Immersive Tourism Innovator Project
Eric Hawkinson

Google Certified Innovator Project
The Google Certified Innovator program is a 12-month professional development experience including mentorship, online learning activities, and attendance at an Innovation Academy. The program kicks off with a three-day Innovation Academy focused on helping new participants define, design and eventually launch a transformative project.

jpn19

PROJECT GOALS

Immersive Tourism Education for a Post-COVID World

When the global pandemic struck, the tourism industry was hit particularly hard. Students looking to enter the tourism industry have been left with an uncertain future. As a specialist in immersive technology in educational contexts, I wanted to focus on current tourism and hospitality students and give them tools and knowledge to use immersive technology in the travel industry. The project has two ways to participate, one to experiment with the use of augmented reality in tourism and another to create and design a virtual tour.

Augmented Tourism Virtual Tourism

Eric Hawkinson

エリック・ハーキンソン
JPN19
Eric is a learning futurist, tinkering with and designing technologies that may better inform the future of teaching and learning. Eric is president and research coordinator of MAVR, a research group working in immersive technologies for teaching and learning, and more specifically, augmented and virtual realities in language learning. Eric's day job is at the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies where he teaches courses and conducts research on issues related to technology in tourism and education. Eric also leads a team of interactive media designers for TEDxKyoto. His passion project, ARientation is an award winning, free-to-use, privacy-by-design augmented learning platform to rapid prototype augmented learning environments, also aiming to spread awareness of increasing aggressive data collection models using immersive technology. Eric's other projects have included augmented tourism rallies, AR community art exhibitions, mixed reality escape rooms, and other experiments in immersive technology.

Eric's Website

ARientation in Action

Join the Project

ARientation has helped to spawn international cooporative learning projects. Find out more about how you can use this free tool on the project website.

Project Website LIVE DEMO

My Hometown Project

In this project, we are creating a database of virtual tours of lesser known places all over Japan, complete with personal stories and adventures from people who grew up in these locations.

A Global Collaborative Project

Open educational project to teach the basics of virutal tourism and share stories connected to our hometowns all over the world.

Learn Storytelling

One of the essentail skills in giving a tour is the ability to tell a compelling story, one that connects human experience to a location.

Easy and Simple Progression

Step by step learning for all levels and ages - no technical skills required.

Forever Kyoto

Create a VR Tour

Get hands on experience creating a tour in virtual reality and learn the fundamentals of VR experience design.

Cultural Understanding

Explore student projects from around the world and experience life of far off places through the lens of someone who grew up there.

SIGN UP YOUR CLASS

You can sign up for your students to learn about virutal tourism and contribute to our growing database of hometown tours.

Enter the Project VR Lobby

Take a VR tour of places all over the world designed and narrated by people who grew up there.Experience the future of virtual tourism in our immersive tourism environments made by students in the Global Tourism Department.Follow the link to find information and instructions to see how we are using augmented and virtual reality to design tourism experiences.One of our newer initiatives is called the 'My Hometown Project'.  In this project, we are creating a database of virtual tours of lesser known places all over Japan, complete with personal stories and adventures from people who grew up in these locations.The project starts off in a virtual lobby where you can walk around and view promotional travel posters of towns all over Japan.  Find a town that interests you, click on it and be transported to that place.  There you will learn about some of the more interesting points of interest and hear personal stories from students about living there.

Here is how to use the environment:
Step 1 - Click to Connect - You must make sure you allow your browser to access your microphone before you connect.
Step 2 - Explore the Lobby - Use the W, A, S, and D keys to move around.  Click and move your mouse to turn.  If you are using a mobile device or a smartphone, you can move around by swiping any direction.
Step 3 - Click on a Poster - Find a poster that appeals to you and click on it to be sent on a tour of that location.

To return to the lobby to take another tour, simply close your browser window.
You might see other students or visitors in the lobby, feel free to wave to them or say hi using your microphone.

ENTER
My Hometown Project

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