Source before synthesis
AI-assisted material begins with reliable sources and receives human review appropriate to the subject.
Extended reality · Multimodal AI · Instructional design
The future of learning is something students can enter.
Loren Ybarrondo builds immersive learning systems that turn museums, historic places, scientific expeditions, and public collections into rigorous experiences students can explore, hear, question, and remember.
20+ years of immersive productionGeorgia Tech systems engineeringSmithsonian-scale project experienceIVRPA Director of Education
The central premise
Public investment should keep teaching.
Major digital experiences are often commissioned for an exhibition, anniversary, program, or fiscal year. When the funding cycle ends, hosting and maintenance can end with it—even when the underlying history, science, imagery, and educational value remain important.
The answer is durable learning infrastructure: preserve the assets, modernize the interface, connect related collections, and design each project so schools and the public can keep using it long after the original launch.
A new production system
XR creates presence. AI creates possibility.
AI is not the lesson and it is not a substitute for factual review. It accelerates the production work around a well-designed lesson, allowing a small expert team to build and maintain far more useful educational material.
- 01
Enter the place
Use 360° imaging, photorealistic 3D, maps, and spatial audio to make scale, context, and discovery tangible.
- 02
Build the story
Organize primary sources, expert interpretation, objects, and media into a purposeful instructional journey.
- 03
Produce many modes
Use current multimodal AI to accelerate narration, transcripts, translations, teacher materials, and accessible alternatives.
- 04
Measure and improve
Learn what students open, finish, revisit, and understand—then improve the experience instead of freezing it at launch.
Deep Reef Observation ExpeditionDesigned for today’s learner
Attention has changed. Learning design has to respond.
Children grow up in an interactive, visual, media-rich world. A static handout can still be useful, but it cannot carry the entire learning experience. Immersive media gives students a reason to look closely, make choices, follow evidence, and ask what happens next.
The goal is not more noise. It is focused engagement: calm interfaces, optional depth, accessible modes, teacher guidance, and stories strong enough to earn attention.
The evidence already exists
From field science to 5,000 years of art.
These are not speculative mockups. They are working project foundations that show how museums, public places, and scientific stories can become classroom-scale learning environments.
K–12 science mission
Deep Reef Expedition
Students enter a submersible mission, investigate invasive lionfish, and deploy a Smithsonian reef-monitoring tool.
5,000 years of cultural history
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
More than 125 after-hours rooms become focused visual and audio modules rather than one overwhelming digital museum.
Museum-scale discovery
Natural History
Panoramic galleries, maps, objects, video, and interpretation support remote discovery across a vast collection.
Place-based learning + tourism
Virtual West Virginia
Historic sites, parks, local stories, businesses, maps, and future AI audio connect digital exploration to a real journey.
For the people responsible for what comes next
A practical agenda, not a political one.
The mechanics of better learning can unite people who disagree on policy. The work is source-grounded, transparent about its use of AI, respectful of institutional expertise, and designed to help students investigate rather than be told what to think.
- K–12 leadersCurriculum pilots, virtual field trips, teacher resources
- Legislators and public agenciesDurable public access, measurable outcomes, reusable assets
- Museums and foundationsCollection access, educational reach, long-term preservation
- State tourism leadersPlace-based learning, trip discovery, maps, and local stories
Operating principles
Accessible by design
Transcripts, keyboard access, reduced motion, descriptive text, and flexible media are part of the learning system.
Durable and portable
Institutions can retain their source assets, analytics, branding, and a migration path beyond one annual budget.
Measured honestly
Pilots should define what success means, measure engagement and learning, and publish what needs improvement.
A fundable first step
Fund the pilot, not the promise.
Start with one important subject, a defined group of learners, and a measurable goal. Build a compact experience with immersive scenes, sourced interpretation, audio, an accessible companion, educator materials, and analytics. Test it, improve it, then scale.
Learn more about a pilot