Claudio Lai, President of Implied Motion, a Texas based educational virtual reality and emerging technology company, asks the simple question.
“Can the emerging technologies of Virtual Reality, Augmented & Mixed Reality, and Artificial Intelligence allow educators to create more creative students?”
I have spent more than twenty years in the software development field in Los Angeles and Texas, and another thirteen years producing educational documentaries for PBS. I have created countless documentaries covering all aspects of natural health and self-improvement. I ponder one thing, how will the future of education could look like?
We have all heard the about how Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) may make some jobs obsolete. In fact, ABC TV in Australia created a web page where you can see the percentage of risk different occupations may have of being eliminated once A.I. advances. https://goo.gl/QjEvBe
One thing seems to ring true. Technology is always evolving, just like us. However, technology changes may come faster than some individuals are able to adapt to in the legal, administrative and sales fields.
As much as many may try to resist, technological changes propel us to the inevitable. The drive to increase profits and efficiency force us to make changes.
The inability that some people have to adapt to technological change may eliminate the stability and security of their current job.
We may be comfortable performing the same task over and over or work for the same job or career for most of our lives.
This may be a thing of the past with the implementation of emerging technologies in the workplace.
As a technologist from a very early age, I have always been an early adopter and had a “lean-in” approach to work and life. Having immigrated to three different continents, I consider myself a “global citizen” and have always embraced every experience and opportunity. Because of this, I have always strived to be receptive of what the future of technology may hold, especially in the field of education.
So how could emerging technology allow teachers of the future create a more interconnected and creative classroom?
Virtual Reality (VR) Field Tips
Virtual field trips will never be able to replace the ability for a student to venture into the real world and travel to new places. New exotic destinations which broaden young minds and create awareness of different cultures and historical context.
Students attending VR field trips could “virtually” venture to some of the world’s most culturally significant and hard to get places. VR will allow students to be immersed “live” and in “real-time” anywhere on the planet in an instant!
VR field trips could create empathy for students for places they would not normally see. Imagine being able to be immersed in Syria and see how it might have looked hundreds of years ago utilizing realistic 360/3D animation!
Students could “virtually” walk the streets of Venezuela and gain some perspective of the economic hardships the people of that country are going through today.
VR Field trips can break down cultural barriers created by the impractically of distance, cost and security issues in going to such places.
Educators would have the ability to create lesson plans to teach students about the economic, social challenges and diverse cultures in our world.
Real Time Language Translation
Just as the Universal Translator depicted in the TV Series “Star Trek”, a future language translator could break down all cultural barriers. Today, there are many rudimentary translation tools which can map words from one language to another and translate them in real time.
These translation tools, however, use synthesized voices which are far from sounding like natural speech. These translation programs are literal, with almost no understanding of context, cultural appropriation, meaning or slang.
Future A.I. translation learning algorithms could allow educators to conduct classes to students in their native language without having to learn that student’s language.
You may be able to converse in real time with A.I. voice translators which can adapt and understand nuances in an individual’s speech regardless of their dialect. Students and educators could also talk to others in person or remotely using video, voice or text.
We can create a connected world where singular individuals share information, culture, knowledge and passions.
Environmental Awareness
Educators of the future using immersive visual experiences could create awareness for global environmental issues.
Today, the biggest issue with explain climate change, is that we are so many of us are disconnected from effects of it because of where we live.
We may hear about damaging fires in one part of the world or floods in another. These become temporary sound bites which quickly dissipate as the overwhelming 24-hour news cycles perpetuate.
Unless you travel around the world often and really listen or talk to locals, it is difficult to get the full picture. Educators in the near future could use real time immersive VR technologies to allow students to see first-hand the effects of global warming and climate changes, such as:
– Extreme Flooding and Droughts.
– Deadly Unprecedented Wildfires.
– Potent Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornados and Hurricanes.
– Extreme Cold and Hot temperatures.
Educators could allow students to see the effects of global change as they happen in a collective / global context to create shared awareness of environmental issues. This would make this possible even for those who may live in remote areas and not feel the direct affects. VR could create empathy through awareness of our changing environment for global change.
A.I Cognitive Learning
Future educator’s lesson plans using algorithms in A.I. could adapt to each student’s learning style, strengths and weaknesses. Instead of trying to teach students through one single method, future educators could identify a student’s learning behavior and detect if they are an auditory, kinesthetic or visual learner. This essentially becomes a virtual I.E.P. (Individualized Educational Plan).
Beyond just learning how each student best regains knowledge and adapting a lesson plan to suit that student, A.I. could also be making adjustments to lessons so that some students may progress faster in some topics and slower in others depending on each individual student’s ability to memorize, recall and comprehend information.
Other factors could also be taken into account which could include, what today we consider as learning disabilities, and use them as strengths in teaching. Future curriculums using A.I. catered to the advanced learning capabilities of some individuals with dyslexia. ADD/ADHD and autism.
Automated Lesson Plans and Beyond
The advancement of A.I. in lesson planning and implementation could be completely automated. An educator can spend more “one-on-one” time with each student for a portion of every day. This would optimize each student’s progress in their lessons by giving them the resource to facilitate their own learning process with more independence.
An educator’s role could change from instructor to facilitator or educational liaison.
An automated A.I. lesson plan could:
– Dramatically increase the efficiency on how students are taught and eliminate the need for homework.
– Be able to assess each student in real time and to see how improvements can be made to help that student overcome obstacles or challenges.
– Create a more interconnected classroom where each student can learn from their peers via sharing of ideas, concepts and information.
– Real time tracking of student’s progress to allow immediate adaptation of lesson plans as needed.
– Eliminate the use of restrictive grade levels. Students could be placed in groups depending on age but may dynamically move between different lesson plans depending on their abilities or strengths in different topics or learning behaviors. One student may be five or six grades ahead in math but may be on par with their age in English depending on their individual capabilities and ability to learn that subject.
– Early identification of a student’s skillset and interests and to nurture those through their schooling life.
The future of emerging technologies and education will perhaps have the most profound changes and challenges as much if not more than the skilled workforce will and those in the medical fields.
The number of years students have to attend school could decrease dramatically as education becomes more efficient with A.I. This shorter schooling period could be interspersed with the merging of education and pseudo-work placement and skill-identification.
Future educational collaborations could bring students to be part-time young engineers, philosophers and artists who work in tandem with their lesson plans to provide a balance between the passionate pursuits and having an education.
Implied Motion – will be exhibiting its latest Virtual Reality Cognitive Learning and Scoring Lesson Plan Creator.
EDUTech Sydney, Australia.
https://www.edutech.net.au/ and at the First Annual Emerging Technologies Conference for Students – Sydney IMPACTFest
Claudio Lai
Claudio Lai was born in Rome, Italy and migrated to Sydney, Australia at a young age. He graduated in 1988 from Newington College in Sydney. In 1989, Claudio worked in the News Department for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC-Channel 2) as well as on various independent documentary projects. In 1991 Claudio moved to the U.S. and attended the University of Southern California’s Film School. Over the next few years, Claudio produced and directed numerous documentary projects for (PBS). In 1999 Claudio directed a Television Series for PBS starring Jane Seymour called “Healthy Living.” In the next few years, Claudio was president and CEO of Vertutech, Inc. a technology development company which specialized in creating automated content management systems (CMS) for websites.
In 2007 Claudio started a new company called FluidCast Technologies devoted to the development of a next generation cloud-based content monetization platform and currently is the CEO and president of FluidCast Technologies, LLC, the exclusive licensee of the FluidCast platform technology.
In 2016 Claudio formed multiple new branches of FluidCast Technologies focusing on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies. FluidCast VR is a new virtual reality production and software development company providing camera rentals, VR/AR post-production facilities and white label VR/AR software licensing. Implied Motion is a VR/AR production company providing content for licensing. FluidCast AR/VR studios is a new studio in El Paso, Texas providing state-of-the-art VR/AR studio facilities.
Some of Claudio’s most recent clients include NASA (The Singularity University) and a Hong Kong based Virtual and Augmented reality educational company. Claudio is currently working on educational VR/AR projects which allow viewers to be scored inside VR/AR lesson plans – based on where they look at points of interest in 360 videos.
Claudio has produced numerous videos for Borderplex in El Paso, Texas. He has created a groundbreaking film in virtual reality called “The Wall VR” which was shown on PBS. This film has been shown and won multiple awards around the world including Canada, United States, Spain, United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Recently, Claudio has completed a virtual reality experience for the County of Tulare, California to showcase the effects of schizophrenia. He was also part of the new Universal Television/Apple TV Series reboot of “Amazing Stories” filming scenes with the latest virtual reality cameras.