Will virtual reality help you learn a language more quickly? Or will it simply replace your memory?

VR is the ultimate medium for delivering what is known as “experiential learning.” This education theory is based on the idea that we learn and remember things much better when doing something ourselves than by merely watching someone else do it or being told about it.

VR is the ultimate medium for delivering experiential learning
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VR even has the capacity to prompt the development of false memories
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The immersive nature of VR means users remember content they interact with in virtual scenarios much more vividly than with any other medium. (According to experiments carried out by professor Ann Schlosser at the University of Washington, VR even has the capacity to prompt the development of false memories.)

The immersive nature of VR means users remember content they interact with in virtual scenarios much more vividly than with any other medium
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Since immersion is a key factor in helping students not only learn much faster but also retain what they learn for longer, these powers can be harnessed in teaching and training—and there is also research that indicates that VR is an ideal tool for learning a language.

By combining the immersive capabilities of VR with speech recognition and an AI-enabled voice chatbot, MondlyVR claims to dramatically shorten the time it takes someone to start talking in a new language. “The biggest things that keep people from actually speaking and using new languages are fear and lack of life-like practice,” says Mondly’s CEO, Alex Iliescu. “We’re filling the conversational gap of traditional language education.”

By combining the immersive capabilities of VR with speech recognition and an AI-enabled voice chatbot, MondlyVR claims to dramatically shorten the time it takes someone to start talking in a new language. “The biggest things that keep people from actually speaking and using new languages are fear and lack of life-like practice,” says Mondly’s CEO, Alex Iliescu. “We’re filling the conversational gap of traditional language education.”

Professor Jonathan Gratch, whose work at the University of Southern California investigated how immersive technologies can help us learn skills like public speaking, says VR can provide a safe environment in which we can get over the anxiety that new experiences inevitably bring. “We learn best by being immersed in the situation, but we are also overwhelmed by real situations,” he says. “So immersive environments can give us a ‘scaffold’ by providing simpler and more stylized elements of real situations as a starting point.”

Lewis Johnson, president and CEO of language learning platform Alelo, says that those realistic safe spaces are powerful, morale-building tools for tentative learners. In the most challenging early stages when they are most likely to give up, they can add a degree of safety. “What makes this so effective is that it gives people an added measure of confidence so that when they’re in the real-world situation, they know they can handle it, because they’ve already handled it in the simulation,” he explains.

His company, which has provided language- and culture-learning tools to the US Air Force, Marines, and Special Forces, has enabled its web-based consumer platform to support VR. he reluctance that most people feel when practicing a language at the early stages is something AI-enabled virtual environments are uniquely equipped to overcome.

But do we actually learn better?

Johnson sees vast potential in VR as a learning tool, but only if apps are well grounded on the actual science of learning. He believes a good way to determine whether an application is actually effective at teaching new skills—as opposed to merely providing an entertaining experience—is by applying the framework of Bloom’s taxonomy. This is a set of models that divides learning objectives into three domains—cognitive, affective, and sensory—and classifies educational objectives within those domains in levels of complexity and specificity.

“Most language-learning apps such as memory games focus on the bottom level in Bloom’s taxonomy, but real mastery of language requires engagement with higher levels: apply, evaluate, and create,” he says. “That’s what’s you need to really engage with people in a conversation in another language. Users of such games are learning, but they aren’t learning at the right level.”

This is the crucial question when you see apps like MondlyVR in action: It is definitely impressive that someone without any previous knowledge of Japanese can practice the language without fear of embarrassment in a virtual scenario such as a restaurant or taxi. But are you actually learning better? Even though a beginner student is capable of carrying on a perfectly functional conversation in VR, will they be able to recall the words without the aid of the headset later?

This problem isn’t unique to VR. The ease with which we can access information—i.e. our ability to google just about anything—has been found to lower our recall rates. One Columbia University study found that participants in a memory experiment didn’t make the effort to remember facts that they thought they could look up later. They remembered where they could find the information rather than the information itself.

Since immersion is a key factor in helping students not only learn much faster but also retain what they learn for longer
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As our brains don’t have an infinite capacity to retain information, it is only natural that humans instinctively look for ways to avoid remembering too many things. Much as we’re now using the internet as a vessel for our collective external transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.

Yet considering there are over 7,000 languages in the world (many of which, like Basque, are experiencing a resurgence in popularity) is this actually a problem? If we accept the inevitability that we will become increasingly symbiotic with our computer tools, maybe outsourcing some of our memory skills isn’t such a bad thing. If we think this way, bringing VR into our learning routines is just the next logical step in that journey of blending our physical and digital selves.

Article originally published in Quartz

Learning a language in VR is less embarrassing than IRL https://t.co/8WW1I2bxXM

— Quartz (@qz) December 19, 2017

If you would like to find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your own project or enterprise, Tech Trends offers Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Can Virtual Reality be a Game Changer for Learning? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Welcome to a world of wizardly wonder, where technology is indeed indistinguishable from magic. If you ever dreamed of going to Hogwarts, this course at Full Sail University might just be for you

I hold in my hands what looks and feels like a wand from a Harry Potter film. But this isn’t one of the cheap replicas you can buy in a souvenir shop. It was 3D-printed right here, in the high-tech workshop where I’m standing. And once I put on a HoloLens headset, it’s incredibly effective against the hordes of advancing dementors.

This blended approach is embraced by industry players like Microsoft
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The game—and the wand—were developed by Pat Starace, director of the digital fabrication course at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Over a 20-year career, Starace has produced a huge range of models, special effects, and animations for motion pictures and television, including the iconic 1979 title sequence from 60 Minutes. At Full Sail, he teaches students the rapid prototyping techniques needed to convert 3-D drawings into objects like magic wands, while also working on his own projects (like an animatronic toucan and a 3D-printed prosthetic hand modeled after Iron Man’s glove).

The Dementor game switches between AR and virtual reality VR seamlessly within the same experience
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The Dementor game was built to explore switching between augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) within the same experience: Players can either blast Dementors rushing at them from all sides of their living room, or be transported to what looks like a room at Hogwarts. In the industry, this type of game is still considered blue-sky thinking—experiences tend to be segmented into AR or VR—but students vying for Full Sail’s Simulation and Visualization bachelor degree, launched in 2016, are encouraged to think big. Already, this blended approach is being embraced by industry players like Microsoft.

“We talk about VR and AR as their own separate industries, but they are in fact simply screens into a virtual world,” says Full Sail program director Rob Catto. “The difference is that the screens actually put you into that world. VR is about much more than just putting on a headset; it’s about all of your senses.”

As in Hogwarts wizards, training AR/VR wizards is a complicated business. Full Sail’s workshop is packed with 3D printers, laser cutters, and milling machines. Students learn everything from basic carpentry and spray-painting to how to make their own circuit boards. They study artificial intelligence, physics, data modeling, and human-computer interaction, and learn a diverse range of technical skills that includes using engines like Unity and Unreal, and coding in C Sharp and C++. The program is not for the faint of heart, and more suited to your average Hermione than your average Ron.

Early on, students at Full Sail University are given a project that requires them to use skills like laser-cutting and circuit-board construction
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Early on, students are given a project that requires them to use skills like laser-cutting and circuit-board construction. They then go on to assemble and program devices like one Catto shows me in the Full Sail lab. Called a Stewart Platform, it’s a miniature version of what most theme park rides sit on top of, except this one fits in the palm of my hand. It’s engrossing to watch the platform perform a wide range of dynamic movements—heaving, surging, swaying, rolling, hitching, and dropping—especially when those movements are synced to a character’s on-screen movements.

When Full Sail student Carolyn Smith was tasked with building a Stewart Platform, she too turned to J. K. Rowling for inspiration. Smith designed her own version of Quidditch—sort of like football, if football were played on flying broomsticks—complete with a Harry Potter figurine riding a broom. That got Smith thinking bigger: Why not make a broom you could actually ride while experiencing Quidditch in immersive VR?

When Full Sail student Carolyn Smith was tasked with building a Stewart Platform, she too turned to J. K. Rowling for inspiration
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Smith started by crafting a life-size Nimbus 2000—a high-end broom model featured in the Harry Potter books
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Smith started by crafting a life-size Nimbus 2000—a high-end broom model featured in the books—using tools and materials from the Full Sail lab. She also found resources online: Being a keen cosplayer meant Smith was familiar with a community that enjoyed building realistic props, and various tutors offered help and advice. (One of them even lent her his personal power chisel.) After a lot of hard graft—she stayed up until 2am spray-painting and hand-layering broom bristles —the model came together, and Smith turned her attention to making it “fly.”

“Two instructors helped me with wiring it and… doing thing like fitting in an accelerometer and connecting it to an Arduino computer,” Smith says. “Two buttons are placed just below the accelerometer [to accelerate and to grab the snitch, if you’re close enough], which also connect to the Arduino, making complex adjustments that link the movements of the platform to those of the character generated on the screen.”

A huge Harry Potter fan, Smith plans to visit Universal Studios Harry Potter ride to see how it compares to her efforts, and it’s not unlikely that she’ll stay in Orlando after graduation: The city has more than 100 companies working in the simulation sector, and the VR boom is continuing to gain momentum. But for now, Smith’s only regret is how the project deadline prevented her from researching all the proper Quidditch lore. “I wanted to try to make the game as accurate as possible,” she says, “but I ran out of time.” Looking at what she’s managed to build, I feel that Rowling herself might let a few inaccuracies slide.

This article originally appeared in Quartz

A Florida university is making Quidditch a (virtual) reality https://t.co/iLIFeskRUm

— Quartz (@qz) June 17, 2017

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Being a Wizard at Virtual Reality University appeared first on Tech Trends.