Frame

Peter, Anastasiia, Seoah

Intro

Frame calls their tool "...the easiest way to enter and create in the metaverse." If you are a teacher looking for a space to use with groups of students or for a language exchange that requires almost nothing in the way of technical skills, this may be a very good solution for you.

Number of users: free, up to three frames (spaces), maximum 8 users each + a number of paid options.
Ease of use: Easy!
Platforms: PC, Mac, Mobile, VR
Best for: Quick and easy creation of spaces that include a lot of pedagogical tools!

First Steps

Where to find it: https://learn.framevr.io/
How to Register: Scroll down on the main page linked above, and the steps for signing in are all there. You can use Google, Micosoft, Facebook, or any other email to register.
NOTE: If you are only logged in as a 'guest' (without logging in via an email account) you will not have access to any thing like the ability to add items or manipulate them!
Making Spaces: Once you login to Frame, you will asked to to 'create a frame' by selecting one from the dropdown menu. These Frames (spaces) include more than 26 choices, ranging from your new Zen Office to an Auditorium to an entire Campus. Once you create your space, you will find it on the page shown below when you log in. If you want to create additional spaces, you'll do that here as well.

- Inviting others to your spaces:

Simply go into one of your Frames, copy the URL from your browser window, and share it with those you want to join there. They can use that link and join as a guest or (preferred), they can go to the main Frame site, login, and then follow the link you provided. That way they'll show up with their own Frame persona.

Inviting others to your space in VR:

Have them go into the browser for the headset, and use the same URL to enter. Once they get to your space, they may need to look at the bottom-right corner of their screen in the headset and look for the Headset icon. Click on that and then on the pop-up to 'allow for immersive experience.' They will then be in the space in full VR glory!

- Controlling your space:

By default, anyone you invite into one of your Frames has editing access. This is great if you are working with a group you are very familiar with, but may not always be the right choice. By clicking on the Frame icon located on the upper-right of the page when you are logging into a Frame (see icon to right of this text), you will bring up a rather lengthy window of options. Scrolling down, as shown below, will take you to two key 'chunks'. First, as seen below left, is the Permission window for the frame.

The frame provides an admin panel where you can control your participants easily. If you are curious about your admin tools, move your cursor to the "People" at the top left corner. Then, another menu will appear right below it! The menu provides you with handy tools by which you can teleport people or mute them. Do not forget that these tools affect everyone in your space. Would you like to take individual actions? That's easy too! Under the participants' names, some icons serve the same purpose. You can mute, teleport, or even kick individuals!

Permissions

By default, these tend to be set to 'anyone', which means your Frame might quickly fill up with others' junk. It is a great idea to experiment with these to find out what works best for you.

Members & Admins

The permissions include options for both members and admins. Adding these is as simple as clicking the dropdown, inputting an email (probably best to use the email they used to sign up for Frame and then clicking on the add button. Done! Having admins is particularly important if you are dealing with larger groups that may require mulitple people to have higher permissions.

Changing your avatar:

There are several ways to do this, but perhaps the easiest to to simply click the 'c' button on your keyboard once you are already in a frame. Doing so will bring up the interface seen below. You can also access this via the gear icon at the bottom of the screen (and then click profile and the customize avatar button. As seen in the image, this will give you choices for both Android and Human avatars, and a large number of appearance choices for them. You can also connect to a ReadyPlayerMe avatar (RPM) on this page. See the linked video for more details on that.

Pedagogical Tools

Once of the nicest things about Frame from a pedagogical standpoint is that they have integrated a large number (22, and counting) of tools (they call them Assets) into it, with many of those tools (e.g., Video) have multiple options and a wide a variety of pedagogical uses. Follow the instructions in the image to access the tools. You may find more information about the tools/assets here: https://learn.framevr.io/resources#videos

Potential Pedagogical Uses

The possibilities are almost limitless!

Pros/Cons

Pros:
- Frame is extremely easy to use and has a large number of tools built in that can be of great use for teaching, language exchanges, etc. In addition, Frame has a a number of frames already designed and ready to use.
- Frame is well-designed to be secure for your groups and has solid options for the creators to control their spaces.
Cons:
- Currently, you can only have 8 people in a single frame, unless you go with one of the paid options. While they do have a 50% educational discount, if you want to have frames that hold more than 8 individuals, you would still need to pay $25 US per month (with the discount), and that would only give you a single frame that could hold up to 50 users.

Additional Resources

Frame has a great learning center that includes a LOT of categories of information and support/training videos. It is well-worth checking out! https://learn.framevr.io/resources#videos

Here are the two Frames we will be using during our Workshop and Tech Showcase for CALICO 2024

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