouth University’s Festival of Learning is back for 2018, bringing learning to life with free events and activities for all ages. We’ll be sharing our research and expertise through an exciting programme of interactive workshops, talks, exhibitions, sports sessions, professional development opportunities, and theatre events. With subjects ranging from sharks to scamming, there really is something for everyone. Come along, get inspired, and learn something new.
The CEL team responded to the challenge with their ‘Exploring Research onto Virtual Learning Experiences’ interactive showcase – hosted in one of the Fusion buildings synergy rooms, families started with Augmented Reality with Gorillas that roared coming out of leaflets; moved on to Google cardboard to try out trips to savanna to see lions; underwater swimming with dolphins; star wars experiences, roller coasters and lots more. For more information about the difference between the two, see the blog post written by Dave Hunt one of our Learning Technologists.
Then the next stop was our OCULUS RIFT for a fully immersive experience, travelling through the stars, having a dinasour walk over your head, meeting aliens and standing on a city skyline looking down at the traffic, and the queues quickly built up. We had around 100 families with an estimated 250 individuals of all ages trying out some, or all, of our immersive experiences. Our PhD student, Heidi Singleton was part of the team, and you can find out about her research here.
The grand finale to the tour, was our AHRC funded project a 3D, immersive simulation of Avebury Henge, as it may have appeared circa 2,300 BCE. Part of the research is to test the simulation with public visitors to Avebury itself, and to investigate how people interact with the virtual environments. The questions and reactions from our family day visitors were very useful to the researchers. Led by Professor Liz Falconer and researcher Neil Slawson, families used headsets and haptic handsets to explore the site.
The Festival of Learning is on until Wednesday – follow the #BUFoL18 twitter stream or find out more https://www1.bournemouth.ac.uk/why-bu/bu-events/festival-learning-2018
‘Real’ Avebury from the air.
Below: (L-R) The ‘google cardboard’ and AR station; Visoitors trying out the different tools; the GP practice T-Shirt came for a visit, looking down on a packed FoL atrium
