Imagine teaching a child to draw or to paint. One of the many graphical apps from Google, ‘Tilt Brush’, helps to create art in 3D space with several possibilities. By using any virtual space as a canvas, children and artists can create real masterpieces with a wide range of dynamic brushes and interfaces, and even share them as animated gifs. Education 4.0 has arrived.
Technology is the new driver for education. With it, traditional teaching has been disrupted. Consequently, new teaching pedagogies have evolved. A teacher’s role too changed to that of a mentor and a guide. The larger question however is what drives curiosity to learn? Is it the pedagogy or the content? Genuine curiosity cannot be taught. It needs to be kindled. Being able to put together past experience and knowledge like the millions of fibres on a network is the key.
Online, blended and the hybrid models are the new vehicles. Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) class rooms, are the carriers. 5G and Web 3.0 tools are the enablers. The fact that the brain tends to remember 10% of what it reads, 20% of what it hears, and 90% of what it does, simulates or sees, drives VR. It makes learning exciting and effective.
Augmented Reality is used to broadcast 3D emails, create overlays during sports broadcasts, and sending out intuitive messages, all useful in education too. While primarily focused on the gaming industry, current statistics show that the demand for consumer-based AR products is 33% higher than non-augmented reality products.
VR can weave a virtual world around us. It can aid design and modelling 3D, editing, transformation, and testing in virtual environments to progress to qualitatively different levels. VR makes the studying process a fascinating experience. With its help, a classroom is not limited to four walls. It is the universal tool to display objects, processes, locations, and historical events, with no language barriers.
Large investments are made in VR education models, towards training medical students and personnel. Multiple trainee programs are developed through a variety of simulations, that prepare doctors and nurses by making them practice different clinical cases and improve skills. VR even helps study complex material through practical tasks. If VR is built into blended learning, the learning outcomes can be phenomenal. In fact, numerous companies are coming up with textbooks encoded with AR possibilities.
Marker images help display AR content on or over the surface. Education applications use the AR markers linking them directly to the content of the lesson, making the objects come alive and leap off the page. Virtual travel without leaving the classroom, exploring the depths of the ocean and the vastness of space or exploring within the human body are all possible. New vocabulary can be learnt by bringing the words to life. AR can bring changes in the education sector by enabling augmented triggers around the science laboratory, so when students scan through them, they learn different safety procedures and protocols of the laboratory equipment.
AR has limitless possibilities and can be an extensive part of a child’s learning. A Virtual Reality headset has a student-friendly interface, gesture controls, embedded educational resources and simple-to-use teacher controls. Experiential learning can be simulated, that expands a child’s thinking abilities. Such pedagogies can certainly delink the marks-based assessment from learning. It can destress a child’s psyche and democratise education.
The Discovery channel’s ‘Discovery VR’ provides an immersive and enriching experience through its virtual videos of incredible places of our planet. A child’s learning experience can only enhance with such, without losing the fun of learning. One of the most exciting and challenging events of the current century is education. Technology and hindsight have allowed our minds to fly without shackles. It’s not that we don’t know what the challenges are. Its roots however, lie outside the reach of our schools and colleges. Further, they are bound by educational processes and structures that are difficult to change.
Of course, several challenges like designing a 21st-century curriculum or promoting flexible learning focused on growth or identifying and meeting the needs of slow learning or less endowed children will need to be met. However, VR/AR could be a real game changer, with their costs coming down.