Can virtual reality solve some of the problems within the education system?

Whilst no one can definitively predict what the education system will look like in 20 years from now, Steve Jobs once said during his graduation speech: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

A hundred years ago, teachers used chalkboards. Students would sit in rows and copy down what the teacher would write. The schools would produce doctors, lawyers, engineers of the high-class society.

Today isn’t very different. Students still sit in rows and copy down what the teacher would write, except on whiteboards and smartboards instead of chalkboards. Devices like computers and iPads have been integrated into the lessons. Nowadays when people don’t know how to solve a problem, it only takes a few taps of the finger to access over 12 million terabytes of data on the world wide web. Technology is definitely on the incline in the education system.

We know that people don't buy cool flashy things. They buy solutions to real problems. School today is full of imperfections which can be solved through the integration of technology.

Travel time can take a large portion out of a student’s day. Especially within selective schools, some spend up to 3 or 4 hours a day travelling to and from the best school they could get into, regardless of geographical distance. What could you do with an extra 3 or 4 hours in your day?

Everybody has different needs, wants and ambitions of where they want to go in life. They have dreams and passions, yet school stifles the fun out of subjects through forcing the same syllabus down everyone’s throat. It’s like a factory trying to mass produce the same things. Doctors. Lawyers. Engineers. Whilst some may aspire to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer by their own free will, too many people only work for what society has thrust upon them, to fulfil their parents’ expectations as they strive to be something they don’t even want to become.

With awareness, there comes activism, which eventually leads to action. People are beginning to open their eyes to the flaws within the education system. And once a problem has been found, a fiery soul would ask: “How can we solve the problem?”

“Anthony, don’t forget that class starts in 20 minutes!” yelled Anthony’s mother from downstairs. Class always began at 9:00 pm and it was already 8:42 pm. Anthony laid down onto his bed, on his back as always and placed the newest iWorld model headset over his eyes. He couldn’t afford to be late again this week.

The familiar clicks of the iWorld sent a familiar soothing electric impulse into his head, softly fading the sensory world away into darkness. Then it was replaced by a new set of senses, almost identical but not quite the same.

The sound of chattering filled his mind, followed by the visuals of a playfully coloured classroom. Walls of bright pink, yellow, green and blue were used to stimulate the mind into generating more creative juices. Giant pillows and potted plants lined the room. He was in the local lobby room where students like himself would hang out at times.

“Good evening, how are you, Anthony? Finally early this week!” greeted the familiar voice of his teacher Mr Raffy. A large Caucasian man dressed in a leather jacket walked into Anthony’s view from behind his right shoulder.

“I’m excellent Mr Raffy, what are we learning today?” replied Anthony, eager for the next lesson.

Mr Raffy smiled and said; “Today, we’ll be going on an excursion.”

“North, South East or West?” asked Anthony. He’d already been all around the globe through the nightly adventures in the iWorld. Every morning he would awaken, wishing the night would last longer so he could explore more. Curiosity would drive him.

“Neither. Today we’ll be going backwards,” he answered. Mr Raffy waved his hand and they were suddenly looking down at a green and blue earth from the International Space Station. Earth.

“No way! We’re going back in time?” Anthony exclaimed with excitement. Mr Raffy smiled.

The planet began to spin in reverse on its rotational axis, with the shadow of day and night going from west to east. It spun faster and faster until the point it was little more than a blur.

Mr Raffy placed a hand on Anthony’s shoulder as they floated through the quadruple-layered micrometeorite proof window of the international space station for a clearer view. Then he began to narrate.

“Year 2019. Your parents were still in high school 20 years ago, if I recall correctly. The age of electric cars, wireless earphones and blockchain.” he explained. “But today, we’ll be focusing on the ineffective education system of the 2019th century.”

Anthony watched in awe as the spinning of the planet slowed down to a stop. Suddenly the two of them were in a freefall. The green landscape below began to grow larger and closer. Wind began to blow against them as they entered the stratosphere.

“We are currently falling at 10 kilometres every second and rising, the average speed of space debris entering the atmosphere,” said Mr Raffy. Mountain ranges and rivers came into view as the ground zoomed closer and closer in a spectacular spiral. Then he could see the individual streets and buildings. “And… Landing!”

Suddenly the two of them fell through the roof of a building and landed in a classroom of 20 or 30 students with a teacher in front of a whiteboard. The teacher appeared to be writing out an equation on the whiteboard with a marker.

“What are they doing? How does the teacher expect to teach so many students at once?” asked Anthony.

“That is a great question. The schooling system used a one size fits all approach to teaching students,” explained Mr Raffy. “The system would feed the same syllabus to each and every individual, expecting them to retain the information and regurgitate it back out in standardised exams. The students would be graded against one another from A to F.”

Anthony watched with repulsion. “They’re just watching the teacher write things on a whiteboard, how are they meant to retain the knowledge like that?”

Mr Raffy laughed. “It’s no wonder why the average student has the same level of stress as a psychiatric ward patient from the 1950s. But we’re forgetting, they didn’t have the iWorld back in 2019.”

Anthony nodded. “Thank god we don’t learn like that anymore.”

Connecting students to teachers on an online platform in virtual reality will immediately solve the problem of schoolkids crowding public transport, as many would complain about.

On a more serious note, it would allow a flexible timetable catered to the student’s individual learning and lifestyle. You won’t have students falling asleep in class either when the lessons are engaging and individualised. Perhaps the short story above can bring inspiration for a brighter future of education. Change requires courage. Maybe we’ll have enough courage to challenge the existing solution so that the evolution will never stagnate.

This story was written to explore what the future may hold. If there is one thing I want you to take out of this, it would be to provoke thought towards how we can challenge the problems within the current education system.

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