James McCrary

James McCrary is the director of technology and innovation at the St. James Episcopal Day School in Baton Rouge. He grew up in a rural town in North Louisiana with little access to technology. It was not until high school during the early nineties in music and computer sciences classes he was introduced to skills such as and sound engineering and programming which would later impact his understanding of immersive learning. Education is his second career with beginning in the chemical coatings industry. He has educational background as a social studies educator after obtaining a B.A. in History with a concentration in Secondary Education from Louisiana State University. While in the classroom, he also completed his M.Ed.- Educational Leadership & Technology from Southeastern Louisiana University. Starting in 2012, he began presenting at state, regional, and national conferences, such as LACUE, FETC, CUE, and ISTE on topics surrounding 3D and immersion technology. To this day, James continues to present and lead workshops on innovation in education, with a focus on 3D development, especially for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). He also hosts "The VR Podcast" with several educational leaders throughout the U.S., discussing how immersion technology is impacting education and business. In 2019, he was recognized as an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Educator for his work integrating immersion technology into the classroom and positively impacting students globally. In the past year, he has facilitated ARVR playground spaces for multiple schools and conferences to advocate and spread awareness to the positive impact of augmented and virtual reality, such as LACUE and ISTE's Creative Constructors Lab. He is also coordinating playground at events such as CUE, LACUE regional, VR-Ed, and ISTE for the upcoming conference season. Recently, he has started two ventures for advocating learning through immersion technology. First, he is partnering with LSU College of Education faculty in research on virtual reality with pre-service educators. These finding will be presented at ISTE 2020 in Anaheim. The second is co-founding Singularity Media Group which specializes in innovative learning environments using augmented and virtual reality.