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History of XR
History of XR
Content
A glimpse into the History & Role of XR in Youth Work
🚀 Welcome to the World of XR!
This training course helps youth workers become skilled in Extended Reality (XR) — a fancy term that includes:
• VR (Virtual Reality) – Fully immersive digital worlds (think Oculus games 🎮)
• AR (Augmented Reality) – Digital elements over real life (like Pokémon GO 📱)
• MR (Mixed Reality) – A combo where you interact with both real and virtual things at once
💡 Why XR Matters in Youth Work
XR opens new doors for:
→ Making learning exciting
→ Practising real-life scenarios safely
→ Fostering empathy and creativity
→ Helping young people explore identity
→ Teaching valuable future-ready digital skills
→ Bridging online and real-world experiences
→ Boosting collaboration and teamwork
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⏳ A Brief History of XR (Spoiler: It’s Older Than You Think!)
📖 Way Before Tech
People dreamed of alternate realities for centuries — stories like Pygmalion’s Spectacles (1935) imagined VR-like experiences before computers even existed!
🎥 1962: The Sensorama
Invented by Morton Heilig, this arcade-style machine gave users a full sensory ride — visuals, smells, sound, even vibration!
🎮 1968: Sword of Damocles
The first-ever VR headset! It was huge and hung from the ceiling, but it paved the way for today’s headsets.
🚀 70s–80s: NASA & Military
VR was used for safe flight and space simulations.
🕹️ 80s–90s: Hype & Art
Companies like VPL and movies like Tron and Lawnmower Man brought VR into the pop culture spotlight. But early consumer gear failed — remember Sega VR and Nintendo Virtual Boy? Neither do most people. They flopped hard.
😴 90s–2000s: The Sleepy Years
VR interest faded. Only niche sectors like medicine and academia cared.
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🔥 The Comeback: Enter Oculus
• 2012: Teenager Palmer Luckey builds the first Oculus Rift in his garage. His Kickstarter takes off 🚀
• 2014: Facebook buys Oculus for $2 billion 💸
• 2018 onwards: Oculus Go and Quest go wireless. Easy access = more users.
• 2021: Facebook becomes Meta. Oculus becomes Meta Quest. Big dreams for a Metaverse.
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🧠 The Future is Now (and it’s still evolving)
• 2024: Apple Vision Pro steps in with a premium AR/VR experience
• 2025: Samsung + Google + Qualcomm teaming up on XR headsets
• + AI! XR will get smarter, more personalised and deeply immersive — think realistic avatars, intuitive interactions, real-time worlds
Content prepared by Barry Haughey, @HOLOGEN for the training course on "Virtual Reality in Youth Work"
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This badge shows an increased understanding of the history, present, and possible future of XR—extended reality.
The badge is issued upon providing personal reflection on the history of XR and possible implications for the future.
The Cities of Learning partners issued this badge as part of the Erasmus+ co-funded “Virtual Reality in Cities of Learning” cooperation partnership.
Tasks
Task no.1
Evidence verified by: one activity organiser
You explore some facts about the history of XR. Knowing the recent trends, what kind of future do you see for the XR technology? Will VR blend with AR? Will it be widely used? Will it have it's place in youth work settings?
Organisers
Network of Cities and Regions of Learning
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Awero not-for-profit organisation manages this platform and develops it together with leading educational organisations. The European Union's programme Erasmus+ granted co-funding for building the first version of this platform. Contact support@awero.org.
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