The way we learn
I hope the way students learn in the future is much different from the way I learned — both inside and outside the classroom. To be clear, I went to an amazing high school and had great teachers. But the way I was taught in school was through text books, hand-written notes and NO cell phones. And when I wasn’t in a classroom or doing homework for a class, I usually wasn’t spending time on ‘educational activities’. But this should not be true for young people in today’s world. There are too many resources at the tips of our fingers (literally) that it would be silly to ignore them.
A few months ago, I wrote a post about Quizlet, the education startup. Quizlet is one obvious example of a company that makes learning more accessible and approachable for young people. On their website, they describe themselves as ‘designed for the digital age’ and using ‘new mobile and audio technologies’ to create educational games. Through the gamification of learning, Quizlet maintains a loyal user base and ranks among the top 50 most visited websites in the US, according to Quantcast. But Quizlet is definitely not the only education company that’s making games designed for the digital age. WordsU integrates new vocabulary into an everyday activity — texting — by suggesting synonyms to users as they’re texting. And Microsoft recently announced it’s acquisition of MinecraftEdu, which allows teachers to use Minecraft in the classroom and provides different courses and activities for a range of subjects, including STEM, history, language and art.
Even very young children, not yet old enough to go to school or own their own cell phone, are impacted by this mobile revolution. More and more parents are turning to tablets and smartphones to entertain and teach their kids. WriteReader is an example. The company is an app that teaches children ages 3–10 how to read and write by publishing digital books of their own.
Unlike the proliferation of mobile apps, VR is still in nascent stages but could have a similarly-sized impact on education in the next few years. In fact, just in the past 4 years, VR startups have raised more than $1.5 billion in venture capital. There are a few companies that are beginning to pull ahead in the education space and offering schools bundles complete with curricula, training and technological tools to support VR-based instruction. So far, the focus of these VR education companies (e.g. Alchemy VR, Immersive VR Education and zSpace) is around STEM. Certainly VR initiatives will spring up soon around other disciplines, like history (imagine “attending” the signing of the Declaration of Independence!) or art (imagine walking around Picasso’s studio!).
Another way VR can help students is through navigating different career paths. In fact, this is already happening today. Soledad O’Brien, the American broadcast journalist, recently took 10 ISTE attendees on a virtual tour of a career in veterinary surgery using Google Cardboard, a bare-bones virtual-reality experience, and paper-based VR goggles and smartphones.
Despite all these exciting advancements, there are a few roadblocks — namely whether school districts will be able to afford the cost of these technology trends and/or want to use them in their classrooms. I’m confident, however, that in the next few years, as the cost of connecting continues to decrease and VR companies figure out how to lower the hardware costs, we’ll see broader adoption of these technology trends both in and out of the classroom. And the way we learn will drastically change from how it has ever been before.
