An “Inspirited” Means of Education

Over Coffee® is on holiday hiatus.  Please enjoy the rebroadcast of one of our most popular episodes of 2020!
(Photo courtesy of Aditya Vishwanath, and used with permission.)

What if, when you were back in school, you had been able to go inside a microscope?  Or witness, firsthand, the destruction of a coral reef?  Or even experience life, for a day, as someone from another culture, of a different gender, or of a different age?

All of these are possible for today's students, with virtual reality.

And education researcher/entrepreneur Aditya Vishwanath is at the forefront of making it happen.

Aditya, who is a Knight-Henessy Scholar and Stanford PhD candidate, describes himself on his website as a "passionate technology and education enthusiast".  He is both the CEO of Palo Alto startup Inspirit, and the director of Mumbai community-run makerspace MakerGhat.   With Inspirit, he and his team are developing both immersive and interactive labs as teaching tools.

Meanwhile, MakerGhat is currently focused on home-based STEAM education, with a series of lessons in areas including design, science and mathematics.

Prior to his presentation at last summer's first-ever VRARA Global Summit Online, we talked about Aditya's research and his experiences as an education professional, as well as the ways educators can implement and use VR to supplement lesson plans.
On this edition of Over Coffee®, we cover:

What first inspired Aditya in his calling as an education and technology professional;

How his early experience introducing a new VR technology led to his current work;

Adiya’s guidelines to creating good educational VR experiences;

The story of Inspirit VR;

How Inspirit engages students with free-roam VR experiences;

The ares in which VR is a “home run” for education and training;

Some of the considerations involved in working with students in VR;

A discussion of the barriers to implementing VR into education;

Some of Aditya’s favorite VR resources;

A look at MakerGhat and they ways they’re building community through making;

One of Aditya’s best lessons learned, in his own journey as an education professional.