Matthew Jerabek likes to tell a story about walking through the DARE District for the first time and feeling like he knew every nook and cranny of Algonquin College’s grand new innovation space.
In fact, thanks to virtual reality, he was fully acquainted with it long before opening day. Today’s technology had made it possible to take the DARE District designs in building information modeling (BIM) software and import them into VR, where visitors could explore its spaces at leisure.
“While the building was still thought, an idea, a hole in the ground,” he said, “the architects could walk through it on a one-to-one scale and witness the design they had created. If you have a design, it is almost impossible to see all the details before you can actually walk through it. Thanks to VR, they saved above $1 million in rework because they could ‘walk through it”’ before it was built. And because I was able to experience this, I was able to navigate the building easily the first time I was in it.”
Imagine the advantages for archeologists exploring remote sites, for astronauts exploring space, for artists devising complex creations — the list of serious applications is limitless. Following an introduction by Doug Wotherspoon, Vice President, Innovation and Strategy, Jerabek, Impact Coordinator, Applied Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship and lead of the Makerspace, and Anthony Scavarelli, Professor, Design Studies, invited their noon-hour audience to consider the possibilities as part of their Tech Tuesday talk on the Future of Virtual Reality at Algonquin.
Jarabek’s first VR experience took place during 2016’s Applied Research Day (an event now known as RE/ACTION). He remembers watching with the assembled crowd as a five-year-old girl made “incredible” artwork using VR software created by a team of Algonquin College graduates.
When she was done, he decided he wanted to try out the VR experience.
“I put the headset on,” he said. “The crowd around me disappeared. I looked up at the stars in a dark sky. I was completely transported into an amazing new experience. Once I was in this new world, I wanted to explore. I had this heightened curiosity. And curiosity leads to discovery. Learning through discovery is one of the most impactful ways you can engage your mind.”
Algonquin College has earned its place in VR lore through the success of MasterpieceVR, the world’s first collaborative 3-D painting, sculpting, and modeling program. Its programmers include alumni from the Game Development and Mobile Application Design and Development programs.
The future of VR and learning over the next decade is the topic of Scavarelli’s doctoral research. In his presentation, he highlighted two main concepts that are driving interest and innovation in the field: immersion, which brings people into virtual space, and presence, the “funny state” where individuals actually believe that virtual space is a real space.
“Presence is a very subjective term, and everyone has different levels of it,” he said. “It’s very hard for me to believe I’m in a real space. But my kids, for example — if I put them in, they believe right away.”
Scavarelli’s research is leading him to ask questions related to the applications and impact of virtual reality. How can we create more authentic learning experiences using this sense of presence? How do we connect better and collaborate in this learning space? And how do we include the increasingly diverse learners in post-secondary institutions in the process?
One of VR’s great advantages for learning, he said, is its experiential nature.
“Using your body to interact with things is more powerful than reading about it in a book,” he noted and reminded his audience of an aphorism attributed to Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” The merits of active learning have been understood for thousands of years.
What’s next for virtual reality? Will it stumble, as it did in the ‘90s, only to be renewed by another generation devoted to its merits? Scavarelli is exploring the questions and potential answers. Will VR be for everyone? Can it be used to create a platform for collaborative learning in post-secondary institutions? How do we make immersive environments feel safe for people who don’t like being isolated by the headsets now in use?
He didn’t offer many answers, only a researcher’s certainty: “There’s a lot to figure out.”
This article was originally posted on myAC.
