Nintendo Wii, SecondLife, Virtual Worlds and other virtual reality (VR) systems, increasingly take us into 3D fantasy and reality. All are popular monuments to the powerful and innovative skills of computer geniuses. So why haven't we taken the best of all of this and sent it to school? Well, we are. There is extensive research being conducted to increase the role of VR systems in research, business and education environments. In this regard, our position is that VR education systems need greater attention and development. Why?
Direct visualization and interactive participation take the student beyond the humdrum and into experiential learning. So, are we advocating replacing teachers with avatars? Absolutely not, we are talking about virtual partners for teachers that dramatically expand their reach with their students. For the students we are talking about using their high interest in gaming technology and turning them toward educational topics. Topics that are presented in an exciting, challenging and engaging way.
A landmark effort in this regard is being carried out by ActiveWorlds.com, Harvard University and Arizona State University. Additionally, 12 states and their students and teachers have participated in the research to introduce virtual reality based instruction.This program is the The River City Project. At the professional level, institutions such as Penn State/Hershey Medical Center use virtual reality modules to instruct professionals in medical techniques.
The ground has been broken, and now we must begin a major evolution in both primary and secondary education by adding direct virtual reality systems with learning modules as a standard in all public and private schools. Considering the difficult time in developing standardized education across the nation, moving to this next step will be extremely challenging and initially very costly. The price, however, is quite small when compared to the immense gains in educational curricula and student progress.
For this presentation we submit our generalized model of the ideal VR system for the school. Unlike the cache based system developed by Active Worlds, we support the full streaming design. We acknowledge this is more demanding, but we are doing it within individualized, closed system networks for each school system. By school system we are talking about the schools in each school district. Statewide systems are too prone to a variety of problems that make effective employment of the system on a daily basis impractical. At the most the VR server and support system would be designed to be only district wide. This in itself will be quite demanding in both design and cost.
Each classroom and each student desk will be equipped with visual, interactive access to specific VR learning modules. These modules are stored within a central system library and can be individually accessed by a student. The system, therefore, allows students within a given class to be accessing different VR learning modules. This is essential to fully support an overall curriculum designed to take full advantage of VR learning.
These programs are planned to be available from the 3rd grade on. Additionally, K through 2nd grade students will receive active training and demonstration in VR systems so that they are ready to use the system when they enter the 3rd grade. Each of these students will also be helped to create their individual avatars which will be permanent for their entire school term. They have the option to change avatars at the beginning of each new grade. This recognizes changes in student maturity and interests and lets them express it in their avatar creations. That's right each student specifically designs their avatar to reflect who they are. They learn the value of uniqueness within a social setting.
The virtual reality systems do not dictate the curriculum. They will be designed to extend and amplify the curriculum and in many instances provide enhanced learning for those students who are having difficulty absorbing or visualizing the subject matter. This will be true for both the sciences and the arts (English, History, Art, etc.). Class schedules will be adjusted to allow the utilization of VR learning and it is expected that this will completely change the structure of the day to day education schedule. We regard this as a vital and important part of our vision of an evolution in human education.
The introduction of VR learning will produce an explosion of computer programming and graphic talents. This is what we consider to be a spectacular benefit of this evolution. It is extending technology deeper into everyday lives in a highly productive and supportive manner. Additionally, it is expected that we will see a transition of youngster fascination, almost addiction from distractive gaming to highly engaging and challenging VR experiences. These are experiences that are expected to be formative and to remain active in the youngsters' memories and personalities.
Yes, we are way out on the edge in this area, but we believe it is a leading edge. It is one that is vital for humankind to evolve and prepare for a host of new challenges here on Earth and within our galaxy and the universe. If we fail, we become, as we have opined before, another lost civilization within this glorious place we call universe.
CREDITS:
Cybertown Image courtesy of Cybertown.com and Creative Commons permission.
