The fundamentals of learning; and AR
One of the major things which permeates human civilisation and its affiliations with learning, which is actually why we have reached here and why we are now, is change and its implication on us.
Progress is impossible without change… — George B.Shaw
Our growth as an intelligent specie has, unquestionably, been made possible owing to our infatuation with change of any kind and experimenting with its consequences. In all probability, human beings discovered the benefit of fire, which would have been through wildfires, when the fire-effected change in the chemical composition of edible plants/ animal was found to be a scrumptious delight.
This read would present a reflection on what the fundamental drive, i.e., change and its implication on us, actually mean for, dare I say, our collective wisdom, or rather more inherently, education and learning.
Millenniums ago, when we started to create controlled environment for ourselves, known endearingly now as societies and communities, we knew we were letting go, in many ways, of the natural wilderness which had been till then a harbinger of, nay in fact the cause of change itself. We were letting go of our guru.
Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. — Stephen Chbosky
Clearly, the elders knew they needed to create a controlled environment for the purpose of learning as well, known now as schools, colleges, pathshaalas, and ashrams. And that’s what we did. We created such controlled environment for ourselves so that we can try to simulate change as much was feasible and learn out of it. We drafted anthologies and written rumination, detailing the same, since oral traditions couldn’t be effectively transferred to the masses.
Change as we have come to understand and observe is either spatial or temporal. When we drive from the south of India towards the north and reach Himalayas, brazenly defying its cold winds, the change has been spatial and its effect on us make us learn that Himalayas are “as cold as they come”. When we see a “rosebud” blossoming to become a flower in all its glory, the change is temporal and its effect on us makes us learn how plants grow. The anthologies, rumination — ensconced in numerous books — were able to capture the temporal change, and in a befitting way at that. As much were we spending time with books, that much were we able to learn new things.
For around 500 years, from the time printing press revolutionised our civilisation in c. 1440, and a little bit before that time, till early 1900s, we relied enough on temporal mode of leaning. But, Television changed that.
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book .— Groucho Marx
For the first time, spatial change along with temporal was brought into our homes and we revelled in its implications. The TV, was a marvel, a jewel in the crown of human achievement. We didn’t stop there though. Modern computers, and the Internet ushered in a new wave of the democratisation of learning. Now, anyone could create content on anything on earth or beyong, which brethren, sistren could learn a thing or two from. We are lucky to be born in times like these—to have lived in a period of exclusive reliance on books, to move on and gain immensely from the abundance of TVs, YouTube and their ilk.
Nevertheless, we missed out on something. It was bound to happen though. Historically, whenever human civilisation has swerved towards a specific direction, not necessarily though by our own choice, we have ignored all other dimensions, almost completely. Such as, our march towards Industrial Revolution, passed over the environment unreservedly, which nowadays has a fair share of critic and apologists. When we swerved towards advancing automobiles — hatchbacks, sedans, coupe, and several variants, all doing the same thing — public transport was brushed aside for a long time.
We missed out on the implications of change on us. We missed out on consolidating, refining, experimenting, and innovating the heck out of the way we receive spatial and temporal change. We missed out on clarifying, improving and even reinventing our immersion with those change. We missed out on providing an immersive learning.
I believe Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality is bound to change that. The onus though is on us. Technology has been and can always be an enabler—what one wants to do with it defines where one goes from there. The potential of AR/ VR brings along with it, learning on both spatial and temporal front of change. And underlying all of these, which frankly we already are enriched with, is the last but most significant front—immersion.
AR/ VR has the capability to actually simulate the way we used to learn millenniums ago, receiving what nature gave us in all its completeness. This may just prove to be a revolution in education and learning methodologies as also we have come to see from numerous for-profit/ non-profit organisations and their heavy investments into AR/ VR. The technology is yet to become mature though. What we are observing is a flurry of gadgets and applications replicating exactly what was already being offered by televisions, computers and internet. Applications using Augmented Reality are recreating what our kids have already watched on televisions, and YouTube, which to some extent is understandable though unfortunate. The only point of differentiation which comes across, at least to me, is “3D”. Let’s say, I create a 3D animation on the very famous nursery rhyme, “Twinkle Twinkle”, and render it using AR/ VR, how is it, I am not able to figure our, different from full-HD rendering of the same nursery rhyme on my high-tech TV set. It, sadly is not. In fact, this adds to the pain of the user, who could have just as easily and without any physical exertion watched it on videos.
The game-changer is not going to be the replication of the existing content into AR/ VR devices, but a complete reimagining of learning, as we have come to know it. Unless we are actually diving deep into the amalgamation of real-world and virtual-world intersection from the fountainhead of which emerges immersive learning, we are missing out on the real potential behind Augmented Reality.
Unless our kids are literally able to the “reach the stars” rather than just “wondering” about those, in “Twinkle Twinkle”, we are not doing out best.
Peace!
Reach us here.
