The Edtech trend that I want to discuss is immersive learning. Immersive learning requires educators and students to use multi-media and especially the virtual reality and augmented reality tools in education. I am not very familiar with VR, but for this reflection, I interviewed my uncle, who is currently working in Microsoft, and he was in the developing team of HoloLens (see below video that my uncle showed me).
This really opens my eyes because I never imagine that I could use VR and AR in my own learning. My uncle says that Hololens has already been used by students in medical school, this VR tool allows medical students to see the human body in a way that they haven’t been able to see it. It’s really hard for students to learn the actual body structure from the anatomy book, so Hololens can really show the students how the brain process information, how the heart and lungs move. I got excited just listening to my uncle’s explanation of this technology, not to say if I were given the opportunity to use it.
I found this video of using Hololens for collaboration:
This video transformed my perspective on collaboration. We don’t know when will our pandemic end, and it is starting to become really depressing to not be able to see ‘real person’ in our online classrooms. If we use this technology, the disadvantage of “no in-person communication” in E-learning can be eliminated. As we have seen in the UDL guidelines, there’s a focus on multiple means of engagement, representation and action&expression, VR/AR would certainly help students to achieve these aims.
However, there are limitations to using AR and VR in online classrooms, one of which is the cost. The cost for Hololens is between $3500-$4900, it is certainly a price that most of us cannot afford. In a way, I think that when technology opens up numeral possibilities, it also brings many challenges, we know the benefits of Hololens, but we cannot deny that the hard process of integrating Hololens or other VR/AR technology in our classroom.
But again, I don’t think VR/AR technology will continue to be inaccessible for most students in the future. Take E-learning as an example, initially, we are all thinking that E-learning is going to be expensive, according to Weller (2020): “as Noam (1995) put it, ‘a curriculum, once created, could be offered electronically not just to hundreds of students nearby but to tens of thousands around the world'(p. 249). However, this idea, which simultaneously caused dismay amongst academics and delight amongst those who fund education, failed to fully appreciate the costs involved in education and, in particular, the difference between fixed and variable costs in course production and delivery” (Weller, 2020). Now, there are many MOOCs that are free and accessible and many Open Education Resource websites such as Media Smarts, B.C campus Open Education Resources, and so on.
The future for immersive learning is not gloomy, at least in my perspective. Seeing Hololens has already been used by some education programs further convinced me that we could someday step into VR/AR lead education. The problem is how we could drive the price down in the future, and integrate them into the teaching content. For example, in Weller (2020)’s book, there’s a discussion of AI and the problem that educators face when trying to integrate AI in the classroom, which resembles the issues that we might face in trying to realize immersive learning: “In an analysis of AI in education, Roll and Wylie (2016) identified several trends since its early implementation, including an increase in the empirical evaluation of tools. This is another universal trend in ed-tech — early research tends to focus on potential and possibility, but gradually more critical perspectives are brought to bear, and the need for reliable evidence becomes prominent” (Weller, 2020). I think we are always going to face these issues if we try to make good use of technology that could advance our learning.
References:
Cast Organization (2021). The UDL guidelines. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
Weller, M. (2020). Chapter 23–The return of artificial intelligence. Retrieved from https://read.aupress.ca/read/25-years-of-ed-tech/section/6e94dd71-9c44-434d-9673-e7780c94fe3d#ch23
Weller,M. (2020). Chapter 6–E learning. Retrieved from https://read.aupress.ca/read/25-years-of-ed-tech/section/2f403890-5fb5-431a-baf8-876144a4656d#ch06
