What a great course! I have followed AR/VR for many years (was an early adopter of the ‘Aurasma’ app that is now HP reveal!) and definitely developed a sense of tunnel vision when it comes to how this technology will be deployed. I assumed, partially because I love this type of thing, that it was just a question of time before it was everywhere. With Google cardboard lowering the price point of VR to near zero dollars, I thought it was about to explode. What I did not consider, is that education needs to demonstrate effectiveness, not just flash and fun.

 

Here’s what:

Like many technologies now being tasked with education , VR and AR seem to offer enticing new frontiers of engaging students in ways, and to degrees not possible in the ‘non-virtual’ reality (the real world!). Little is known about what level of presence and realism is best suited to training in general, or specific tasks.

 

Now what:

With learning institutions being saddled with the triple burdens of increasing engagement, lowering costs, and providing measurable learning value, the tools of VR and AR seem to offer a unique solution that can address all three. The problem is, as with any nascent technology, nobody quite knows how to use it, yet the first people who do gain a definite strategic advantage!

So what:

I’m not going to end this on a depressing note, because in teh end, I am confident VR amd AR are spectacular developments and we will see astonishing and unimaginable experiences in and out of education as they begin to be exploited. as a couple examples:

Chemistry concepts, at the atomic level-

Augmented reality (no glasses required) teaching topology:

However…

I think the Gartner Hype cycle is alive and well with VR/AR right now, and the problem with that cycle is you never know where you’re at until it’s plateaued. Are we nearing peak hype? Is all the negativity and discussion surrounding issues like lack of pedagogical models and lack of guidelines for best practice simply signposts of the ‘trough of disillusionment’ or legitimate and possibly insurmountable barriers to adoption?

I speculate that two things will happen, likely in parallel:

  1. Students will again become guinea pigs in experiments conducted in real time under the promise of new and better learning. This promise will have no basis in research, much will fail to deliver.
  2. Academic research will progress to actually learn what works and when.

My concern is that the technologies will be so tarnished by the reputation gained through the first process that by the time the second process offers mature product, VR/AR will have been relegated to the gaming industry. I’m optimistic though, and frankly, I love this stuff!