Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernest Cline’s futuristic novel, portrays a dystopia future vision where everyone’s lives would entirely exist in the Oasis, a virtual reality world, yet it may seem speculative and implausible; VR/AR technology research claims we are much closer there than what it looks (Weightman, 2018). The AR/VR concept has been around for a while, developed by the United States military in the 1950s to stimulate flights to reduce the training costs for pilots and accidents (Barredo, 2016). Since then, gaming and entertainment have exploited the commercial value of the use, launching Pokémon GO in 2016, an AR gaming mobile technology that leveraged GPS to overlay virtual reality in the real world (Barredo, 2016). While there is potential market growth and investment in the gaming and entertainment industry, AR/VR technology will take time to be recognised as a learning and social engagement tool in the libraries and education sectors.

The technology allows people to immerse themselves in an interactive adventure that transforms their view of the world. In the museum educational sector, it has been used to bring “life” to its collections, transporting visitors into a new dimension to view an exhibition differently, using the touch, sounds and interactive experience. For example, the Louvre created a VR experience for people to discover the techniques that have contributed to painting the Mona Lisa and its story (Louvre, 2021). Being immersed in an experience can provide emotion for the users, which can enhance their learning experience.

(Louvre, 2021)

AR/VR technology has become inexpensive and more affordable for universities to experiment in the educational sector and design new pedagogical approaches to enhance school students’ learning (Hannah et al., 2019, p. 278). The only challenge is that it is difficult to justify the resources and funding to gain significant investment for VR technology use in the classroom, as it will require additional resources and the educators to develop a clear pedagogical strategy to produce ‘real world’ scenarios (Hannah et al., 2019, p. 286). The good news is that initial research developments from the University of Western Australia have trailed VR learning with STEM high school programs, which resulted in 31 per cent high scores, and 85 per cent of students agreed it helped them learn (UWA, 2022). Educators need a holistic approach to introducing this technology in the education sector to align it with the student’s curriculum (Dahya et al., 2020, p. 619; UWA, 2022). The use and application within the library and education sector are still relatively new, despite its research that VR/AR can enhance students’ visual literacy in the academic environment; the universities require further investment and research to demonstrate its application within this sector (Reynolds et al., 2019, p. 526).

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References:

Barredo, A. (2016). Past, present and future of virtual reality. OpenMind BBVA. https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/technology/future/past-present-and-future-of-virtual-reality/

Dahya, N., King, W. E., Lee, K. J., & Lee, J. H. (2021). Perceptions and experiences of virtual reality in public libraries. Journal of Documentation, 77(3), 617–637. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-04-2020-0051

Hannah, M., Huber, S., & Matei, S. A. (2019). Collecting virtual and augmented reality in the twenty-first century library. Collection Management, 44(2–4), 277–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2019.1587673

Louvre. (2021, February). The Mona Lisa in virtual reality in your own home. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.louvre.fr/en/what-s-on/life-at-the-museum/the-mona-lisa-in-virtual-reality-in-your-own-home

Reynolds, K., Schofield, T., & Trujillo-Pisanty, D. (2020). Children’s magical realism for new spatial interactions: Augmented reality and the David Almond archives. Children’s Literature in Education, 51(4), 502–518. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-019-09389-2

University of Western Australia (UWA). (2022). Virtual learning now a reality for STEM in schools. https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/article/2022/may/virtual-learning-now-a-reality-for-stem-in-schools

Weightman, C. (2018, March 23) Ready Player One: We are surprisingly close to realizing just such a VR dystopia. Scientific America. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ready-player-one-we-are-surprisingly-close-to-realizing-just-such-a-vr-dystopia/