‘VR is not the next smartphone’: Jeremy Bailenson Highlights VR Research, and How to Evaluate Use of Immersive Tech – Center for Academic Innovation

Jeremy Bailenson has spent his entire career thinking big. He has tackled big challenges and asked big questions during his 25-year career studying virtual reality and how people respond and behave when exploring virtual spaces. His latest project is perhaps the biggest yet, serving as one of the consultants to the Madison Square Garden Company on its $2.3 billion Sphere in Las Vegas, which stands more than 300 feet tall and 500 feet wide. However, when discussing making the most impactful learning experiences using extended reality technologies like virtual and augmented realities, he encourages folks to think small. To think short. To think about the most important moments in their lives, and how precious those moments felt. “Most of the experiences that make you who you are today, when you think about them, are short,” Bailenson told the assembled crowd at the Michigan Union for an Innovation Insights talk hosted by the Center for Academic Innovation. “VR is an experience generator,

Jeremy Bailenson has spent his entire career thinking big. He has tackled big challenges and asked big questions during his 25-year career studying virtual reality and how people respond and behave when exploring virtual spaces. His latest project is perhaps the biggest yet, serving as one of the consultants to the Madison Square Garden Company on its $2.3 billion Sphere in Las Vegas, which stands more than 300 feet tall and 500 feet wide. However, when discussing making the most impactful learning experiences using extended reality technologies like virtual and augmented realities, he encoura