Looking at education through the glass

Recently I read a fiction book called Ready Player One;

which is about a futuristic post cataclysmic world recovering from excess pollution, poverty, war and lack of resources, free will and the middle class.  Within the world everyone has an online system called the OASIS which links the entire population to a virtual world that people go to in order to escape the perils of the real world.  The OASIS unit is equipped with virtual reality goggles, pressure sensitive gloves and haptic suit.  When people are plugged into the rig all  scenes are totally immersed in the virtual world.  There are multiple chapters about the main character at school, and how the education system has reached its pinnacle within and online environment.  

Students go to school by putting on the goggles, gloves and suit then log into their OASIS. Since the entire body is immersed in the virtual world, teaching become an adventure.  In the book when a science teacher wants to talk about the moons of Jupiter they can instantly transport everyone to Europa and students can explore.  Virtual Reality has been around since the 1990’s, I remember as a kid seeing the virtual reality consoles (below) at North Pier in Chicago that you could shell out $20 to play for 20 minutes.

But it was crude, cumbersome expensive and not very good.  What’s interesting now is how the technology has made a quantum leap in the past 20 years so that it mimics what can be found in this fictional book.  Google and other companies have a “box” that can turn a phone into a VR headset, but the processing power comes solely from a user's phone.  With the advent of Playstation VR and Facebook’s Oculus Rift (pictures below) we are on our way to allowing students the       

ability to go and see anything anywhere.  Imagine a history class able to take a field trip to the trenches of World War I without ever leaving the classroom.  Of  a foreign language class able to go to a foreign country and be totally immersed in another countries culture, dialog and customs.  They could create programs where students interact with locals, buy goods or ask for directions all in a language  they are studying.  Were not there yet, we lack the suit to feel and experience everything, plus each the VR goggles require an immense about of processing power; the playstation VR will run on the Playstation 4 console about $350 plus tack on an estimated $700 price tag for the goggles themselves and were talking about $1000 out the door.  An interesting idea, with seemingly endless education (and gaming) potential, but in the world of shrinking budgets and skyrocketing pension payments it will be a long time before students are equipped with these wonders.

Are we crafting our own demise?

I am technolgy the destroyer of teachers?  Everyday that I go into work, I wonder when I will be replaced by some form of automatron.  I know many factory works have this same fear but with the advances in technology as a teacher am I working to create my replacement?  Videos are 80 years old, but it's only now that they can be created with such ease and made accessible for everyone.  Whenever I am out of the building, and need a substitute I use a program called Screen-o-matic:

(https://screencast-o-matic.com/home)

to create a video for my students so that they can still learn what we are scheduled to learn that day.  They still take notes, they still hear my voice, they still work on problems and homework, but I’m not there. With the videos I know they can’t ask questions but they can replay the video and go over a section again as if I was repeating my concept.  

There are often times when students don’t understand something in class, or want some more example problems.  At the bottom of all of my calendars are links to math help website: sites such as kahacadamy https://www.khanacademy.org/ , photomath https://photomath.net/en/ , youtube https://www.youtube.com .  These sites allow students to search topics we're covering and find more examples and possibly allow them for a different way of explaining things to them.  Most students don’t want to come get extra help, they want to figure it out on their own and these sites let them.  How long before thats all they will need to do, is go to a site to learn math, reading, science or english?

Google hangout allows people to be somewhere without actually being there.  I’ve had students who were to sick to come to school but were well enough to focus for 50 minutes so they had a friend link them to our class via google hangouts.  

They showed me their HW, they asked questions,  talked with their partner they learned math all from the comfort of their own couch.  Lots of districts are strapped for cash, what if CPS goes bankrupt and they can't pay any of their teachers salaries?  They could give each student a Chromebook then have them google hangout and learn math in my classroom.  I could have a classroom of 30 physical students and 100 google hangout students all in the room learning Algebra 2.  If a student becomes loud or obnoxious they can simply be muted, or kicked off google hangout.  Our school already has electronic core classes called ELO (Expanding Learning Opportunities) where students take Algebra 2 entirely from videos and links.  They can still email a teacher and ask for clarification but think about the logistics of 2-3 teacher covering all 700 Algebra 2 students instead of the 10.  That’s millions of dollars in salary savings per year, not to mentions, materials, and physical space.  A whole school could be run out of a large basement, instead of a 500,000 square foot building.   Ultimately I feel that teachers will always be needed to help convey information, guide and inspire students, but with some of these technological advances and society’s feelings about teachers, summers off and pension systems it possible that  teacher roles could be thinned or phased out.