Using VR in the classroom is a no-brainer. It’s immersive tech, and can teach kids in new, innovative ways. But if the people developing the technology don’t understand how kids’ brains learn, it’s not going to take, no matter how innovative. VirtualiTeach’s Steve Bambury drops by to explain how he’s trying to bridge that gap. Alan: Hey, everyone, my name’s Alan Smithson. Coming up next on the XR for Business podcast, we have Steve Bambury, founder of VirtualiTeach. We’re gonna be talking about digital literacy, the virtual/augmented reality platforms, and the question on everybody’s mind: What are the key barriers to adopting VR and AR in schools and how to overcome them? All this and more, coming up next on the XR for Business Podcast. Welcome to the show, Steve. How are you? Steve: I’m good, man. It’s good to speak to you. Alan: It’s really great. The last time we saw each other, we were in Dubai — where you live — and you took me to the Dubai Mall, and we went in and we went to the VR Park, the giant VR Park. And I was just blown away by how big and ostentatious everything was. And it was a really great experience. I can’t thank you enough for your warm hospitality in Dubai. But today it’s all about you. So let’s talk about what you’re doing, and how did you get into this? And what are you doing now? Steve: I’ve been in Dubai for 11 years. And for those 11 years, I’ve always worked at the same school. I was working a school group here known as GESS — which is the acronym for Jumeirah English Speaking School — also broadly referred to as GESS Dubai now. GESS is one of the leading schools in the Middle East. It’s a very old school, at least in terms of international schools in this region. It’s only, I think four years or three years younger than the UAE as a country. So it is very well established. And yeah, so I worked there for 11 years. I worked as a class teacher in one of the primary schools, and curriculum leader. Eventually become head of computing at the primary school. So I was teaching digital literacy and computer science content to four year olds, 3 to 11 year olds. And I ended up in that role primarily because of all the work I’ve been doing to integrate the iPads in the classroom. From 2011, we were one of the first schools in the Middle East to to roll out iPads in the classroom. And then three years ago, I moved into a role that was created for me, which was the head of digital learning and innovation, working underneath the new director, Mark Steed, who’d just come in from the UK. Mark had the pedigree in terms of digital learning from what he’d done at this very, very prestigious school in the UK called Berkhamsted. He’d also chaired the Independent Digital Strategy Group for eight years there. And so Mark created this role and this role took me out of the classroom most of the time. A lot of it involved training with staff. It also involved going back into departments and helping them with enrichment projects. And it was kind of in parallel to that. I mean, part of the reason that my work with virtual reality really took off is because I moved into this new role, and had this freedom to innovate and to explore new technologies. My first VR headset was just a [garbled] headset I imported from the States in 2014. But it was not long after I started this new role as head of digital learning at GESS that I got my first Vive. I took that Vive into the school and started looking for ways to integrate it into different curriculum areas. In actual fact, I’ve just recently started writing a series of guest posts for Vive on the Vive blog. You can go into Google, like “HTC Vive blog Steve Bambury” or something, you’ll probably find them. But I’ve been writing a series of blogs about my journey using and integrating the HTC Vive headsets at GESS. T...