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    1. iLRNews

      A group blog by the iLRN Communications Team in General

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      jonathon

       

      As the iLRN2025 conference draws to a close, we stand at a turning point—not just between events, but between what immersive learning has been and what it is becoming.

      This year’s theme, Multimodal Literacies, offered more than just a lens for interpretation. It became a foundation for action. Across hundreds of sessions, workshops, showcases, and dialogues, three truths about immersive learning emerged clearly—and they point us toward a powerful future in Athens, Greece, for iLRN2026.

      🔑 1. Multimodal Literacies Are the Grammar of Immersive Understanding

      To create meaning in immersive spaces—whether in XR, AI, soundscapes, simulations, or storytelling—we must move beyond text and traditional modes of scholarship and ways of recording knowledge. We must think, design, teach, and demonstrate what we know in multiple modalities at once. This year, we witnessed interactive narratives, embodied interactions, spatial simulations, and emergent collaborative tools that required fluency in gesture, voice, design, code, and culture. We continued with an annual online meeting in addition to our traditional face-to-face meeting - and for the first time tried it concurrently. This gave us the possibility of connecting our two modalities - for hybrid, jigsaw, and insights shared across our global community and locally in Chicago. 

      Multimodal literacies are not decorative. They are the grammar of immersive meaning-making.

      🤝 2. Multiple Modalities Enable Collaboration Across Boundaries

      Multimodal expression gave us a shared language—bridging computer scientists and educators, artists and clinicians, UX designers and activists.
      Just as the Antikythera Mechanism reflected a synthesis of math, astronomy, and craftsmanship, immersive learning is born of an interdisciplinary convergence.

      Like all sciences and other human disciplines, we need a shared understanding of what "immersive learning" is - and what are the key questions, modes of inquiry, boundaries, and points of view across our multi-disciplinary enterprise? 

      The iLRN Knowledge Tree is growing: With Computer Science, Game Design/UX, and Learning Sciences as our roots—from them grow the many branches of applied disciplines.

      ⚖️ 3. They Ground Us Ethically and Purposefully

      This year’s participants pushed beyond technical excellence. They asked: Who benefits? Who is heard? What are the implications?
      With AI and Large Language Models having a huge impact in our field, we saw presented at iLRN2025 incredible integrations in immersive learning experiences AND also a dire need for finding the human-centered purposes that ground us in our work and our collective enterprise. Through multimodal frameworks, we saw a return to critical reflection, cultural context, and representation of key voices. Whether in digital heritage, Indigenous knowledge, or embodied simulations of empathy and care, participants modeled how to align immersive design with human values.

      Multimodal literacy is also ethical literacy.

      ✨ Looking Ahead: Toward Athens 2026

      In the birthplace of Western Science—where myths met mechanics, and philosophy met practice—we invite you to help shape the future of immersive learning as a discipline and a community.

      Let 2026 be the year our association of immersive learning professionals comes into full form.

      Like Athena from the head of Zeus.
      Like Prometheus carrying fire.
      Like the Cave giving way to Light.

      Let us come together to manifest the Immersive Learning Arts & Sciences as a living, growing discipline with purpose, rigor, and imagination.

      🌱 The iLRN Ecosystem Is Open

      Our immersive campus, global forums, and collaborative platforms are live year-round. Use them. Build with us. Share your voice.

      🌀 Experience the Knowledge Tree.
      🌐 Join the ongoing debates, design jams, and research exchanges.
      🎭 Co-create the next phase of immersive learning—together.

      🌟 Immersive Futures Highlights from iLRN2025

      • XR for Climate Adaptation: Scientists + storytellers modeled resilience.

      • Indigenous-Led Virtual Ecologies: Culturally grounded design in action.

      • AI-Augmented Design Studios: Collaborating with machines to build worlds.

      • Immersive Ethics Roundtables: Toward shared frameworks for global tech.

      🛡️ This is not simply a network of professionals. It is an invitation to co-create.
      Athens 2026 is the moment. The Immersive Learning Research Association is the mission.
      Multimodal literacies were the first step. Now we begin the walk—together.

    2. Circle of Scholars

      A group blog by Circle of Scholars in General

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