In an effort to provide opportunities to listen to real English outside the classroom, the English Language Program, a part of the university’s Department of Foreign Language Education, offers lectures in the ELP Lecture Series. In this ongoing series, each lecturer chooses an accessible topic and explains it in English which is neither too difficult nor too easy.
The nineteenth lecture in the series, “New Digital Realities,” will be held on Thursday, October 27. Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) are technologies that have the potential to make profound changes in the way we interact with people and data in our lives. They are also expected to affect most major industries, including the arts, retail, healthcare, and education. In this lecture, ELP teacher Jonathan Gorham will explore the history of VR, AR, and MR and show how innovative industry leaders such as Oculus, HTC, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, and Magic Leap are working to bring these cutting-edge technologies into the hands of consumers. Participants will get to experience firsthand some of these surprisingly affordable and easy-to-use technologies.

• For more information about the Lecture in Japanese, please click here.

The ELP Lecture Series is open to students, faculty, staff, and anybody else whose English skills could use a bit of a challenge. This is a great opportunity for you to have a little overseas study experience right here at home. The first fourteen lectures in the ELP Lecture Series can be watched here:

• ELP Lecture Series

• For more information about the ELP in Japanese, please click here.

The lecture will be in English with no translation. There is no fee to attend, and reservations are not necessary.