*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
Neha Kumar, assistant professor in the Georgia Tech Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, co-authored a story about her work leveraging low-cost VR technologies for underserved learning environments.
Here's an excerpt:
Virtual reality (VR) is no longer solely the stuff of science fiction. As VR headsets become increasingly mainstream and affordable, thanks to major industry actors such as Google and Samsung, a slew of companies have surfaced to explore the more and less understood affordances of this emerging technology. With much of this activity focused on technology-rich parts of the Global North, we were curious to understand what VR might offer a world less saturated by technology. In this article, we describe our experience of introducing immersive, 360-degree VR to a resource-constrained learning environment in Mumbai, India. We also discuss some of the challenges and possibilities of going mainstream with VR, reflecting on the narrowing digital divide and the questions it raises for technology transfer.