Writings & Projects

Fundamental research in Artificial Intelligence has caused a tidal wave of new AI tools for writing text, creating images, and generating music and videos in a fraction of the time it usually takes. Software for generating 3D objects and (parts of) virtual worlds is also on the way. At times, this feels alienating but also very exciting!

The arrival of this new wave of AI tools has far-reaching implications for how we, as a society, are productive, what our digital world will look like, and how we shape our education. Together, this gives us sufficient reason to incorporate Artificial Intelligence into our strategy. We have started a research line, offer workshops for teachers, and are working on the first AI lessons for students.

Background

Increasing human productivity

In his lectures, Robin often contrasts AI with lesser-known ideas about ‘Augmenting Human Intellect’, where students also read work by Doug Engelbart. The emphasis here is much more on how people solve problems with computers and less on autonomous software. How AI tools are now being used is also partly in line with these ideas. Tech analyst Benedict Evans described it nicely: “AI is like giving every company an infinite number of interns“.

Will AI take over your job? Probably not so directly. But fewer people may be needed for the same work, as professionals learn to effectively use AI tools to increase their productivity. In the end, it may not be so much a competition between humans and computers, but between humans + the tools they use. Or, as American computer scientist Licklider called it in 1960, the ‘man-computer symbiosis’

This applies to writers and policymakers who ask ChatGPT to create an outline for something or to come up with counterarguments. But also for designers who use AI for inspiration, to generate parts of their graphic work, or to create videos from text and a single image.

The future of the digital world

Artificial Intelligence will have significant consequences for what our digital world will look like.

Due to the increase in productivity, prices for creative work will drop dramatically. The advent of the web previously led to a considerable reduction in publication costs, resulting in a massive increase in information. It is expected that new AI tools will lead to a similar increase, with automatically written blogs, generated explanatory videos, fully animated fan fiction, and eventually AI-generated game worlds.

Part of VR Learning Lab’s mission is to train the digital creators of the future. Our tech teachers teach young people programming, game design, video editing, and responsible internet use. In a short time, it has become clear that AI tools have become an essential source in the development of the digital world. Pupils and students must be introduced wisely and given every opportunity to use this tool effectively.

AI for education

Most of the focus on AI in education is currently on ChatGPT and other language models. Understandably so, as almost all teachers deal with this. For every take-home exam and assignment that students have to complete, they can use OpenAI, which puts a large part of the educational institutions’ testing model in trouble.

Check out an application letter generated by a tech teacher during a team day here. A somewhat strange structure, but it would have certainly made it through the first selection.

We will place more emphasis on AI for creative work, for programs that train future designers. What tools should they know? How do you provide good education with these tools? And how do you assess work in which the student has used AI tools in the process?

This maker education is also a good place for innovation in schools. Together with students, you explore the possibilities of new technology and bring it into the school. This creates opportunities to involve other teachers in these developments and adapt to a changing technological landscape.

What’s our plan?

We see enough reason to broaden our focus and include AI in our work. But what exactly will we do? We outline it below.

Design research

Together with interns and students, we experiment with dozens of AI tools. We come up with interesting content that we can create with them and combine them with other software. We make short videos and complete escape rooms and VR experiences.

We share our experiments through various channels and often also how we made them. We share a lot on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube . We also share the best experiments via LinkedIn, our blog, and the newsletter.

BOOTCAMP: Design with AI

We have set up a new bootcamp for teachers of digital maker subjects. For this, we collaborate with Bijscholingvmbo, which allows the training to be followed with up to 50% subsidy. If you’re interested in a tailor-made bootcamp in English, please contact us.

AI workshops for students and pupils

On March 16, 2023, we are providing the first workshop for students through PLNT Skills. Tech teacher Marijn uses their Cognitive Artificial Intelligence education to develop valuable teaching materials. Soon, we will offer the first workshops for primary and secondary education.

Audiovisual performance

Robin, Stijn, and interns Merel and Sabrina are working on an interactive audiovisual performance where AI and 3D images are combined in a unique way. The goal is to offer a unique experience of the future of our digital world. For study days, conferences, or other events.

This is the first post of a series on creating what we like to call infospaces. Enjoy!

Creating 3D worlds has become much, much easier over the past years. With software like CoSpaces Edu we teach 9 year olds to create their fantasy world with 3D objects and bring them to life with coding blocks.

And the rise of social VR tools like Mozilla Hubs, AltspaceVR and Facebook Horizon are bringing 3D worlds to the professional world. As we’re all are getting tired from pandemic-caused video meetings, we’re looking at new ways to collaborate.

Because of this virtual events are in the lift. But to make really valuable virtual events, we have to learn how to use the space effectively. Meeting each other in a virtual lecture hall or classroom while looking at a PowerPoint presentation is just not using all the possibilities.

Virtual museums

One particular assignment we often give our students who are learning these 3D tools is to create a virtual museum. In our experiences this is a very interesting challenge for the students after they’ve learned the basics of the program. And it’s an assignment that can be easily combined with other school subjects.

It’s interesting to see what students create. They often mimic the musea they’re familiar with. Some also realize they’re not confined by the rules that a real museum has. Their pieces can float in space, and who needs walls? They can add quiz questions, moving objects and interactive information in a way that really isn’t possible in the real world.

Infospaces

The emerging of easy apps to create graphics from data was essential to create the abundance of infographics we now see on the web. Will these new tools bring the same abundance of what we like to call ‘infospaces‘?

For that to happen it has to become even easier to create 3D worlds. We have software tools to help us, which also offer integrated access to databases with 3D models like Sketchfab & Google Poly.
But to make things even easier, we also need design principles and templates. We need easy answers to questions like:

• How do you clearly represent information spatially?
• How do you arrange a room to tell a story?

Those are really new questions for the average communicator. Thus far designing spaces to explain something has been mostly reserved to museum curators and museologists.

With the democratization of designing 3D worlds, we think these questions will become more and more important. We have to learn from architecture, theater, museology and the video game industry.

That’s exactly what we will do in this series of posts on creating infospaces! Don’t want to miss a thing? Or do you want to learn more about Virtual Reality? Become a member of the VR Learning HUB for free!

Last November 29th, we organized an event together with Smart 071 and the Honours Academy of Leiden University all about the applications of AR (Augmented Reality) in the workplace.

Students and professionals looked together for meaningful and feasible applications of AR in the participating organizations. This event was part of a new course given by Robin at the Leiden Honors Academy. The Augmented Reality & Human-Computer Collaboration discusses how Augmented Reality will influence our society and the future of work. 

This blog post looks back at:

• our event about AR and the future of work
• the prototypes built by the students as their final projects

We’ll also tell you how you can participate as a professional or student next edition!

[Read more…] about Looking back at year 1 of Augmented Reality & Human-Computer Collaboration

In May 2015 the Gratama Stichting and Leids Universiteitsfonds announced that my research project into the possibilities of Virtual Reality for the field of education will receive the Gratama research grant. Prof. dr. Jaap van den Herik helped me with the application procedure, the research will be part of my PhD work supervised by prof. dr. Bas Haring.

The research project includes an elective course where 30 students will explore the potential of Virtual Reality for science and education by creating experimental VR prototypes. More details about the course in the e-Studiegids.

My research project was mentioned in the Leiden University newsletter and Mare.

On the 19th of June 2014 at 10.00, I’ll teach a workshop for the Embodied Vision course of the Media Technology MSc. program. Below you can find a short description of the workshop and the assignment. After the workshop I’ll post a summary of what we’ve discussed.

Embodied Vision Workshop: Augmented and Virtual Reality with Unity3D

In this workshop we will go through the basics of working with Unity3D, discuss interesting projects made with the software and experiment with creating your own Augmented or Virtual Reality project. I will explain about the Vuforia library which can be used to create mobile AR apps and get you started to develop for Oculus Rift. For the workshop you will need Unity Pro which can be downloaded from unity3d.com. Please install the software beforehand. You can make use of the 30-day trial version.

Assignment
Groups: 1-3 people
During the lectures you have learned about many different special and visual effects used in film and the different goals (such as: distraction, shock, spectacle, narrative, integration, immersion) that can be reached by applying these effects. For this assignment you are challenged to make use of the visual effects offered by Augmented and Virtual Reality to support one (or more) of these goals you find most interesting.
Since learning Unity3D is an essential part of this workshop, you should make use of this software for your project. Exceptions can be made however, if you can give good reasons for this.