Extended Reality for Education

Introduction

So, you want to help me building the future of education? Then get ready and buckle up while you read on (if you prefer not to read you can also watch me pitching this idea here). Make sure you also check out the articles on XR and AR/VR.

Lots of people think of a dystopian idea, when they read Ready Player One or Snowcrash. Zuckerberg (Meta/Facebook) announcing to shape the Metaverse (as described in Snowcrash) did not distract from these scary thoughts. However, when I read Ready Player Two, I also was reminded of a lot of things that I liked in both books. I

Ready Player One Quote:

Unlike their real-world counterparts, most of the OASIS public school teachers seem to genuinely enjoy their job, probably ... [Ready Player One, book]

Dystopian for me is mainly the current state of our education. Propelled by the pandemic endorsed death-by-power point knowledge delivery (and horrible boring lectures), it has given legitimacy to a completely lecture driven single fighter focused (meaning no interaction and teams) purely knowledge based way of learning. It also endorses multiple choice based assessment with a focus on just teaching students skills to short cut and minimize their work in engaging with these classes. Students (especially in the computer science discipline) embrace of course the possibility to reduce their studies to a 10 per cent load and taking on a highly thought after offer in the programming domain. Teaching in these times for caring teachers is just a nightmare, so reading of resurgence of joy in teaching was of course intriguing.

Another quote that made me think:

When Ogden and Kira retired to their home in Oregon they created a non-profit organization called Halcydonia Interactive. This company was created to make free adventure games for kids, these games also taught kids math and English. [Ready Player One, book]

As an open source enthusiast and having worked with disadvantaged communities all over the world, the element of free access to basic education (like also spearheaded by the Khan Academy and today countless free classes on YouTube), seems to be very important for education in itself. So, if we build new education for the Metaverse, it should be freely available and accessible from all levels of society. That does not only imply free software, frameworks, and development environments, but also access to Internet and Hardware, leading to my next inspiring quote:

The Halliday Learning Foundation also provided impoverished children around the globe with free OASIS hardware and Internet access so that they could attend school inside the OASIS. [Ready Player One, book]

Yes, somehow internet and hardware should be affordable for everyone. The Oculus (now Meta) Quest 2 is offered today at a price that is below the cost of One Laptop Per Child and is in-spite of a global chip-shortage available. Couldn't a new non-profit organization achieve based on Hardware like the Meta Quest 2 some of the goals like the one One Laptop Per Child initially set out to do?

So what are we waiting for? Join me to build the education of the future. Let's create education that is free for everyone, based on a foundation like creating a Khan Academy in XR. Of course it means that anyone needs and affordable XR headset like the Meta Quest 2and decent internet connection. Propelled

We need to build a framework that allows content that is fun and engaging for learners, teachers, and developers. Each of the role needs to be respected and anyone partaking in such a system needs to be able to take on each of these roles.

This means, we urgently need a framework to easily develop new content. This needs to be stand-alone and interactive, use free and open source tools (Unity might be no, no), and international and intercultural. A nice Bonus would be that it would work even during pandemics.

One of our colleagues at University of Tartu is already building a commercial trial in this realm and I encourage everybody to check them out: Futuclass I am looking forward to learn from and influence their success and hope to build a foundation that is mutually beneficial for them and the foundation.

Let's build a foundation and framework in XR together, the Digitial Twin of education: xr4ed

Presentations

Here you see me talk about these ideas in person:

References

  • https://arpost.co/2021/09/07/xr-education-in-2021/, last visited 2022/01/05

  • https://www.techrepublic.com/article/infographic-the-history-of-ar-and-vr-and-what-the-future-holds/, last visited 2022/01/05

  • Other notable academic references from a recent student seminar paper (Author: Masud Rana):

    • Sushanta Mohan Rakshit, Subharthi Banerjee, Michael Hempel, Hamid Sharif "Fusion of VR and Teleoperation for Innovative Near- Presence Laboratory Experience in Engineering Education."

    • Shih-Yeh Chen, Chao-Yueh Hung, Yao-Chung Chang, Yu-Shan Lin, Ying-Hsun Lai "A Study on Integrating Augmented Reality Technology and Game-based Learning Model to Improve Motivation and Effectiveness of Learning English Vocabulary"

    • J.T. Preethy Shirley1 and S. Malathi2 "A Preview of Augmented Reality as Pioneering Method in Education"

    • Ahmed A. H. Alkurdi "Augmented Reality Electric Circuit Experiment"

    • Anna Gardeli, Spyros Vosinakis "ARQuest: A Tangible Augmented Reality Approach to Developing Computational Thinking Skill"

    • Sophia C. Steinhaeusser, Anna Riedmann, Max Hallery, Sebastian Oberdörfer, Kristina Bucher and Marc Erich Latoschik "Fancy Fruits - An Augmented Reality Application for Special Needs Education"

    • Samuel J. Bryan, Ass. Prof. Abraham Campbell, Assoc. Prof. Eleni Mangina "Scenic Spheres – An AR/VR Educational Game"

    • Nuraliyev Faxriddin Murodillayevich, Ulugbek Giyosov Eshpulatovich, Jiyanov Oybek Pardaboyevich "Integration of virtual reality and 3D modeling use of environments in education."

    • Dan Chia-Tien Lo, Kai Qian, Gang Quan, Liang Hong "Work in Progress: Enhance CS/CE Student Learning in Computer Architecture and Organization through a Remote Instrument Control Lab with Mixed Reality"

    • M. Travassos Valdez, C. Machado Ferreira , F. P. Maciel Barbosa “Distance Education Using a Desktop Virtual Reality (VR) System”

    • Andreas Dengel "Seeking the Treasures of Theoretical Computer Science Education: Towards Educational Virtual Reality for the Visualization of Finite State Machines"

    • Nikitha Kommera, Faisal Kaleem, Syed Mubashir Shah Harooni "Smart Augmented Reality Glasses in Cybersecurity and Forensic Education"

    • Per Anders Løvsletten, Linda Kiønig, Tone Vold "Using AR in Higher Education – suggested use in the Real Estate Agency Study Program."

    • DanSharad Sharma, Stephen Otunba "Collaborative Virtual Environment to study Aircraft Evacuation for Training and Education."

    • Claudia Susie C. Rodrigues "VisAr3D: An Approach to Software Architecture Teaching Based on Virtual and Augmented Reality"

    • Yi (Joy) Li, Cody Ducleroir†, Tyler Ian Stollman, Elena Wood "Parkinson's Disease Simulation in Virtual Reality for Empathy Training in Medical Education."