Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education Preface VARE2013.

Abstract: Welcome to the 2013 International conference on Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education, which is being held on 7th-9th November 2013 in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain. This year's conference will take place in the beautiful city of Puerto de la Cruz at the Beatriz Atlantis Hotel. VARE 2013 is organized by the University of La Laguna and Sociotechnical Systems Engineering Institute of Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. The International Conference on Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education is an biannual conference that brings together teachers in all areas of knowledge and educational levels as well as researchers and scientists from computing disciplines linked with virtual technologies. In general, teachers and researchers with research lines for improvement of teaching through virtual technologies will discuss any problems and solutions in the area while identifying new issues and giving shape to directions for future research. In this second edition of VARE, the number of participants as well as all their works has been exceptional as a consequence of the virtual technologies, which are reaching every educational level. This year we expect over 125 participants. The aim of these proceedings is becoming a major intellectual resource for researchers of virtual technologies while also intending to define and advance the state of the art in this field. The theme for VARE 2013 is “Introducing Virtual Technologies in the Classroom” to mark the ever- increasing need of teaching with technologies that students are used to, for motivating them and also showing the didactic potential of the developed tools in both virtual and augmented reality. The conference will be an event focused on recent evolution of augmented and virtual reality for developing systems and complex applications across different educational fields: compulsory studies, business education as well as learning of any kind. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]