#COM600.3
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Concluding Post
I lied earlier when I said that the previous post would be the last. This is the final conclusion of my semester’s worth of examining news in relation to the field of VR and education.
I look back towards the first post I made under this Tumblr account and a part of me cringes internally--first, because admittedly while I did keep more informed with up-to-date VR news concerning education, I did not make my updates on my current research and information as regular as I could have. More importantly though, a part of me cringes at my first installment purely because the tone of ambition, of knowing exactly what I was doing and why, feels very contrary to where I stand with my posts today.
The VR scene is currently very different from what I conceived of it originally, especially in regards to education--my sense of knowledge and understanding underwent several iterations throughout the journey of this semester, and while I find that I am just as lost in regards to the future of VR education as I was when I first started out, there are a few parting shots that COM 600 “Trendspotting Digital Media” left with me, which I will impart as follows:
1. What is happening in the present does not constitute a certain trend for the future.
2. Innovation may appear from the questions and challenges no one else is addressing.
3. Always question the certain.
4. Keeping up to date is key.
5. People think they know what they are talking about when it comes to technological trends. In reality everyone is as lost and clueless as I am.
6. Change is key to development--stagnation is the enemy of technological innovation.
7. Just when you think something is only just appearing in the fringes of society, it’s already taken off in the present reality. Speed is constantly doubling.
Overall I found that despite VR education being a different experience than I expected, its growing popularity in the field of academia may still have a longer way to travel as it does with commercial, media and entertainment audiences. Without innovation--without fully addressing the asymmetry between content and curriculum nor the problem of accessibility--VR may not go as far as it could in the classroom experience. This, however, may be my biggest entry point, as a future digital disruptor, as someone with enough knowledge to develop future ideas and possibly unite the converging fields of virtual reality and immersive education.
I leave you, dear reader, with these final words as quoted from Albert Einsten:
Don’t forget to also check out the Newhouse School official website for more news on trends and innovative communication: http://newhouse.syr.edu/
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Video
youtube
The following video demonstrates NASA’s collaboration program with Microsoft Hololens to use mixed reality for conducting for efficient study and exploration of Mars. Among the more notable aspects of NASA’s OnSight Hololens tool is that it maps the surface of Mars and places researchers and the public within a virtual model, allowing astronomers from all over the world to collaborate and study Mars without the full expense of space travel.
The possibilities of mixed and virtual reality are endless when combined with this map technology--it truly demonstrates how the continuous technological progress increases the mobility of the human race, allowing humanity to explore a new frontier within the comfort of their space, and within the expanse of a few decades since the conception of the first awkward virtual reality experiences--furthermore, after several years of attempting to make virtual experiences a social or community endeavor, OnSight serves as a prime example of what we may accomplish in several years, allowing NASA to collaborate with researchers from Russia, China, among other countries all around the world. Imagine the possibilities!
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Introduction
Disclaimer:
This Tumblr account forms part of a research project for the course COM 600.3 “Trendspotting in Digital Media” ( Syracuse University, Newhouse School of Communications). Through this course, I hope to learn to evaluate up-and-coming trends in technology and social media, focusing primarily on the impact they may have on lifestyle, culture and education.
I have two primary goals for this course: the first, that I may keep up-to-date in events happening in the world of media and technology. As someone who hopes to join the career workforce in web design, game development and virtual reality storytelling, it is important that I keep informed in new innovations and marketing opportunities.
In addition, I hope to focus on the changes these new technologies would bring towards the field of education, both in school classrooms as well as other educational institutions. Media and technology have immense potential in changing the way that other generations learn to interpret reality, to problem-solve and innovate, and to participate in society and culture. That said, in the case of many education institutions in the U.S., the ed-tech in use and the methodology of teaching is (in my opinion) far from optimized with the way technologies and the corresponding culture is advancing. It is a passion and area of interest for me to apply focus to trends in technology and innovation that so far have only produced “tremors” in the field of teaching and education, and understand how incorporating them affects student literacy and learning.
About the Creator:
My name is Janice C. Rivera-Pagán (but call me Jan). I am currently enrolled in Syracuse University’s Media and Education Masters program. Prior to attending SU, I earned a BA in English from Kenyon College, and attempted to earn a degree with teaching certification at SU’s School of Education.
I was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The child of medical professionals, I was raised in a household that valued learning above all else, and was often exposed to all sorts of educational media in order to boost my understanding of math, science, and reading. I learned to speak, read and write both English and Spanish fluently. Books and games provided me with an insight to the world that nothing had before, and upon enrolling at Kenyon for my undergraduate degree, I wanted to spread that joy that reading gave me to others. While at Kenyon I served as a Reading and Writing TA, volunteering as a classroom assistant at a nearby elementary school. I specifically enjoyed teaching other bilingual students, and understanding cultural and linguistic differences became an area of research interest. With this experience in hand, I tried my lot at teaching through SU.
What I found during my two student-teaching placements at Syracuse was shocking. Many students within the public school system here live in challenging situations which influence their engagement with the school curriculum. That is understandable in and of itself, until you realize that the response of the schools is to have teachers bear with little to no classrooms resources, engage with a curriculum that hasn’t changed since the 1950′s as is for the most part irrelevant to student experiences, and somehow help students reach a level of literacy that will allow them to pass inaccurate testing created by someone that hasn’t stepped into the classroom since they graduated. Of course students would have no interest in learning when this environment seems foreign to them--it definitely felt foreign to me!
As a result of these experiences, I ended up transferring from my Masters in English Education to the avant garde Media and Education program, in the hopes that I may join the workforce in charge of creating engaging and accessible curriculum content and technologies. Considering the growth of digital media content and technologies, I hope to gain enough knowledge and experience to create web programs, apps, games and other learning tools that can bring immersive and engaging learning opportunities not just to the classroom, but provide the opportunity to learn and experience other languages and cultures.
Prior to attending this program, I had little to no experience in the field of programming and web design. During my undergrad, I took part in a one-year study-abroad experience at Exeter, U,K., which allowed me to take part in a semester-long group project creating a travel website titled “Digital Devon” using Drupal. That project combined several forms of media, including video, photo and web articles of our own creation, to bring together an introductory travel website to the region of Devon combining culture, landscape, and local literature. Upon enrolling in a Children’s and Adolescent Literature course a SU, I also created a project blog through Weebly wherein I reviewed several pieces of Children and YA literature and their potential for teaching in the classroom.
I plan to couple this experience alongside the learning I will do in the following year. I will be combining coursework with external learning to teach myself basic programming in Python, HTML and C++ (not all at the same time, this will take a while!) and will also be learning to create Adobe 360 videos and creating interactive VR experiences using Unity gaming engine.
Our Purpose:
This Tumblr project account will primarily focus on examining and evaluating artifacts concerning possible trends in the field of Virtual Reality. We will be considering emerging career fields, advancements in interactivity, engine, graphics, storytelling, etc., and its possible repercussions on the pogram experience. We will place particular focus on what the effects of these trends would have on modern culture, with emphasis on the fields of education, entertainment, and public service.
Check out these links:
Newhouse School of Education:
http://newhouse.syr.edu
CALitSU Blog on Weebly:
https://jcriveracalitsu.weebly.com/
Digital Devon travel website:
I will add this in post because the website is currently experiencing some server problems.
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