Virtual Reality (VR) is an expanding market with limitless potential. Because the world of VR is so easily adaptable, there are many things that can be done with it. I personally believe that Virtual Reality is the key to a more bright and educated future. While VR has progressed far enough to allow researchers to explore the world in real-time, this sort of experience is mostly for the wealthy, and more educated citizens in our society. My Virtual Reality application seeks to change that, and bring the excitement of learning about our world to a younger audience.
My application is called Biosphere, and is a virtual zoo – without the cages. It will allow elementary and middle school aged children to really interact with animals, and explore their natural surroundings. In the game, the player will take on the role of a researcher, who has been tasked to explore a specific region and document three to four different species within a limit of five minutes. The player will use stimulated motion controls to move around the landscape, and they are able to turn their head to look around. Once the player has found the selected animal, their “field journal” will automatically be updated with factual information about that animal, which includes their zoological species name, and a random assortment of interesting facts that children are likely to find interesting. After the player has found all of the animals, or after the time has run out, the player will be taken back to a standard research lab, where they are then able to view the animals that they’ve observed. The field journal is also accessible from this screen, and players are able to see all of the animals that they’ve collected from this region. This adds a lot of replayability to the game, and is sort of like Pokemon, in the sense that you must “collect them all”.
I’d really like to reiterate the point that this application is designed for children, and is designed to get them interested in learning. Every aspect of this game has been carefully thought over to bring a fun and educational experience to children. Children are the future, quite literally, and if we can form a strong bond to education, we could improve the educational system as a whole and make a brighter future.
When most people think of Virtual Reality, they imagine a futuristic scene, in which every aspect of life has been highly modernized. What they fail to recognize, is that Virtual Reality is a present-day concept, and while it may not be readily available for all people, it certainly is a thing that exists. Virtual reality has been a fast-growing market as of late, with many companies trying to pile onto the metaphorical bandwagon and market VR to the public.While Virtual Reality is primarily an entertainment-based market, some companies, such as the New York Times and Google, have shifted their focus towards the educational side of Virtual Reality. With virtual video games, the average person can go on adventures and explore the world. Why can’t this concept be translated into educational value? Instead of learning about history, Virtual Reality would make it possible to experience history. One of the main problems with history classes is that students don’t feel connection to what they’re learning. With Virtual Reality, this problem could be solved easily. Students would be able to really and truly experience events, and connect with those who are affected by them, and form a genuine bond with the subject matter.
And that is only one possibility. VR has such a high educational value, and it would be a monumental mishap to let such an opportunity slip through our fingers. VR, if implemented correctly into the educational system, will have a huge impact on education, and can change the way that schools are run forever.
VR is still in its early stages, and the media is quick to report every single happenstance the moment it comes out: new gear, new games, new concepts and possibilities. While most Virtual Reality is for entertainment purposes, there have been major breakthroughs with Virtual Reality and education. As mentioned before, Google and the New York Times have teamed up to create the Google Cardboard, a portable VR device that allows you to experience the world of VR. Or rather, the world in VR. With the Google Cardboard and the NYT VR app, you are able to travel around the world and experience it in ways that you would likely be unable to otherwise. One of the most striking experiences that I myself had, was with the NYT VR app. I was watching The Click Effect, a short film about a group of researchers that interact with dolphins, hoping to crack their speech pattern “code”. Of course, the research was mind-blowing. But I was more astounded by the fact that I was able to experience everything that the researchers saw. I could see the dolphins, as well as the rest of the ocean, in 360 degrees. I could hear their clicking and know which direction it was coming from. It was truly a euphoric experience. Possibilities flooded into my head immediately. Not much about the ocean is known; we know more about our surroundings in space than we do the depths of the ocean on our own planet. If I am able to swim in the ocean while sitting on my living room couch, then researchers can most definitely use this technology to map the ocean in real-time. And even further, students can absolutely use this technology in the classroom to truly experience what they are learning about. My psychology teacher in high school had always told me that experiential learning was best, and I have taken this belief to heart.
However, I am not the only one who feels this way about the educational aspect of Virtual Reality. In all honesty, I’m late to the virtual party here. Much like the New York Times, a famous director by the name of Christopher Milk also seeks to use VRas an educational enhancement. In his TEDTalk, The Empathy Machine, he mentions his short film, Clouds Over Sidra, the story of a young girl living in a Syrian refugee camp. But why is this striking? Why should we care? There have been countless documentaries, and countless news stories about the lives of Syrian refugees. Why is this one any different? In the words of Christopher Milk himself, “You empathize with her in a deeper way.” (Milk “The Empathy Machine”).
When you have the Virtual Reality headset on, you are experiencing everything as if you are right there with her. You experience the same things that she does. I had mentioned earlier that one of the main problems with history classes in schools is that students fail to connect with what they’re learning about, and if VR was implemented in classes, it would solve that problem immediately. Christopher Milk, in his TEDTalk presentation, has affirmed that. At the World Economic Forum, Milk presented his short film to the attendees. In his TEDTalk, he had this to say,“And these are people who might not otherwise be sitting in a tent in a refugee camp in Jordan. But in January, one afternoon in Switzerland, they suddenly all found themselves there. And they were affected by it.” (Milk “The Empathy Machine”).
To me, that said more about the endless possibilities of VR than it did the VR itself. Truly, Virtual Reality can change the world. As naive as that statement is, I very deeply feel this to be true. In this day and age, it’s hard to find genuine human compassion and empathy. To see policymakers and politicians, people who can affect the lives of everyone else, really experiencing and actively empathizing with those in need is an awe-inspiring experience. I feel that, if this technology were broadened and strengthened, it will bring us closer together as humans.
And while I’m imagining the future, I can actively see a world in which education and VR are synonymous. They will go hand-in-hand with each other. With virtual education, students will be able to learn more about their subjects than they ever were before. And maybe…just maybe…students will actually like going to school. Students will wake up and feel excited, and wonder what virtual adventure they’ll be going on next. And they’ll want more.
It would be so magical to see that, because of Virtual Reality, students will be actively engaged in their studies, and will want even more knowledge. Our society would be able to progress so much if this were to happen!
But of course…it’s only an if.
It’s not entirely out of reach, though. In order to make all of this, plus more, possible in the future, we need to do something now, before the trend of VR falls through. All of these concepts can be established in our lifetime, if we are careful with it. The educational system needs to take careful steps to ensure that classrooms across America will be able to use Virtual Reality, or at least have a VR setup in their school. This may be tricky, and may take some time, but with the future of the world potentially riding on a two-letter abbreviation, I am confident that it will be worth it.
My character is based off of Trevor Belmont, one of my favorite characters from the Castlevania series. I chose to portray him as opposed to myself because Trevor is honestly much cooler than I am, and he is a walking bestiary; perfect for “hunting” things, and exploring new places. As Trevor, I would feel much more confident about going on adventures!
I have given him the avatar name “MorningStar”, because it’s the name of the whip that is used by the Belmont family to kill creatures of the night in the Castlevania series.
The rise of technology in this modern era is having a profound effect on human efficiency. Because of the new advancements and developments in the technological world, we are now able to do things much faster than we were before. However, the growth and development of technology has created a rift in society, divided into those that believe technology should be embraced for the sake of our future, and those that believe that technology will be our downfall. I fall into the latter category, taking on the approach of how technology hinders education. I know this to be true, as I’ve experienced it first hand in my journey through the educational system. I’m an IB Diploma Graduate and halfway into my first year of college. By the International Baccalaureate standards, I’ve been fully prepped and prepared for college, I’ve passed all of their requirements, and taken all of the tests. And yet, as I sit here writing this essay, I don’t feel prepared at all. Fortunately, I am able to identify the reason this is: Implementation of technology. In college, technology is used for everything. All of my textbooks are online, all of my assignment submissions are online…even my notes are online. It seems as if the only things that aren’t online are tests and exams, which are obviously to prevent from cheating. It’s a little overwhelming, having to adjust from the physicality of pencils and paper to scrolling through a textbook on a backlit screen. And of course, it’s incredibly distracting. With the threat of the Internet looming in the background as I work on my assignments, I find it so incredibly challenging to remain focused on my work. I’m only one autofill away from Instagram, or Tumblr, or whatever online game piques my interest that day, why should I do my work? It is for this reason that I firmly believe that technology should not be utilized as much as it is in schools.
I know that I’m not the only one who feels this way about the integration of technology into society. Nicholas Carr, the author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid?“, writes, “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do.” It’s clear that even the more educated among us are facing the same problem. This threat of distraction is especially promoted by articles all over the Internet, which quickly spit out the information we desire and leave nothing more in their path. That sort of thing is likely to have some profound effect on productivity, and is likely to further complicate analytical skills, especially if it happens a lot. Psychologist Maryanne Wolf shares this same concern. Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace (qtd in Carr). I’ve experienced this very phenomenon. When I’m researching a topic for an essay I have to write, I prefer to have the information quickly. I don’t want to read a long article in order to find the information I need, I need the information in the first couple sentences. If I don’t find it, I move on to the next article, and rarely leave the first page of Google. After many years of doing that, I feel that I’ve sort of lost the ability to read things on my own and piece them together myself. I can’t read into things as deeply or analyze as critically as I used to be able to do at the start of my high school career. But again, why would I need to do these things when I have the Internet to hold my hand? This is the sort of thing that is threatening to the whole of the educational system. Children and teenagers are being slowly taught that the Internet will provide all of the answers for them, should they put it into their search bar and press enter. School-age children no longer have to figure things out for themselves, as the Internet will provide it for them. I believe that the whole essence of education, the core principal of it all, is to be able to discover things for yourself. Experiencing things, and using your experiences to define and shape the world around you with knowledge. As a child, I loved exploring the world and then learning about what I had experienced. Learning was, and still is, a beautiful thing. I feel that the Internet takes the sort of “magic” that goes into education away. The acquisition of knowledge is no longer something to undertake proudly, but rather something to get over with as quickly as possible.
The integration of new technology has historically brought up concerns of how it would affect the developing world. This can be observed as early as Socrates, who worried that writing down information would weaken our ability to remember information (qtd in LaFarge). In a time where all information was memorized and passed down through word of mouth, his fear is perfectly valid. With written transcripts of all of the information, why would there be a need for oral histories? This same argument can be applied to the world today. With the Internet, why is there a need for students currently attending school to memorize the information they’ve learned? There is no incentive for doing so, and it doesn’t help that standardized tests are all about regurgitating information anyway.
It’s clear that now that technology has been widely accepted into schools, there are negative consequences in using it. Several studies in recent years, during the prime of technological advancement, have shown that technology is really, really distracting. Albeit slightly out of date for the current time period, studies from 1992 concluded that people read slowly and less accurately when they read on screens (qtd in Jabr). Although this conclusion is out of date, I find myself able to relate with it quite well. For me, reading on screen is much more difficult than reading a physical book. When I’m reading, I find the light of the screen to be distracting, and it causes me to look somewhere else to try and relieve the distraction. In doing so, my eyes move to and glance at 50 other things on the screen, so I’m not reading, and most definitely not absorbing any information. For me, reading a book is free from distraction, as my eyes are easily able to drift across the page. There is an interesting correlation as to how paper books produce so much more output than screens. Call it a form of “classical training”, but even in the age of digital natives, many people grew up reading books. Being taught how to read was a huge deal, and almost everybody was involved in the effort. After years and years of reading books, the brain has become used to this behavior, and has schematically associated reading to the physicality of a book; holding it in your hands. And the reason why reading online is so much more difficult is because the brain now has to go against what its been taught for so many years, and for the brain, incorporating new information into schema is a hard task. The rapid change from books to technology in schools is a part of the reason why children are more distracted while using technology, and aren’t able to process as much information as they are when reading a book. Jabr writes, “In most cases, paper books have more obvious topography than onscreen text. An open paperback presents a reader with two clearly defined domains—the left and right pages—and a total of eight corners with which to orient oneself” (The Reading Brain in the Digital Age). For school age children with minds that are still developing, it is difficult to break the classical training they have received in reading books. Technology should be integrated into their life at a slower and steadier pace, in order to mimic the classical training they have received with books, and minimize the potential for distraction, or should be kept in books altogether.
In order to conclude, the integration of technology into modern society has created a wide array of problems for school age children. Due to the threat of distraction that it poses combined with the hazards it poses to a developing brain, it is not a good idea to keep technology in schools. The classical training of books is entirely more effective than the adaptations of technology, and with the best interest of future generations in mind, it should stay this way. However, if technology were to be integrated into the educational system, it should be done at an earlier age, in order to combat the naturally distracting nature of it.
The Deep Space of Digital Reading was written by the renowned essayist and novelist, Paul LaFarge. LaFarge has written many essays over the course of his literary career, and is a contributor to literary magazines such as The New Yorker and The New Republic. In addition to numerous essays, LaFarge is the author of five novels: The Night Ocean, The Artist of the Missing, Haussmann, or the Distinction, and Luminous Airplanes, and The Facts of Winter (paullafarge.com). LaFarge’s writing style differs from essay to novel, however. In his essays, LaFarge takes on a more scholarly and argumentative tone, drawing from multiple sources in order to back up his claim. By comparison, his novels have a much lighter tone, being fictitious and not drawing from factual evidence.
LaFarge has received critical acclaim for his work, and is the recipient of awards such as the Bard Fiction Prize, and fellowships from New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library (paullafarge.com)
This article contains two audiences, the primary and the secondary audience. LaFarge’s essay is largely directed to those who spend a majority of their time reading online, and those who advocate for the benefits of online reading. The title of the article is The Deep Space of Digital Reading, and this article speaks to the positives of reading online, and how “digital reading” isn’t as detrimental to our health and cognition as one would think (LaFarge,The Deep Space of Digital Reading). However, this article seems to speak to a more educated primary audience, as opposed to everybody that reads online, due to the fact that LaFarge references many other scholarly articles and essays within his own, and analyzes the work done by cognitive psychologists.
LaFarge’s secondary audiences are the literary and scientific communities, two scholarly communities who are already educated on the conventions of modern technology. Within the scientific community, there is a huge debate on whether or not the use of modern technology is harming our brains. LaFarge’s essay, backed up with cognitive studies, as well as other scientific evidence, will attract those from the scientific community. This article will likely receive attention from the literary community as well. LaFarge is an active member within the literary community, having published several books, and many more essays. This, in combination with the fact that he is taking a stance on a controversial issue in the modern world, is likely to stir up some attention.
The main claim of LaFarge’s essay is that reading online, “digital reading” is not as bad as the general populous assumes it is, and that readers who don’t like to read online shouldn’t have to worry about leaving traditional reading behind in the new age of technology. The article is largely ambiguous, offering consenting and dissenting opinions on both sides of the debate, but does lean more towards the side of pro-digital reading. The sources that LaFarge uses throughout point towards this, especially in the case of scientific and cognitive evidence. Many times throughout the article, LaFarge states that the brain is not harmed by reading online, and is, in fact, able to rewire itself to accommodate. (LaFarge, The Deep Space of Digital Reading). LaFarge also makes the claim that reading, historically, has always had its issues, and uses historical evidence to support this. He references Socrates, and his 5th century worry over whether or not writing would weaken the brain (LaFarge, The Deep Space of Digital Reading).
Generally, LaFarge seeks to reassure the general populous that reading online is not detrimental to our brain function, and to persuade those that are against online reading to consider the benefits.
Largely, this essay is LaFarge’s personal opinion on digital reading. He first draws his reader in using an example; a historical anecdote. From here, he begins to get into the topic of “digital reading”, and how the rise of technology is challenging our brains (LaFarge, The Deep Space of Digital Reading). In order to support his claim, online reading isn’t bad, LaFarge draws from many different areas of study, using anecdotal evidence, other essayists’ claims, psychological research, and even historical evidence. His writing is very well researched in this regard. However, the scientific studies he sites are from 2005, a bit outdated for the time that this article was written, in 2016. Still, the studies that he sites may be the most up-to-date or contain the most significant data.
LaFarge’s essay was published in the Nautilus, a scientific journal, in 2016.
The Deep Space of Digital Reading is in the format of an online article. However, LaFarge’s essay differs from traditional online articles, as there are no hyperlinks embedded in the text, and the website it is published on has a dropdown menu, rather than a series of links in the header. This article is written as if it had been published in a newspaper, rather than being published online. With that being said, though, there are clearly digital aspects of the article. Underneath the title is an interface where the reader can comment on the article, or share the article on social media platforms. The Deep Space of Digital Reading also features many stylistic features, such as differing font size and italics, which would not be possible on print. While no hyperlinks are included within the article, The Deep Space of Digital Reading does feature advertisements of other articles in the middle of the page, as well as at the end of the article.
The journey towards literacy is arguably the biggest developmental adventure that any child will ever go on. This “adventure” sets the foundation for what is to become a lifelong learner, and pushes each child into achieving all-around success. Of course, I am no exception to this, having gone on my own personal adventure many years ago. I stand before you here today as a college student, working on becoming a forensic chemist. Now that I’m here, and working towards my personal goals, I find it of the utmost important to recount my journey, and see just how far I’ve come in eighteen short years. As I travel back in time to my beginnings, you will see the influence that my family, books, and even video games had on my ability to read and write.
by Martin D. September 2nd, 2010
Of course, my family had a large impact on my ability to read and write; they taught me everything that I know, and that is not an exaggeration. I’m sure all of us can relate to one another when I say that our parents read to us before bedtime, or our families would make us read menus or signs while driving down the highway. My family was like that too, and always encouraged me to read the things that I saw. However, there is something that probably sets my family apart from yours, and that something (or rather, someone) is my grandma! I know you’re most likely thinking, “How exactly would that set your family apart? I have a grandma too!”, and yes, that’s true. However, even though I’ve never met your grandma, your grandma is not a crazy lady. Mine most definitely was. She took “teaching your child to read” to a whole new level. Every weekend, a much younger me would go over to her house every weekend and be greeted by giant, thick textbooks, piled up on the kitchen table, with mountains of pens and pencils to accompany them. And every weekend, a much younger me would sit in the most uncomfortable chair for two hours and do reading and writing exercises in those giant, thick textbooks. It was torture! Nothing made me happier when we finally took a break for dinner, but that happiness was short-lived. Right after dinner, the torture would continue…but this time, in Spanish. For another two hours, my grandma would quiz me endlessly on Spanish words, making me spell them, write them down, and even use them in a sentence. I begged to be like the other kids whose only Spanish lessons were from Dora the Explorer.
Taken From: https://ibo.org/
While I may be complaining a bit much, I truly am grateful for all of the effort my grandma, as well as the rest of my family, put into teaching me to read and write. Because of their efforts, I was put into talented and gifted classes when I started school because I was so far ahead of my classmates. That trend continued throughout my academic career, and has inadvertently led to me telling this story today! Of course, all of the reading that my grandmother made me do as a child developed a fervent love of books and a hunger for knowledge, which have their own role to play in this story…
by Beth (Flickr) August 26th 2012
Fast forward a bit to the start of elementary school, I’m four years old and excited to meet new people and learn about new things. It’s the first day, and my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Pillow, has us sit in alphabetical order on the rainbow rug in the center of the classroom. This is the segway into teaching us about the alphabet. All of the kids in the room cheerfully call out the letters when she asks us what they are; all of the kids except for me. I was so bored sitting in the middle of the brightly colored rug, listening to letters and sight words that had already been drilled into my head by my grandma. My teacher, thankfully, takes notice of this and calls me out on it, as any teacher would assume I’m not paying attention to the lesson. She asks me to answer a question, so I do, and she seems mildly surprised at my ability to answer so quickly and with confidence. Being a very matter-of-fact child, I tell her that I’m bored and that I already know the alphabet from A to Z, in both English and Spanish, and would like something more challenging. She is very taken aback by this, and is not really sure how to respond to a four year old girl telling her that the alphabet is too basic. It’s almost as if we were acting out Matilda! Instead of making me suffer through the lessons she gave, she offered me to read during the lessons. I gladly accepted; I loved to read, and read I did! Most of my kindergarten days were spent reading a book, or several, at the round table while my classmates finished their lessons. Now, while books may naturally seem like a tool that advanced a child’s ability to read, books advanced my ability to write! Because my elementary school days were spent reading throes of books, I quickly became bored with the repetitive and often lackluster storylines they gave. Again, I needed something more. Writing had never really occurred to me as a child; I had always written silly journal entries about my day, but I had never written something of such high calibre! Nonetheless, I was feeling inspired by the fantasy books I had read, and decided to give it a go. My first stories weren’t anything special; they usually involved my friends and I doing something very normal, except we were mermaids or fairies, or some other mythical being. Looking back on it, my stories were the exact things we acted out at recess! Of course, writing is a skill that you develop with practice, so I continued to write stories…stories about literally anything! I quickly advanced from those silly stories about my friends and I, to drawing inspiration from actual books and using those characters to make up entirely new stories. With help from my English classes in advancing grades, I soon began to write full-fledged stories with more complex and vivid language, putting a lot of effort into the visual imagery of my work and putting a larger emphasis on literary devices. My writing had grown from simple, one-word journal entries, to writing short stories in a a few short years, all because I had read a lot of books as a child! While I don’t write nearly as much now, the love of books that I possessed as a child had certainly influenced my ability to write in a major way!
Taken From: https://www.nintendo.com/3ds/
Now, while the educational value of video games is certainly debatable, playing video games had a huge influence on my ability to write, especially as a young child in elementary school, where I was first getting into storytelling! When I wasn’t doing schoolwork or reading a book, I could be found curled up on my bed playing a video game. They were first introduced to me in first grade, and I had immediately fallen in love, and had taken to playing them for…unhealthy amounts of time, if I have to be perfectly honest. I was always adventuring with Link in Legend of Zelda, or battling the gym leaders in Pokémon Heart Gold. Video games, alongside books, gave me exposure into different writing styles, especially as I discovered new genres of games, like RPGs or puzzle/mystery games. I learned to write in a way that would cater to a certain audience, and I was given a semblance of how plot works, as in games there are certain “checkpoints” where certain important events take place. By playing these games, I was able to expand my horizons as a writer by drawing more inspiration from source material, which in turn made me a stronger writer by giving me an example of what a well-written, albeit playable, story is. Plus, most video games don’t have a linear storyline, so there was always something for me to draw inspiration from as a young writer. Video games are quite literally visual novels, and for me, the worlds they contained were so much more immersible, and I was always lost in them for hours on end, daydreaming about the characters they contained. There’s not really much that differs from video games to books in my case, they both influenced my ability to write creatively in a similar manner, but video games were such a significant part of my childhood that it would be criminal not to include them!
All in all, each one of these things had a significant impact on my ability to read and write, and each one of these things has played a role in making me who I am today; a lifelong learner. From my grandma’s torturous lessons every weekend, to playing video games when I should have been doing my schoolwork, I’m happy to be able to clearly see where I came from as a learner, and how my journey into literacy has carried me thus far in life. I’m excited to see where my knowledge will take me next after college, and even further beyond.
