PDA Event: Cultivating Racial Equity & Inclusion: Using XR

The XR Equity & Diversity Playbook was constructed for libraries to explore how to use virtual reality (VR) and discuss equity and diversity through an “immersive experience.” VR is an immersive medium through which one can experience how it is to “walk” in another person’s shoes or “see” through their eyes. Therefore, it is a perfect medium to build empathy and create understanding between diverse people and cultures. Hear about community “lost stories”, witness the world through a blind person’s eyes in “Notes on Blindness,” understand the hurdles an African American would have encountered in 1960s America in “Travelling While Black,” be immersed in the modern racial justice movement, or get in the mind of someone who has mental health issues in “Depression. or uncover the story of a wrongfully convicted man in “Send Me Home.” Stories of hope, perseverance, and dignity of the human spirit abound in VR.

Presenter:

John MacLeod is the executive director of XR Libraries, a leading company integrating XR technology in libraries and schools. Over the last four years he has worked with state and local libraries to develop and implement strategies for deploying augmented, virtual, and 360 VR technology and programs. He has served as a Commissioner for the Marin County Free Library for the last four years and received the 2018 California State Library Associations Presidents Award. He is a partner in the Marinovation Learning Center, a unique collaboration between the Marin County Free Library, and local school districts to provide innovative learning programs in media, a makerspace, and the XR Marin Academy for creating XR content. John has spent the last 30 years making technology available and accessible to all through his non-profit New Media Learning. He has worked with technology startups, most notably Autodesk, believing that use of technology promotes diversity, equity and opportunity.

Register to attend.

Sponsored by ASERL