Mission
Providing impactful Virtual Reality experiences, and learning opportunities, to under-served communities
How?
We bring VR technology to locations while providing lessons, technical support, and context for ongoing usage. Dedicated instructors and facilitators ensure positive, frustration-free, experiences while helping to build a growing VR knowledge-base.
Why?
Spatial computing, with virtual and augmented reality, is the future of immersive technologies – but because of financial and demographic limitations not everyone has access. We work to ensure that eVRyone has access to virtual realities.
Who We Are
With a long-held passion for technology & education, Zach works to achieve a future where advanced learning tools, like virtual reality, are accessible to everyone. After a colorful career in Marketing – excelling in tech, international travel, and even founding an innovative vegan food brand (fresh, delish, Tofuna Fysh!) – Zach rededicated his path to hone in on mission-driven work in education. He earned his Master of Education from Portland State University in 2014 and has contributed as an Educator in a variety of settings, from preschool through college with a focus on educational technology. Most recently, as the Director of Education for an established Virtual Reality company, Zach facilitated VR lessons with hundreds of students of all ages, created curriculum, lead classes, presented to teachers, contributed to software R & D, and continues to talk about VR to eVRyone willing to listen.
Zach strives to convey his VR enthusiasm to others with project-based activities that recognize individual interests and highlight specific areas for further exploration. He is excited to be back in his hometown of Philadelphia after 6 years in Portland, Oregon.
After spending over a decade working in leadership roles in private industry, my service as mentor coupled with experiences as a Children's Church Instructor and a Literacy Coach for the Verizon Reads Foundation led me to a career change into academia. Beginning my tenure with resident and international high school students throughout Philadelphia County, I have taught grades K-12 and postsecondary school. Providing instruction at various academic levels over the last 10+ years has been both gratifying and rewarding. Presently, I serve students in secondary and post secondary schools and I have consistently maintained a presence in urban education in addition to other student populations.
My teaching philosophy does not have roots in one ideology, so I provide instruction using an evolutionary continuum of teaching strategies and techniques to meet students’ needs. Students are entitled to quality instruction, an active learning process and a thought-provoking learning environment. Conferring with industry professionals and colleagues enables me to deliver instruct that is both intriguing and aligned with business and industry trends. The teaching and learning process should permit opportunities for multiple interactions among the students and the educator. Student performance and student expectations should be set high, yet attainable. The teaching practices I employ are comprised of a host of personal and professional experiences that place the curriculum beyond the classroom, and into real world situations. Virtual Reality makes this possible in ways that computer simulations and interactive textbooks cannot.
"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." - Goethe
Dr. Kevin Merges is the Executive Director of Global Education Programs at Rutgers Preparatory School and a co-founder of Virtual Research, LLC. He has presented at conferences around the United States; as well as Canada, China, Jamaica, and Turkey, on the topics of communication through online environments, virtual reality and augmented reality in education.
Through Dr. Merges’ work with the United Nations, Rutgers Preparatory School became the first high school in the world affiliated as an NGO with the United Nations through the Civil Society Unit of the Department of Global Communications. His work with the UN includes a focus on using immersive technology to connect constituents to the mission of civil society members (NGOs). Additionally, he is a co-founder of the Students as Makers conference where students and teachers share VR and AR projects.
Teresa is the Department Chair of Computer Science at St. Joseph's Preparatory school and head of the Robotics Club. In 2019 she introduced Virtual Reality to her classroom practice and is building a full-fledged VR curriculum. As a high school computer science teacher Teresa is passionate about educational technology, the future of learning, and helping students achieve their learning goals.
With a Masters of Business Administration, Teresa was an I.T. professional at Verizon Business for 7 years prior to teaching, and also started a STEM summer camp for middle school students.
Nick is no stranger to STEM/STEAM outreach. In addition to currently leading emerging technology efforts with the Delaware Libraries, he has also spent the past seven years helping grow a STEAM outreach nonprofit in Delaware whose mission is to teach photography in combination with science, engineering, and culinary art to youth from underserved communities. His passion for STEAM outreach began while completing his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree at the University of Delaware.
Nick has experience in curriculum development, classroom management, strategic development, and grant writing. When not immersed in technology and outreach, Nick enjoys traveling, listening to podcasts, and finding new cafes in the city!
Advisory Board
Erica Barhorst-Cates is a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in human spatial cognition, visual perception, and motor control. She is particularly interested in individual differences in spatial thinking due to age, experience, or neurological status. She received her Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology from the University of Utah where she completed her doctoral research with Dr. Sarah Creem-Regehr and Dr. Jeanine Stefanucci. In her dissertation research, she used immersive virtual reality to test questions related to spatial navigation in special populations. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute where she uses virtual reality in research with patients. Erica is passionate about using research, both in VR and the real world, to understand and improve cognitive and psychological processes.
PK-12 leader who understands curriculum design, instructional excellence, motivation and support of classroom professionals, the broader community and the needs of diverse learning communities.
• More than 15 years of diverse, hands-on teaching visual arts, graphic design, photography, film, technology, and crafts in various educational settings including museum, PK-12 (private and public), adult, and community.
• Skilled in coordinating fundraising events, organizing community outreach, and receiving grants.
• An ambitious entrepreneurial leader with proven ability to develop and promote an organization's brand, mission, and communications strategy to increase funding and awareness.
• Transforming education instruction by promoting design-learning and thinking models to prepare youth for success in future careers.
• In-depth knowledge of trade and art show coordination, event planning, marketing, sales and sales management.
• Extensive comprehension of design techniques, new emerging technologies, tools, and principles involved in the production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and 3D printing.
Rohit has been an Enterprise Software consultant most of his professional life. He caught the VR/AR technology bug in 2015 when he participated in and won the Kansas City Tech-week Hackathon in 2015 building a proof of concept Fitness VR Trainer bike. Rohit built the Unity environment for the hackathon and also did integrations and the team presentation. After participating in and winning multiple hackathons, it was time to spread the word about this new technology and how it can change lives.
Passionate about K-12 education, Rohit and a partner started a VR/AR software development program for high school students called VRoKCs. The program introduces students to VR/AR development using hackathons as a medium to solve real world problems and accelerate learning. After three years, five hackathons and with over 200 students going through the program, they are growing to offer bigger programs including summer camps, school VR/AR curriculum and much more. Check out VRoKCs Overview in the links below.
Things grow around Chris Willey. Willey is an Adobe Education Leader, new media artist, and avid cook and gardener living in Milwaukee, WI with his wife, cat, and semi-famous dachshund Barnaby (IG @Barnababy). He is a Lecturer in Art & Design at the University of Wisconsin’s Peck School of the Arts, and the Director of the Immersive Media Lab. He teaches all levels of students at the intersection of creativity and technology. Willey is an accomplished speaker, curator, and author.
Willey earned an MFA in New Genres at the San Francisco Art Institute, and his BFA at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. During his undergraduate years, he studied abroad at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy, and at the Burren College of Art, in County Clare, Ireland. Willey has been heavily influenced by his time working at Apple Retail stores as a Creative.
Notable Honors:
2019 - Digital Humanities Team-Teaching Fellow, UWM // Lubar Entrepreneurship Center's Ideas Challenge Innovation Fellow, UWM
2015 - Whitaker Award for Digital Humanities, UWM
2013 - Joanne Lazirko Award for Innovating Use of Learning Technologies
IMMERSIVE MEDIA LAB MISSION:
The Immersive Media Lab is an antidisciplinary collaborative that researches within emerging technologies at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Our research aligns the spheres of science and humanities through the lens of creativity. We investigate and promote sustainable options for our shared future.
IMMERSIVE MEDIA LAB VISION:
We believe creativity, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and courage are the characteristics that form citizens ready to confront the challenges of the 21st century. The future of human experience will occur in the convergence of technologies around immersive media.
We see creativity, which is the bridge between the humanities and science, as fundamental to investigating emerging technologies and their implications. We anticipate a fluid movement between reality and information, and this will propel humanity to the fourth machine/information age.
We predict that the pace and scale of society will change as it has with prior technological phase shifts, and this demands new modes of sharing experience. We foresee a need for intrinsically motivated growth to occur in spaces where one's diversity of heritage, academic, and cultural perspective fuel critical thinking. We envision globally networked classrooms where collaborative learning within growth based evaluation models spur life-long curiosity.
Bethany Silver, Ph.D. has been a Connecticut educator for 20+ years. She began her teaching career as a psychology instructor at Manchester Community College in 1994. At UConn’s Neag School of Education she served as the Director of the Professional Development Academy and Assistant Professor of Educational Technology. She worked with graduate students, boards of education, and school districts to deliver programs and services across the state. Dr. Silver has been a major advisor for doctoral research at Central Connecticut State University, supported a number of UConn dissertations, and has taught courses in research methods, evaluation, assessment, and learning at both institutions. She has engaged her research skills with neurology patients at Hartford Hospital, the Office of Assessment for the Hartford Public Schools, the Capitol Region Education Council, and currently serves the students of Bloomfield as the Assistant Superintendent for Accountability and Performance.
Bethany has published and presented at conferences nationally and internationally, in the areas of predictive modeling, instructional data teaming, and creating visionary data environments. She is named on a U.S. patent for an assessment reporting system and served on the Manchester Board of Education.
Dr. Silver demonstrates a passion to measure, manage, and improve performance with data. She describes it as a personal and organizational mirror to examine quality while determining growth possibilities. She is most committed to the strategic deployment of actionable data in support of individualized learning and organizational transformation.
"100 years from now it won't matter what car I drove or what clothes I wore, but the world will be a better place because data informed my practice." (with assistance from Forest E. Witcraft).
Want to Volunteer?
Or one day work here?
If you are interested in contributing to the mission of LearnVR please email us explaining how and why you’d be a great fit! We are looking to build a diverse team and have opportunities in a variety of divisions. Are you a writer? Are you a teacher? Are you a designer? Maybe you’re in finance? Human Resources? Or you’re just really interested in Virtual Reality and want to find a position that highlights your passion – whatever it is, email us and let us know!
