At an evolutionary level, our species evolved interacting with real, live other people. Our basic perceptual and emotional systems often work best when we’re learning with and from them.<\/p>\n All that being said, I’m REALLY interested in the educational possibilities that this new technology might offer.<\/p>\n As you’ll see in the video below, combining virtual reality (VR) with advanced haptic feedback produces remarkably persuasive visual and physical experiences.<\/p>\n The video’s host — a professed VR skeptic — is obviously giddy by the end of his trial.<\/p>\n Several kinds of learning might well be much more persuasive (and interesting) with this VR\/haptics combination. Physics problems with mass and momentum and magnetism, for example, lend themselves to this kind of exploration.<\/p>\n (As you’ll see in the video, our host can feel the weight of the virtual rock he lifts.)<\/p>\n Another possibility: As our research into embodied cognition gets better, we might be able to translate those strategies into VR\/haptics pedagogy. (For an introduction to embodied cognition, see Sian Beilock’s book\u00a0How the Body Knows Its Mind<\/em>.)<\/p>\n For example, Susan Goldin-Meadow has done considerable\u00a0research<\/a> showing that different hand motions improve mathematics learning. These gloves just might make such problems more physically — and therefore cognitively — persuasive.<\/p>\n Just watch the video; you’ll see what I mean. (By the way: I’m not endorsing any of the products advertised here. They’re an unavoidable part of the video.)<\/p>\n![\"VR](\"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/AdobeStock_175755735_Credit-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPotential VR+haptics pedagogy<\/h2>\n