Abhinand Chincholi, President & CEO of OneOrigin Inc.
As the full potential of technology is continuously unfolding and students today are more attracted to using technology, institutions that accept and encourage such use in the classroom can boost student creativity and inspire new ideas. Recent advances in technology, such as extended reality, can give students in various disciplines more opportunities to expand and grow their creativity and innovation in education in new and different ways.
Using these technologies can help students as well as teachers to think outside the box and into a new, interdisciplinary mode. Incorporating new tech into the classroom rather than resisting it is essential for inspiration and can contribute greatly in the long run.
The tools of the teaching/learning method have changed dramatically over the years. From overhead projectors and blackboards to SMART boards, computers and tablets, the devices used for teaching and learning are changing as new technologies are being developed.
Extended reality technologies can provide a new way of solving some of the problems of conventional education and can be more effective for teacher-centered teaching as opposed to the traditional way of teaching through lectures and presentations on a screen or paper. Implementing virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) technologies in the classroom can give students exciting and new experiences they won’t soon forget.
VR and AR lessons designed for students of all ages can help increase classroom engagement and improve comprehension. By delivering engaging graphics, 360-degree experiences, simulations and more, students can understand concepts by experiencing rather than just reading as they immerse themselves in lessons.
While the world of VR and AR is not new, the technologies have mostly been functional in the creative and gaming industries. However, they can serve the education sector (as well as other industries) with a different spin. AR’s ability to superimpose virtual enhancements on real-world objects and MR’s ability to simplify complex concepts or theories without the use of such intricate in-house machinery can be extremely useful in the education sector. In complex fields such as aerospace engineering, extended reality technologies can enable 3D models to be developed for students to explore and learn in-depth, as they are able to dismantle parts of airplanes and interact with them using their own hands or even stop the airplane to understand its aerodynamics.
How The Education Sector Can Get Started With Extended Reality
While incorporating extended reality into the educational setting might seem daunting at first, getting started requires just a bit of exploration.
1. Analyze different topics where students need firm foundational learning. You can also look into the latest learning techniques and methods for students to make their learning possible.
2. Understand and describe the complexity of each topic as well as the type of experience that would add value. Think about how this technology could help provide a more customized and personalized learning experience for each student.
3. Define and establish milestones for understanding each topic and define the assessment criteria for each experience.
4. Provide the necessary KT to your extended reality team to develop the experience. The experiences should focus on creating immersive and interactive lessons for students that encourage more engagement as well as collaboration.
Not only can these extended reality projects show the potential possibilities of such technology, but they can also help extended reality be seen as a tool that can change the face of education in the near future. I believe the possibilities of using extended reality in the education sector are endless, as the technology can open students up to being a part of a new dimension and allow their inspiration to take on a whole new meaning.
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