In this episode Sean and Punya talk about the journey and future developments of extended reality (XR) in education with Dan Beaupre and Tom Schmidt from One Giant Leap, LLC and ROAM respectively. We learn about the backstory and "origin story" from Dan and Tom and how they came together to join forces around their deep passion for education, storytelling, and emerging technologies. 

Extended Reality (XR) is a term that encompasses all immersive technologies that merge the physical and virtual worlds, including virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). It offers a new way of experiencing digital content by combining the real world with digital elements, allowing users to interact with virtual objects in a natural and intuitive way.

Guest Information: 

Dan Beaupre  -

Dan is the founder and principal of One Giant Leap, LLC which is a production and consulting company that inspires and empowers children of all ages to be planetary stewards. [They] create transformational experiences, memorable events, and new media. We also provide strategic support to organizations who seek to add, refresh, or expand educational programming. / formerly, Vice President, Experiences, in the National Geographic Society's Education division

Tom Schmidt – 

Emmy winner for TV. Emmy nominated for VR. Producer for all those mediums / the CEO and Co-Founder of ROAM - ROAM creates shared experiences for the emerging metaverse that provide understanding, empathy and awareness. And founder of Percolate Digital LLC

Episode Links

• National Geographic GeoBee
• Oculus Rift [video link]
• Dan’s giant maps project
• eCYBERMISSION educational competition
• Grasp, Dan and Tom’s immersive training company
• Powers of Ten film
• The Gailer School [Wikipedia link]
• Flatland book [Project Gutenberg link]
• Midjourney, AI image generator
• Hypercard, Mac software [Wikipedia link]
• Jane Goodall Institute
• Saul Perlmutter, 2011 Nobel Laureate
• Reeducated: Inside Xinjiang’s Secret Detention Camps (360/VR). The New Yorker.
• ASU’s BioSense Network
• Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man, BBC documentary television series [IMDb link] [British Film Institute link]
• John Dewey, “father of American progressive education” [Britannica link]
• MIX Center at ASU

Guest Links

• Punya’s blog: Aesthetics and science education: Beauty at Work podcast