About the program
My Journey to The Education Metaverse
When I was 8 years old, I got my first computer. It was a Texas Instruments TI99-4a desktop. I learned to code in Basic, and was hooked! From there, I got a Commodore 64, learned programming languages like Assembly, Basic, Fortran, & Turbo Pascal while in High School. Then I stopped.
But I didn't stop loving technology and computing. Now I share my love of technology and innovation with my students, hoping to inspire, motivate, and prepare young minds for what comes next.
Technology and Education
Could've, would've, should've. In order for an idea to come to fruition, risks need to be realized, and action must be taken. You learn from experience, so when I had the idea to apply for a grant to start a program in the Greenwich Public Schools, I filled out that application, from the Greenwich Alliance for Education, and as I did my exhaustive research, my idea evolved and turned into something spectacular. It was a challenging journey that I am fortunate enough to be on still.
Three grant awards from the Greenwich Alliance for Education for more than $115,000 and Unbound Innovations is a thriving and growing program in Greenwich, Connecticut.
So what's next, what's our goal, what are we doing...
Starting as an after-school enrichment program, Unbound Innovations has become a highly sought-after and desirable course at Western Middle School. In the last year, hundreds of middle school students have had the opportunity to be in the 11 classes offered over that time period.
The program's next iteration will embed aspects of Virtual and Augmented Reality into many middle school academic and elective classes, to help offer immersive insights into the topics being studied. From reliving history as part of the crew of a bomber flying over Germany, learning a variety of languages through real-world experiences, flying through space while making stops at every planet and satellite, performing dissections and other lab experiments, or taking tours of Anne Frank's hiding spots, students are being introduced to an immersive transformative education.
Tools of the Trade
From heavily loaded gaming PC's with wide-screen monitors to 360 Cameras and the latest Oculus and Vive headsets, students have access to some of the latest tools to create and explore an all-encompassing experience in XR.
hardware
35 Oculus/Meta 2 Headsets
20 Oculus/Meta 1 Headsets
2 HTC Vive Pro 2 Headsets
1 Vive Flow Mobile VR Glasses
2 Oculus Rift Headsets
6 Oculus Go Headsets
2 Microsoft Hololens 2 AR Glasses (on loan)
Kai's Clan XR Robotics - Class Kit
12 Samsung Tablets & iPads
2 Complete BHaptics Suits
2 Dremmel 3D printers
1 HP Sprout Desktop
4 iBuyPower Fully-Loaded Gaming PCs
4 36" Widescreen Monitors
4 insta360 Cameras
1 insta360 Pro II Camera & Kit
1 Mavic Pro 2 Drone
36 Merge Cubes and Headsets
24 VR Gaming Matts
Various Accessories
6 PC Laptops
Self-Built VR Charging Carts
SOFTWARE
Unity
EngageXR App
Spoke by Mozilla
FrameVR
Icosa Gallery
EyeJack AR
200+ Meta Applications
75+ Steam VR Applications
PLATFORMS
ManageXR MDM
CoSpaces Edu
Merge Edu
Kai's Clan
Oculus/Meta
Victory XR
Engage XR
Organizational support and awards
The Greenwich Alliance for Education
Greenwich Public Schools
Grant Awards in excess of $115,000
Yale Medical School's Play4Real XR Lab
APE Labs
Kai's Robotics
Skills21 AR Project Award - 2nd Place
Media
Partnerships companies that made things happen
