Bryn Mawr College's Digital Competencies Program helps students build the digital skills and critical perspectives on technology needed for success in the digital age.
Recently, our own Linda Bush ('85) was interviewed by Pearson Education. The interview touched on her career in STEM and the Bryn Mawr College HoloLens Project.
I know you worked with Â鶹AV recently! Can you share more about the you and your team did there?
This was really how I got involved with the Pearson Immersive team. There are features of Windows10 Skype which allow enhanced video calls between and other devices. In 2016, the Immersive team reached out to Smarthinking to explore the potential use of this type of virtual connection for academic tutoring. I am an active alumna, so I contacted some faculty at Â鶹AV to see if they’d help us run some testing and focus groups with students.
Once they had HoloLens devices on campus, the instructional technology team at Bryn Mawr really made the most of them. Students jumped into the project with enthusiasm. There was tremendous interest in students learning programming and coding for mixed reality. Because of Pearson’s partnership with Microsoft, we were also able to sponsor some on-campus internship experiences. We learned a lot about app design from things the students built into their creations.
It was very empowering for those young women to have a hands-on experience with cutting-edge technology. It meant a lot to them to know that they were among a relatively small number of people worldwide who have used and developed content for HoloLens. It also meant a lot to me and the whole Pearson team to be able to share our work with them.
For more on the HoloLens Project, see the student-created video about the project: