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b'Using VR in the classroom is a no-brainer. It\\u2019s immersive tech, and can teach kids in new, innovative ways. But if the people developing the technology don\\u2019t understand how kids\\u2019 brains learn, it\\u2019s not going to take, no matter how innovative. VirtualiTeach\\u2019s Steve Bambury drops by to explain how he\\u2019s trying to bridge that gap.\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nAlan: Hey, everyone, my name\\u2019s\\nAlan Smithson. Coming up next on the XR for Business podcast, we have\\nSteve Bambury, founder of VirtualiTeach. We\\u2019re gonna be talking about\\ndigital literacy, the virtual/augmented reality platforms, and the\\nquestion on everybody\\u2019s mind: What are the key barriers to adopting\\nVR and AR in schools and how to overcome them? All this and more,\\ncoming up next on the XR for Business Podcast. Welcome to the show,\\nSteve. How are you?\\n\\n\\n\\nSteve: I\\u2019m good, man. It\\u2019s good\\nto speak to you.\\n\\n\\n\\nAlan: It\\u2019s really great. The\\nlast time we saw each other, we were in Dubai \\u2014 where you live \\u2014\\nand you took me to the Dubai Mall, and we went in and we went to the\\nVR Park, the giant VR Park. And I was just blown away by how big and\\nostentatious everything was. And it was a really great experience. I\\ncan\\u2019t thank you enough for your warm hospitality in Dubai. But today\\nit\\u2019s all about you. So let\\u2019s talk about what you\\u2019re doing, and how\\ndid you get into this? And what are you doing now?\\n\\n\\n\\nSteve: I\\u2019ve been in Dubai for 11\\nyears. And for those 11 years, I\\u2019ve always worked at the same school.\\nI was working a school group here known as GESS \\u2014 which is the\\nacronym for Jumeirah English Speaking School \\u2014 also broadly referred\\nto as GESS Dubai now. GESS is one of the leading schools in the\\nMiddle East. It\\u2019s a very old school, at least in terms of\\ninternational schools in this region. It\\u2019s only, I think four years\\nor three years younger than the UAE as a country. So it is very well\\nestablished. And yeah, so I worked there for 11 years. I worked as a\\nclass teacher in one of the primary schools, and curriculum leader.\\nEventually become head of computing at the primary school. So I was\\nteaching digital literacy and computer science content to four year\\nolds, 3 to 11 year olds. And I ended up in that role primarily\\nbecause of all the work I\\u2019ve been doing to integrate the iPads in the\\nclassroom. From 2011, we were one of the first schools in the Middle\\nEast to to roll out iPads in the classroom. And then three years ago,\\nI moved into a role that was created for me, which was the head of\\ndigital learning and innovation, working underneath the new director,\\nMark Steed, who\\u2019d just come in from the UK. Mark had the pedigree in\\nterms of digital learning from what he\\u2019d done at this very, very\\nprestigious school in the UK called Berkhamsted. He\\u2019d also chaired\\nthe Independent Digital Strategy Group for eight years there. And so\\nMark created this role and this role took me out of the classroom\\nmost of the time. A lot of it involved training with staff. It also\\ninvolved going back into departments and helping them with enrichment\\nprojects. And it was kind of in parallel to that. I mean, part of the\\nreason that my work with virtual reality really took off is because I\\nmoved into this new role, and had this freedom to innovate and to\\nexplore new technologies. My first VR headset was just a [garbled]\\nheadset I imported from the States in 2014. But it was not long after\\nI started this new role as head of digital learning at GESS that I\\ngot my first Vive. I took that Vive into the school and started\\nlooking for ways to integrate it into different curriculum areas. In\\nactual fact, I\\u2019ve just recently started writing a series of guest\\nposts for Vive on the Vive blog. You can go into Google, like \\u201cHTC\\nVive blog Steve Bambury\\u201d or'