Articles

HCC instructional support specialist selected for Meta Horizon Stars Mobile Program

Apr 2, 2025

Lynden Marshall, Visual Arts instructional support specialist at Houston Community College (HCC), has been selected to join the Meta Horizon Stars Pilot Program.

The program is being launched to give creators the freedom to develop and import applications that can operate seamlessly across mobile devices. It provides developers from varied backgrounds with benefits, technical support and ways to embed immersive and interactive content within other applications.

Meta Horizon will also allow developers to leverage the cutting-edge Meta Spatial SDK (software development kit) platform, which has been used to build new immersive mobile applications such as Meta’s popular media app, Meta Quest TV. Meta Horizon Stars plans to release sometime during the first or second quarter of 2025.

The program spotlights the versatility of 2D panels and immersive applications. One of Marshall’s goals is to develop mixed reality experiences that are widely known in gaming and transition them into education. In essence, this would allow for fewer distractions for students trying to interpret certain words while reading and create a more immersive learning experience. 

Marshall, a computer-science graduate and cofounder of the immersive virtual reality lab known as Reality Collab at HCC’s Central Campus, said he plans to use Meta Horizon to build an application that will assist with educating children and adults with literacy deficiencies.

“We’re creating an application to help first-time beginners and adults with their literacy,” he said. “We also want to do the same for students from different ethnic backgrounds and communities.”

Despite being known for his work in digital media, Marshall is very passionate about the musical arts and has incorporated digital technology during his time working in the entertainment industry.

“I love tearing things apart and bringing them back together,” he says. “This application we’re creating will hopefully be used across the board.”