LHU Digital Content Center has been focusing on XR (extended reality) teaching. This year, the center worked with the Taiwan Ocean Artistic Museum and Jorjin Technologies Inc. to combine art and interactive experiences with marine biological specimens, blending digital technology and ecological humanities. This project not only broadens students’ digital perspectives but also applies the concept of long-term cycles between humanities and technology.

The Executive Director of the Digital Content Center, Ming-Yun Chou, noted that the center serves as a platform for developing professional abilities in digital technology and engaging with industry. The critical technologies employed are XR smart glasses, which enable the digital archiving of the most significant shark specimens from the Taiwan Ocean Artistic Museum using digital scanning. This information is incorporated into environmental information programs, providing interactive virtual and real-world experiences. Hundreds of students are asked to participate in immersive digital marine ecological learning, which recreates scenes of mother sharks swimming with their pups and highlights the aquatic environment.

To offer university resources to local people, this XR immersive marine ecology teaching carnival brings together two Lunghwa USR (University Social Responsibility) initiatives. Professor Chiao-Wang Shi of the Department of Information Management leads a project called “Good Health and Well-Being of Sustainable Cities and Communities,” which supports ecological conservation and information technology to guide sustainable development in the Guishan area of Taoyuan City. The other USR project, “Cultural Sustainable Development Project for Stacked Stones of Xinwu District, Taoyuan,” is led by Professors Bi-fen Huang and Nian-an Lin from the Department of Cultural Creativity and Digital Media Design. It offers hands-on craft experiences using recycled ocean plastics to promote the importance of marine ecological education. The goal is to develop immersive interactive education that highlights digital aesthetics and is rooted in children of all ages, making learning enjoyable and creating a new paradigm of educational engagement.

Executive Director Chou stressed the center’s focus on innovative education by creating different learning possibilities through multidisciplinary techniques incorporating smart program electromechanics, aesthetic visual engagement, and creative thinking training. This initiative promotes talent development from elementary school to higher education and industry while encouraging long-term collaboration with Taiwan’s experimental educational institutions and small-to-medium enterprises to create diverse situational learning environments that improve AI talent cultivation and innovative education.