Learning Virtually Everything: VR in Education
Virtual Reality has been one of this generation’s most promising technologies, with BBC labeling it as one of the most exciting technologies of 2015 as a result of its ubiquity in various different fields ranging from video games, education and even broadcasting. The current generation of virtual reality devices have been influenced by devices of the late 80s and early 90s, with similar head mounted-devices such as Virtuality and the Sega VR-1 headsets being particularly innovative in being able to deliver low latency, stereoscopic immersive experiences, though with the technology at that time these devices were only able to display low resolution, unrealistic graphics that were plagued with performance issues. Their high price tag has also made this technology relatively restrictive, and despite predictions dating back to 1992 stating that virtual reality would become affordable within the next two years, it took over two decades for devices like the technology I will be focusing on in this essay, the Oculus Rift, to largely solve issues pertaining to its graphics, performance and most importantly, the price is expected to be under 300 USD – a far cry from the 76000 USD price tag for a Virtuality system. This can largely be associated to the exponential increase in processing power as a result of Moore’s law, alongside the development of organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology that vastly improves upon contrast and color accuracy when compared against the thin film transistor liquid crystal displays of the past. The exponential decrease in the size of transistors as a result of Moore’s law has spurred the development of the inertial measurement unit (IMU) that combines an accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope into one single unit to reduce the weight of the head mounted device. The Oculus Rift will also take advantage of the exponential benefits of open source software, where developers can develop software for the oculus rift using their software development kit (SDK), allowing for a wealth of creativity to be featured on the Oculus Rift unlike its counterparts from the 1990s that each featured merely a handful of games.
This technology brings a lot of questions to my mind, such as the limitless applications made possible by this technology alongside its open source development potential and as a result, how exactly are governments going to control the legality of content being used on the Oculus Rift platform? With digital rights management (DRM) technologies being widely regarded as useless before proper government regulation, I believe that the biggest challenge to this technology is how governments can appropriately regulate the development and distribution of software without compromising the consumer benefits that the Oculus Rift offers. DRM has been widely polarizing since its inception, with supporters believing that it protects content creators by giving them a fair compensation for their content, therefore curbing the issue of digital piracy. On the other hand, those against DRM argue that it undermines digital freedom and furthermore could ultimately restrict lesser known content creators from reaching a wider audience. Personally, I agree that DRM regulations always have to be considered when a new platform for content consumption reaches the market such as the Oculus Rift, especially if content creation is spurred through open source development. However, I believe that existing DRM laws are outdated, especially considering that the majority of these regulations restrict sharing content between devices, which is very restricting in today’s multi-device society. Additionally, the latest DRM laws in the EU were ratified in 200110, further showing that these laws are in need of modernization. Another issue that is very pervasive in the field of DRM regulations is that most governments choose to adopt their own versions of DRM laws, which can lead to content creators or consumers being discouraged due to the convoluted processes associated with content creation and consumption respectively. As a result of this, I believe that the global standardization and weakening of DRM can greatly encourage innovation and consumption of content.
For our final group presentation, our group focused on the application of the Oculus Rift in the field of education and researched on the impacts and challenges faced by this technology in that respective field. One question that immediately came to my mind is how this differs from the existing forms of distance learning. One of my group members pointed out that virtual reality technologies allow for practical centered vocational education to be delivered in an immersive experience – which are forms of education that existing online lectures cannot cover. In short, a comprehensive university education can be delivered remotely without the need of physical classrooms and infrastructure, which can have many economic implications regarding the reduction in dependence on traditional universities and schools. This implies that there will be a reduction in need of administrative and teaching staff at universities and schools, and students would not have to attend physical lectures in favor of virtually delivered lectures through the Oculus Rift. In fact, this extends beyond university level education, as our group believes that driving lessons, flight lessons and even military training can take advantage of this technology, ultimately reducing resource usage associated with real-life training. Additionally, training facilities and physical universities would also be less in demand, leading to land being freed up and able to be reallocated for other needs. Lastly, another one of my group members pointed out that the Oculus Rift can help increase accessibility to education, as fewer resources would be required to deliver education to the people.
In contrast, I pointed out that there could be issues pertaining to the loss of jobs in the education and training sector as a result of the reduction in dependence on manpower as a result of the Oculus Rift. This can lead to a structural unemployment issue, and the stakeholders who will be affected as a result of this could heavily try to prevent to adoption of the Oculus Rift in education through extensive lobbying and lawsuits, leading to the Oculus Rift being legally unable to be used in the field of education. Another issue brought by the Oculus Rift in education is that soft skills of students will be greatly undermined due to the reduction in face to face interaction. The ability of students to learn how to make professional connections would be severely hindered due to lectures being held virtually, leading to students having to learn these skills on the job and therefore universities will become unable to prepare students for work.
During our presentation, our group has highlighted that the government would have to play a big role to ensure that the adoption of this technology in the field of education would be successful. Being able to retrain those structurally unemployed would be one of the biggest challenges faced by the government, and as a group we believe that governments would have to take an active role in the provision of retraining programs for the affected parties in order to mitigate the damages caused by the adoption of the Oculus Rift. In order to make up for the losses in soft skills, our group suggests that the government also needs to play an active role in sponsoring events and advertising the importance of soft skills targeted at university students. This will allow and encourage university students to improve their soft skills through their events or encourage them to hone their own soft skills in their own time.
In conclusion, I now have an in depth knowledge of the implications of virtual reality to society, especially in the field of education as a result of researching for and presenting my group presentation. With that being said, I can agree with my group on the fact that the use of virtual reality technologies such as the Oculus Rift will overall lead to more benefits than drawbacks, as education can become exponentially more accessible especially in many countries of the world where education is still a privilege. Environmental damage caused by education and training, such as resource usage would also be reduced, and despite the societal problems arising from virtual reality, these problems can largely be solved with appropriate government regulations and facilities. Governments around the world should also collaborate to eliminate any legal loopholes associated with DRM and collaborate to create a more modernized version of these laws in order to promote the adoption of, and innovation using the Oculus Rift.

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[ 1 ]. (Goss 2015)
[ 2 ]. (Davies 1993)
[ 3 ]. (Hill 2014)
[ 4 ]. (Engler 1992)
[ 5 ]. (Pitcher 2015)
[ 6 ]. (Williams 2015)
[ 7 ]. (Doctorow 2014)
[ 8 ]. (Lohmann 2005)
[ 9 ]. (Noyes 2012)
[ 10 ]. (Essers 2015)