Notes on “Augmenting Education”

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VR gear at a Facebook event in 2015

I have a recurring vision of a dilapidated 19th century classroom full of children with VR goggles strapped to their heads. It’s worth considering why this could be both a nightmarish vision and a reasonable, near-term goal for anyone who cares about public education…

Here is a brief sketch of an outline I can imagine using to undertake the task:

Immersive-to-augmented Reality Versus Virtual Reality: What path is best for education?

  • Examples
  • Define “Immersive-to-augmented”

Ways to analyze:

  • What past is most open to collaboration (and at different “levels”)?
  • What is most compelling? (Does our hunch about virtual prove lacking?)

After initial case for “augmented” is made:

  • What makes AR better for education (i.e, collaborative)?
  • What makes AR more compelling? (i.e., examples of extreme fun)
  • When is VR useful? (i.e., cheaper? more accessible?)

Visions for Education

  • Enlarged and Narrowed

I might call the resulting essay:

Augmenting Education: Comparing Two Paths for Immersive Educational Experience