I have always felt like I was lucky when it came to education. As a young boy, I found myself ahead of my classes for the most part, but often would find myself bored with the classes but not the material. Back in the day I was considered somewhat of a problem child and today I would probably be diagnosed as having ADD just due to the lack of attention I would give to a teacher. I learned very little sitting in that kidney shaped desk with years of gum stuck to the underside and one leg that was too short, but once I was out of that chair/desk contraption, the world became my oyster.
If you are like me, oysters are not your thing, but none of us would turn down a valuable pearl if one presented itself! The saying “the world is my oyster” is actually a mis-quote from Shakespeare’s written statement “The world’s mine oyster” which was spoken by a character named Pistol in “The Herry Wives of Windsor”.
Pistol, who is seeking money, makes the statement “The world’ mine oyster” and follows the saying with “”Which I with sword will open”.
I learned from a very young age that the world was rich with all that I could ever want, but it was going to take a little prying to get at it.
I loved my teachers, don’t get me wrong, but they were bringing old-school techniques to a young mind that was racing into the future and questioning everything. I wanted to touch. I wanted to smell. I wanted to experience. I loved field trips to the museum because the stuff I was learning about was actually there and real. To this day I remember vividly those trips to the museum and although I was an avid reader as a youngster, I cannot remember a single book but can recall every trip to the museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago.
I remember vacations as well. My family was not like other families and we never went to a resort or rented a condo so we could surf at the beach. My father was into early American history and so he painstakingly planned our vacations a year in advance. This planning was all done with magic markers and maps.
Each year my father claimed 30 days for vacation. About ten of those days were spent visiting relatives such as my Uncle Art in Florida or my cousins in Pennsylvania, but the rest of that magical month was spent traveling back roads and getting lost in search of historical markers, covered bridges, old forts, battlefields and even houses that once belonged to some civil war hero (and it did not matter which side).
There was a down side to these trips as I was stuck with my siblings in the back of the truck or van for countless hours, but I still can remember that rush of stepping out of the vehicle onto ground that had once been the scene of something grand and historic. I suddenly felt like I was a part of American history as I walked along the fence lines of Gettysburg; fences I had seen only in books. I remember touring mansions and touching desks that had once held papers that forged our country. I could feel the energy, the adrenaline, the fear, the excitement and the passion of these people that had been there 200 years earlier. I could feel myself becoming a part of their world and thus I grew to understand my current world so much better.
Today as I have watched Confederate statues torn down I am saddened as I remember standing by those statues and learned about the plight of the negro population while learning about the greed of the plantation owner. I remember standing on the decks of battleships from which thousands of missiles were launched in attempts to annihilate our nations enemies. I remember learning of scandals and heroism, failures and victories. I grew up understanding America and where we all came from and where we were originally (and supposedly) to be heading.
This may seem like a lot of information to jam into one little kid’s brain, but there was even more data that was downloaded because after each visit to each historical location, my parents would buy me books about where we had been and I read them until the page were worn/ My attraction to these books was because I had already lived in them. I had already spent time in a log cabin once inhabited by Abraham Lincoln. The books came alive for me because all I had to do was recall the feel and smell of that box-like structure with the tiny brass lock, close my eyes and hear the men talk as they signed our Declaration of Independence. I could recall the sounds that horses made on the streets of Boston as they clip-clopped by.
I share all of this not just to reminisce, but to address something that excites me more than anything in my entire career and that is the deep dive I have taken into the world of immersive training methods utilizing VR technology.
Now, late in life and much closer to the end of my career than the beginning, I am finally living my dreams; especially the old ones. Few ever get to return to their childhood memories and so I know I am blessed. Everyday, as I create extended reality immersive training curriculum, I know that I am giving new students and old students alike the same experience my father gave me on those “learning vacations” and I am offering the same experiences I had walking the halls of those museums, mansions, battlefields and plantations.
Immersive learning trends are actively transforming the future of education. Extended reality, the metaverse, and AI are paving the way to a future where training sessions and classes aren’t just more engaging, they’re also more impactful and efficient.
In fact, with virtual reality alone, companies can create training and development initiatives that are 52% more cost-effective and drive four times more focus from students. As the elements that power immersive learning strategies continue to evolve, new trends are emerging that could make these educational experiences even more valuable in the years ahead
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For over two decades I have specialized in creating real-life full-scale exercise experiences for response agencies -something that brought subject matter to life and even beyond. It was frustrating to create these massive events and have them last one or two days for a limited audience.
I am now living in a new and exciting era as my father’s vacations become how teachers and instructors inspire and impart. Finally I can reach the masses with full-scale exercises that are unrivaled and take the students into the place, into the moment, into the passion, into the energy and into a new world of discovery. Now, within the invisible walls of technology, I can create trainings that leave students, hungry, sick, tired, excited, exhausted, and challenged. No longer will they have to attempt to recall a chapter in a book but rather they will only need to open their eyes and remember being there, doing it before, watching it happen.
As we enter the new year, there are instructors, universities, colleges, schools, corporations and agencies making new resolutions to involve more of this technology into their trainings, lessons and even even on-boardings. Here are just some of the most significant immersive learning trends you will be seeing in 2024:
1. New Hardware Will Make The Trend Easier
Immersive learning experiences don’t have to include access to extended reality headsets and smart glasses. It’s possible to immerse employees and students in a learning experience using something as simple as 360-degree video or an AR app on a smartphone. I recently taught a group of EMS students with a projector and large screen to bring them into a disaster zone!
With that said, the new stuff is awfully cool. Intuitive headsets and accompanying devices can make the learning experience even more memorable. New evolutions in smart glasses and mixed reality headsets can already be seen in Christmas ads around the world and we will see much more of this tech that allows for more interaction between instructor and class as well as between students.
Additionally, advancements in accompanying technologies, such as haptic gloves and body suits, can take training simulations in VR to the next level. They can allow users to feel what it’s like to interact with specific tools, opening the door for new muscle memories. I expect that within five years these tools will start to present themselves as the “norm”.
2. Lower Costs
In the past, many companies have struggled to take advantage of the latest immersive learning trends. Organizations struggled to access the developer knowledge and expertise needed to build immersive experiences. Fortunately, in recent years, this has begun to change.
Innovators in the immersive learning landscape such as VirtuSafe are now able to provide better services and end-user-products for less while maintaining profit margins themselves (something the drone industry still struggles with!).
Companies, agencies and educational institutions can now access tools offering low-code and no-code visual builders and pre-designed building blocks for immersive classrooms. As a result, smaller companies can now build unique educational environments without spending a fortune on developer expertise.
Because of these lower costs, you can work with VirtuSafe to access flexible, immersive environments on a pay-as-you-go basis, reducing overall costs.
3. Advanced Artificial Intelligence
One of the most significant immersive learning trends we’ve seen in the last year or so comes from the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. While still controversial and unpredictable, AI technologies are often used in the development of immersive experiences. They allow headsets and software to tap into capabilities like natural language processing and computer vision, powering interactive, spatial experiences. I expect over the next three years AI will continue to dominate the marketplace and the news media but that we will also see regulations and restrictions added to the mix that may make for a few tumultuous years.
4. Increased Collaboration
For many years, innovators and researches held the AI and immersive tech to themselves as it was developed. In expectation of the competitive market that this tech would create, many of us watched as the military and healthcare markets ran with the tech but little was made available to the general public as a whole. Like in the UAV (drone) industry, there were many aspects that had to be developed to make the tech more user friendly and easier to access.
I liken this phenomena to Edison with his single light bulb. As he showed it more and more, few dared to try to create it, but there were visionaries designing lamps that would hold the bulb. While that is not historically accurate, it is a good way of explaining how tech development works. Virtual Reality has been used for over 30 years but we had few lamps and the lamps we had were expensive.
I believe this year we will see more partnerships and more packaging of different elements of this tech than we have seen in the past. We are already seeing these partnerships developing rapidly here at VirtuSafe and it is a sign that we will have more to offer than ever before by the end of 2024.
It is not new for my blog posts to be predictive (if you follow my other blogs), but there are few times that I am as excited as I am about this particular forecast. As smart glasses are flying off the shelves over the Christmas Holiday becoming one of the top gifts of the year, I can only wonder what else the future holds as we boldly go where no man has gone before.
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