About Us

Virtual Harmony

~ Inspired By The Harmony Society ~

We design, prototype, and offer virtual ‘geography of hope‘ for lifelong learning in the pursuit of what truly matters for a life worth living nurtured by intentional communities.

Members of Virtual Harmony nurture lifelong learning regardless of geographic location. Original founders of Virtual Harmony trace their history to George Rapp’s Harmony Society. The early history of the Harmony Society is offered by Karl Arndt in his 1965 University of Pennsylvania publication, George Rapp’s Harmony Society, 1785-1847.

Today, each member of Virtual Harmony brings different gifts for continuing the educational contributions of the historical Harmony Society for improving modern life and communities. We believe in contributing to the future as transcenders by our investment to be internally harmonious and contribute to the harmony of others. Our community values a willingness to labor, both physically and spiritually in all endeavors spanning farming, gardening, and educating the next generation.

Our collaborative work in education inspires applications supporting how people learn in 3D using interactive and engaging AI-augmented simulations enabled by intentional communities offering virtual ‘geography of hope’ regardless of physical location. We believe imagination for the art-of-the-possible with offering virtual geography of hope is given new meaning in 3D space and place by shared, extrasomatical, immersive culture.

The 3D worlds and learning simulations offered by Virtual Harmony, making use of an underlying architecture supporting the integration of AI and VR, began in 2000 and grew out of research by the Cognition and Instructional Technology Laboratory (CITL) and Knowledge Engineering Center (KEC). Today, researchers and educators, spanning several academic disciplines, collaboratively design and prototype learning in 3D activities and interactive VR simulations involving blended use of AI, mobile devices, game engines, and web-interfaces. The community also designs and develops Oculus apps.

Additional information about Virtual Harmony and work among its’ researchers and educators can be found in Recent Advances in Applying Identity and Society Awareness to Virtual Learning (see Stricker, A. G., Calongne, C., Truman, B., & Arenas, F. J. (2019).  The book provides an examination of the social aspects of virtual learning by providing research on the use of 3D design thinking and cognitive apprenticeship in virtual learning spaces for team science, transdisciplinarity, idea incubation, and curation. It also identifies new patterns, methods, and practices for virtual learning using enhanced educational technology that leverages artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to integrate 3D immersive environments, augmented reality, games, simulations, and wearable technology, while also evaluating the impact of culture, community, and society on lifelong learning and self-determinism to address critical problems in education. Focusing on a broad range of topics including learning spaces, cloud computing, and organizational strategy, the book is suited for professionals, researchers, educators, and administrators.