The annual conference brings together industry voices who are leading the way for playful, educational tech.
The Educational Games Expo kicked-off this week in Washington, DC. Now in its seventh annual year, this free and public conference hosted by the US Department of Education showcases the best educational learning games and technologies to date.
Located at the Kennedy Center, attendees can explore up to 150 educational games and meet with independent and entrepreneurial developers dedicated to pushing ed-tech forward. Featured games and technologies range from topics including early learning, science, engineering, making, math, reading, social studies, English learning, social skills, and student support for those with or at risk of disabilities.
With an effort to highlight immersive gaming strides, Edward Metz, curator of the Ed Games Expo and manager of the US Department of Education’s Small Business Innovation Research program, has included a full day of virtual reality and XR educational resources, panels, and experiences.
“[The Ed Games Expo is] great for creating networking opportunities in both directions,” Metz explains. “…for government agencies and departments interested in investing in educational technology, and for developers who want to be involved in finding funding to research and create those tools.”
XR for Classroom Learning featured a group of 20 developers who have created educational content designed for XR with support from ten different government programs. The showcase concluded with a session where local high school students will demo XR learning technologies while networking with the programmers and gaining potential career advice.
Metz goes on, “It’s really rewarding to work on a program and conference that invests in developers creating the next educational technology of the future. When it comes to VR, you are actively immersed and fully focused on solving learning problems.”
Co-hosted by the VR/AR Association of Washington, DC, XR for Classroom Learning kicked off with remarks from Frank Brogan of the US Department of Education, Sophia Moshasha of the VR/AR Association of DC, and Gino Fazio of the CDC.
Additional speakers included mixed reality industry voices such as Dan Ayoub of Microsoft, Phil Puthumana of Verizon, Rich Henderson of Lenovo, Chris Chin of HTC, Chris Hines of National Geographic, Stuart Trafford of Magic Leap, Lucien Parsons of MAVRIC, Arana Shapiro of Games for Change, and Elise O’Brien of vCoder.
Feature Image Credit: NOT SUSPICIOUS, LLC
