It is amazing how far we have come in education and technology. The Mirror Worlds project, “a cutting edge mixed-reality world” (Gautam, 2018) where an “environment to engage participants in authentically situated social and embodied learning activities” (Gautam, 2018) is created and provides users a sense of not just “being there”, but that they believe that they “are actually there.” This introduced to me the word, “Fusality” which is connecting people around the world, real and virtual, in interactive communication. The use of avatars engages them to naturally observed in face to face learning environment, something that is not available in verbal interaction.

 

I was always confused with the concepts, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR), but the 2 articles, Gautam, 2018) and (Alhalabi, 2016) helped to clear my understanding of them. VR creates a fully immersive digital environment that simulates the real world or an imaginary world. AR overlays digital information onto the real world and MR mixes them together. 7 years ago was my first and only experience with VR. The Head Mounted Display(HMD) was heavy on my head, plus it messed with my equilibrium and I became very dizzy. It was not a good experience. I’ve never experienced AR. I have been to several Immersive Art Exhibits, for Van Gogh and Ancient Egypt, and came away amazed.

 

The Immersive displays did not involve wearing a headset or glasses. The immersive learning environment reminds me of the Holodeck room and the visor that Commander La Forge wore on the tv show, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation.’ The Holodeck was a 3D realistic simulation and La Forge’s visor allowed a blind officer to see. I can only imagine what the future holds.

 

The 1st subject/area that I would want to use XR for would be for medical education. This would not just be for future medical students, but for all supporting fields, such as nursing and respiratory therapy. My reason for this comes from my own background as a respiratory therapist. Gray’s Anatomy is a reference book that provides very detailed illustrations of human anatomy, and how all areas of the body functions. XR can not only provide that, but you can observe it, like watching the heartbeat with the blood flowing. Instead of reading how something works, you can observe it, without having to wait for an available surgery to become available.

 

A challenge of XR will be the high costs. The costs would be development and bringing that to the institution to use. Not all places would be able to use it due to the high cost.

 

Another challenge would be like the one I experienced with the headsets: motion sickness, headaches. Latency, which is a problem with cell phones, would also be an issue. I am sure lots of institutions would want to stay with the traditional way of learning, not just because of the expense, but because they resist change.

 

To counter these challenges comes in education and introduction to the technology. Money will always be a factor with any learning institution, but institutions would be able to get grants to help. Improving upon the headsets would help to counter the physical effects. Resistance to change would be to overcome the barriers of why the institution does not want to change. Knowing what those barriers are and countering them begins with education of what is being offered and the benefits to those changes.

 

Gautam, A., Williams, D., Terry, K., Robinson, K., & Newbill, P. (2018). Mirror Worlds: Examining the Affordances of a Next Generation Immersive Learning Environment.

 

Alhalabi, W. (2016). Virtual reality systems enhance students’ achievements in engineering education

 

Gray's Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Practice 41st Edition

 

Roddenberry, G., Hurley, M., Berman, R., Piller, M., Taylor, J. (Executive Producers). (1987-1994). Star Trek: Next Generation [TV Series]. Paramount TelevisionLinks to an external site.