Check out our VR Experience Library

Educational Technology has compiled and published our VR Experience Library, which provides an overview of the various apps, adventures, and games available on our Oculus Rift and Rift S systems. Highlights of our library include:

• The Body VR - explore the inside of a human body.
• CalcFlow - create parametrized functions and vector fields in 3D
• Beat Saber: light sabers meet dance dance revolution
• Richie’s Plank Experience - Can you walk the virtual plank?
• TiltBrush - paint in virtual reality on a 3D canvas

If you have recommendations on what else we might add to our library or would like to schedule a VR demo, feel free to reach out to us at edtech@lclark.edu.

Lightboard at the Grad School

A few weeks ago, EdTech brought the lightboard to the Graduate School!

Faculty, staff, and students were able to stop by York Commons to check it out, take a look at how it worked, and try it out for themselves.

Many excited students came by to play with the board and chat about some great ideas for implementing the board in their schools and counseling centers. Along with having the chance to write on the board with our colorful neon markers, students were also able to see how the lightboard effectively functioned in a classroom.

We pointed a camera towards the lightboard and showed the camera’s image on the TV in York Commons. Since people on the other side of the lightboard would see the writing backwards, the TV acted as a way to see what was being written on the board. The image on the TV was flipped horizontally, and those watching the lightboard during lectures could watch the TV, or a projector screen, to see both the person behind the lightboard, as well as the writing.

Students also had a chance to watch some recorded lightboard lectures created by Lewis and Clark College faculty. Recordings have become one of the lightboard's primary functions, allowing instructors to cover content outside of class in an interesting and interactive way, and then provide the recordings to the class for homework or study material. Some members of the LC community have recorded lectures in our TV Studio and shared them with their classes with much success.

As graduate students think about using the lightboard in their own classrooms and counseling spaces, we hope this success will continue to grow!

The TV Studio will be available for lightboard lecture recording over the week of March 26th - March 30th.

If you would like more information about the lightboard, or would like to schedule a time to record a lightboard lecture, please contact EdTech, at edtech@lclark.edu

Yes, you can 3D print with glass now...

Credit: Imagery courtesy of the MIT Media Lab

Researchers at at the MIT Glass Lab (yes, they have a glass lab) have figured out how t0 print molten glass through a nozzle.

As you can imagine, the main challenge here are the extremely high temperatures involved.

Finding a nozzle suitable for printing glass is  complicated, to work it must be made of a material that can both handle high temperatures and resist the glass sticking to it.

Platinum nozzles are used in industry for some glass manufacturing processes, but are very expensive. Instead the lab settled on a custom-made nozzle made of aluminum oxide.
The machine prints soda lime glass, a family of glasses used in everything from water glasses to windows. But glasses like Pyrex could in principle be printed this way too, albeit at much higher temperatures.

The technology is still in its nascent stage, but if you could, what would you print out of glass?