World's First Bitcoin Scholarship Funds IMMERSION 2014 Global Conference

The Immersive Education Initiative today announced that all official Immersive Education events will now accept Bitcoin starting with IMMERSION 2014 in Los Angeles next week, followed by the European Immersive Education Summit in Vienna and the Immersive Researcher’s Summit in New York City. Interviews and complimentary media and press passes are available upon request.

To encourage widespread adoption of Bitcoin throughout its global community, the Initiative is giving one free IMMERSION 2014 ticket to attendees who register using the cryptocurrency.

Details are available on the conference website http://summit.ImmersiveEducation.org/

Today’s announcement is the first in a series of forthcoming announcements related to the organization’s adoption and support of the virtual currency.

On Monday, the Initiative will announce the world's first global education scholarship funded entirely through Bitcoin, followed by the formation of an international council responsible for overseeing the scholarship and the Initiative’s related cryptocurrency and economics activities.

The organization’s long-term plans for Bitcoin will be revealed the morning of June 8th during the IMMERSION 2014 keynote address by the Initiative’s founding director Aaron E. Walsh, after which the potential for Bitcoin as a universal virtual currency will be addressed during the Business and Economics module at the conference.

Bitcoin and Immersive Education Initiative at IMMERSION 2014 sponsored by Disney and Target, and hosted by Loyola Marymount University in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution; IMMERSION 2014 features speakers and exhibits by Disney Animation Studios, the Smithsonian Institution, Google, Microsoft, Stratasys, Oculus, Oracle, Bitcoin and more.

Building on the success of the previous 8 years of Immersive Education conferences in Boston, the world's leading experts in immersion and immersive technology convene June 6-8 in Los Angeles, California for IMMERSION 2014. The event opens with a special Arts & Culture reception at The Getty Center.

IMMERSION 2014 addresses the personal and cultural impact of digital technologies such as wearable computing (e.g., Google Glass and Oculus Rift), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MXR), mechanical and neural interfaces, affective computing (systems that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human feelings and emotions), neuro-gaming technologies (that are used to create adaptive and radically compelling game experiences), 3D printing, personal robotics, virtual currencies and economies (universal digital micropayments, Bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies), telepresence, virtual worlds, simulations, game-based learning and training systems, immersive MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and fully immersive environments such as caves and domes.

Immersive Education Initiative: http://ImmersiveEducation.org/

THOUSANDS OF MEMBERS WORLDWIDE

The Immersive Education Initiative is a non-profit international collaboration of educational institutions, research institutes, museums, consortia and companies. The Initiative was established in 2005 with the mission to define and develop standards, best practices, technology platforms, training and education programs, and communities of support for virtual worlds, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality, simulations, game-based learning and training systems, and fully immersive environments such as caves and domes.

Thousands of faculty, researchers, staff and administrators are members of the Initiative, who together service millions of academic and corporate learners worldwide.

Speakers at Immersive Education events have included faculty, researchers, staff, administrators and professionals from Boston College, Harvard University (Harvard Graduate School of Education, Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School of Government), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT Media Lab, The Smithsonian Institution, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Federation of American Scientists (FAS), United States Department of Education, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Temple University, Stanford University, Internet 2, Cornell University, Loyola Marymount University, Southeast Kansas Education Service Center, Kauffman Foundation, Amherst College, Boston Library Consortium, Stratasys Ltd., South Park Elementary School, Duke University, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Turner Broadcasting, Open Wonderland Foundation, Gates Planetarium, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Intel, University of Maryland College Park, realXtend (Finland), Computerworld, The MOFET Institute (Israel), Keio University (Japan), National University of Singapore (NUS), Coventry University (UK), Giunti Labs (Italy) and European Learning Industry Group, Open University (UK), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), University of Oulu (Finland), Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD; France), Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (Israel), Graz University of Technology (Austria), University of West of Scotland (UK), University of Essex (UK), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), University of Vienna (Austria), Government of New South Wales (Australia), Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem (Hungary), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS; Brazil) and many more world-class organizations.

For more details, visit the IMMERSION 2014 website at http://summit.ImmersiveEducation.org/