This year, we are so excited about our Year of STEAM at CMLE! And we’re especially excited because we received a grant  LSTA grant from the MN Department of Education, the State Library Services, with money from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), we were able to buy VR/AR kits we will be sharing across our member school libraries!! These headsets are sturdy and meant to be used in schools. When you receive the headsets in your school you will also be given access to an online Portal that contains hundreds of curriculum-aligned lesson plans that incorporates the VR/AR technology.

We will have an application ready soon, but for now, if you would like to request a kit, just email admin @ cmle.org. We’ll have some questions for you and will work out the details! (Please keep in mind these kits must be coordinated through your school library).

We are holding a Fall Welcome Back Event on Thursday, Sept. 26th from 4-7 at the St. Cloud Public Library and will be happy to bring kits along to distribute to members that have contacted us and applied ahead of time.

Otherwise, we’ll have signup sheets and more information available at the event. Plus, you can try the VR headsets for yourselves! (They are seriously cool).

We are working with the vendor to schedule formal in-person training sessions and will announce them when we know more. In the meantime, you can get started on our vendor’s website – browsing around to get some ideas you might want to try when your kit arrives.

Also, browse this document! It’s the setup and user’s guide. You also NEED to show this to your IT people before your kit arrives, so they have time to make any modifications. (Show them page 27: Technical Guidelines.)

Watch this video to see what the headsets look like, and watch our website all year for updates from schools that are using the headsets in their libraries and classrooms! Of course, email admin @ cmle.org with any questions.