Intro
The theme I chose for my essay is “Discuss an Immersive Technology as an Assistive/ Educational Technology”. Initially, I really wanted to talk about something to do with morality and human behavioural changes in VR. But after coming across this topic, I felt drawn to its possibilities and the responsibilities of implementing VR in an educational curriculum.
There is so much to analyse: Curriculum integration, worldwide distribution, tackling poor communities’ access to VR, establishing limits, etc. And the list only gets more significant when considering various types of education and how they would be affected. For example, University education, school education, driving education, etc.
Since there are almost infinite things I could tackle in this essay, I will keep it as generalised as possible, meaning education, rather than grappling with various sub-themes.
Update – 22nd of February – Theory class
Today we talk about so many things, it was hard to keep up with everything. Amongst those, I resonated a bit with the fashion section. Despoina briefly mentioned the road to sustainability, as well as the digitalisation of fashion.
This could be such an interesting topic! What if, with AR/VR we could give a virtual way for people to express themselves? This means fewer resources would be used to create virtual accessories, for example. Or we could even create things that defy the laws of physics or creatures that don’t exist, used as virtual pets. This could be done by using AR glasses/lenses to simulate this phenomenon in real life. Also, it could be done in VR, by simulating everything, including the person.
Update – Mom – 29th March
I have been talking about this with my mom, and since her original field of study is Education, the conversation naturally flowed towards that theme. I quickly brainstormed some ideas I found important, in Portuguese. I will live a rough translation (probably from google translate) for analysis purposes.
But to summarise, we mainly discussed the implementation of VR as an educational tool and how it could benefit the education of young children. We also briefly mentioned some challenges that could come from this implementation, as well as ways to limit its use for children.
It was a good starting point and gave me some ideas to include in my essay.
Update – 30th April – Papers and Studies
Today I focused on finding relevant papers and articles that I could use for my essay. So basically, it was a research day.
The first article I found was written by Nich Babich and published by Adobe XD Ideas. It was very enticing! It acknowledged many benefits of implementing VR in education and gave me a few ideas on how I could approach similar topics in my work. Also, the author is very thorough when developing each topic and how it could become relevant.
Link: https://xd.adobe.com/ideas/principles/emerging-technology/virtual-reality-will-change-learn-teach/
The second paper I found mentioned VR applications in modern education scenarios and proposed several types of software that could be developed to achieve relevant results that can be used in real life. I found the examples and benefits that they listed very helpful, and the practical application made me think about how my ideas could be developed into real-life projects.
Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8190660/authors#authors
Another study I found tackled poverty in poor communities and the use of technology to help close the current disparity gap. To summarise, this paper demonstrates how relevant IT is nowadays since it gives people in poor communities the chance to connect with the world and get the same platforms to learn and help them change their unfair realities.
This paper is crucial for my “remote learning” point since I intend to this kind of situation to exemplify where VR could be used as a remote learning tool that can even benefit and help impoverished communities. This could be a great tool to give students with fewer opportunities, a chance to learn with great educators, while still having an interactive experience.
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/0735-2166.00089?saml_referrer
Structure Update – 1st May
Today I wrote a rough draft of the structure my essay will follow. I have four main ideas I would like to focus on: 1 – VR as an expansive tool in the classroom, 2 – VR in overcoming the physical world educational obstacles, 3 – Using VR to replace physical tools, and 4 – VR in group work, and VR in remote learning.
I have found a few studies that grapple with some of these issues and how they should be approached. There was one in particular that I found pretty interesting. It was an experience conducted at a university that compared the academic results from students who used VR to study, vs. their colleagues that used written PowerPoints. The results were surprisingly mixed, and it got me thinking about the improvements that have to be made for VR to become something worth implementing in real life. But I do believe this will inevitably happen in the future.
Also, my structure word document is kind of a mess but it was useful for organising my ideas, so it does its job.
Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8446486
Update – 2nd May
I have finished my first draft and I’m quite happy with it. I used Grammarly to correct a few mistakes but other than that, I’d say it’s looking good.
Update – 5th May – Academic Support
Today I had an online academic support session and oh boy was I disappointed I had so much stuff to amend! XD Anyway… I basically did not make enough counterarguments and it felt as if I was selling an idea, without taking into consideration the downsides or challenges that come with it. Also, I had used a study from back in 2002 and the tutor pointed out that this was 20 years ago (damn I felt old :’) ). And this could be viewed as a non-relevant source of information since many years had passed since it was written. I agreed and will start changing some ideas. I appreciate the help and the useful critiques but I felt like the tutor was also reflecting many of his ideas on my essay. Also, he told me to generalise some of my ideas while explaining to me why he disagreed with those points by giving examples that were mostly base on UK events and educational approaches XD (kind of ironic). I found that quite funny and did not think what he said would be worth changing in my essay because otherwise, what is the point of reflecting on this stuff and writing about it? Oh well… Even so, it was pretty helpful, and I do agree that this essay could use some opposing ideas.
Update – 7th May – Counterarguments word
Update – 8th May
I have finished my second draft and I feel way happier with it. It’s so much more balanced and made me reconsider my ideas and do more research on possible issues and solutions. The next step is to review it with another academic support tutor.
Update – 9th May
Today I watched a video lecture from the University of Chicago, given by its director Larry Enerney on how to write effectively. It was so entertaining! To be honest, I expected it to be quite boring, but to my surprise, it was kind of eye-opening. Amongst many points that he makes, there was one that stood out for me, and that was the relevance of who I’m writing for and how important it is to know the reader in a professional environment nowadays. How by knowing the reader, we can learn to change their minds with our writing. And how academic writing is mostly based on rules, as well as the knowledge we create, that is mostly irrelevant to the actual world. That our writing becomes too focused on following rules instead of appealing to the reader, in a professional context, obviously. This brought me back to my academic support session and how the tutor reflected so much of himself and his ideas on what I had written. And it is true. Why should he agree with me? He doesn’t have to agree with me or my ideas. But in this context, they are quite applicable and worth discussing when it comes to this proposal because it is literally the task I am required to do.
Dang it! This sounds like I was pissed off at the tutor, but I am not. I am quite grateful that he resonated so much with him that he had to confront me with his ideas. It means he found it relevant and was taking it seriously. I just think that advice didn’t help me, but I would love to discuss it further, nonetheless.
Update – 10th May – Theory class
Today we tackled game theory in VR and its various applications. For me what stood out more was the use of VR gaming software and principles to create advanced medical training platforms. This connected two ideas I discuss in my essay, replacing physical objects with virtual ones, and finding ways to demonstrate complicated concepts to learners. Neat stuff!
Update – Academic support – 11th May
I went to LCC today to review my essay again and this time it was so much better! The tutor was nice, and we got to meet face-to-face which, in my opinion, makes a huge difference. She focused a lot on my structure as well as my ability to connect opposing ideas, while still conveying my original points. The only things she said I could improve were the conclusion (summarising the ideas before making any final judgements) and the intro (pointing out that I used relevant studies as sources of information for this essay). But I was very content overall and felt a little less of a judgemental look towards this theme.
Final update – 13th May
I am done writing and reviewing the essay and I am very pleased to announce that it’s finally over! I am so tired… the only thing left to do is update the blog and make sure everything is neat and ready for evaluation.
