I talk with colleagues and collaborators a lot about design philosophy. I’m always in search of better ways of giving an elevator pitch about design. Unfortunately, verbally conveying clear thoughts and justification about design often seems like a difficult task. I sometimes feel like what I end up saying comes off like a bad movie based on a good book. The flow and word choices used in verbal conversation never seem to justify the thought process. I write posts like these as practice for the next elevator pitch and to hopefully have a good book even when the movie is bad.
While re-watching the first season of Westworld, I started to wondered:
- Should we be using creative design for educational VR experiences?
- Should we avoid trying to replicate reality when designing educational VR experiences?
- Should we keep educational VR experiences short in duration?
- How can education utilize the unique affordances of VR?
- Can all of these questions be answered using the same thought process?
Free Will vs Fate
When we realize we’re in a simulation, as immersive as Westworld, or as immersive as a VR experience can be, it remains in our nature to want to escape and return to the reality. Maybe not immediately but always eventually. Why? Because we know the simulation is scripted and we recognize it is guiding us to a predetermined end. Human beings, religious or not, want to believe in free will not fate. Fate is a prison. The more a simulation feels predetermined, and scripted, the more it feels like a trap, or a prison.
When we put on a VR headset, we isolate ourselves from the reality around us. This is a completely different experience than watching a movie, reading a book, playing a video game, or looking at some information on our mobile phone. While doing any of these things, we are still (at least partially) present in reality and we have the ability to multitask. Not so in VR. In the information age, an inability to multitask might be seen as an infringement on our free will. Therefore, even the simple act of putting on a VR headset can feel like a prison, immediately causing the user to search (at least mentally, if not physically) for an escape.
It is vital for a VR experience to feel like an escape because VR experiences inherently have too many factors that make them feel like prison. We must use creative design to include as much free will in our VR experiences as possible. We must make the experience feel like an escape from reality not a replication of it. Failed attempts at replicating reality will result in loss of immersion, causing users to want to escape.
Consider this question: Are our dreams escapes or prisons? I suppose you might think that depends on if it was a good dream or a bad dream. Good dreams might feel like an escape from reality while nightmares might feel like prisons. However, separating good dreams from bad dreams might also rely on if, while dreaming, you felt as though you were in control (free will), or if you felt forced down a path (fate).
Did you ever have a dream where you realized you were dreaming and therefore felt as though you could control the situation? In this scenario, you consciously recognize you are having an experience that is not real but, you still have control of the outcome and are in no rush to escape because, in a way, you already have. You’ve accepted being part of the simulation because you are in control. This is what we want educational VR experiences to feel like.
VR experiences should be short in duration because no matter how much free will is included in the design, in the end, it is still a simulation bound by systems and rules. Like spending too much time in a casino, the house always wins. Eventually, the user will realize this, and want to escape back to reality. Yes, there are many successful digital simulations that take a great deal of time. These lengthy simulations can work in VR, but there must be frequent and convenient stopping points built in by design. The player should not be punished, or lose too much progress, because they wish to escape.
This free will vs fate design thinking addresses how to create VR experiences that are more compelling but does not necessarily address how to make them more effective for education. To do this, we must consider another factor, memory.
Inception
By definition inception is the act of instilling an idea into someone’s mind by entering his or her dreams.
One of the most effective ways we learn is by discovery. After all, the belief that we have discovered something on our own, and formulated our own thoughts, is another example of free will. However, the goal of any educational experience is to transfer knowledge. Traditionally this is done with books and lectures. Learners are simply expected to absorb the information given to them. While being told what you need to know isn’t quite a prison, it is not free will, and it is definitely not discovery. So how does discovery, and formulating our own thoughts, get included in the design of an educational VR experiences?
We must design experiences that contain a system, and a narrative, where players have the free will to recognize, and utilize, the learning objective through their own discovery. The same way data doesn’t tell us anything without analysis, facts and figures can be difficult to learn / understand without narrative and relatability. By weaving information / knowledge into a narrative, and giving the user agency on how to use that information, we can design memorable / effective educational experiences. It is vital that the player believe they are discovering knowledge no one else has noticed, even though it was there, waiting for them to discover, by design. The player must feel as though the knowledge gained was a formulation of their own thought, while all along, by design, the knowledge was the key to successfully completing the experience.
Learning by discovery, while immersed in VR, is inception by design. Education can leverage the unique affordances of VR by attaching a sense of purpose, and meaning, to the desired knowledge. Personal discovery, and (the illusion of) free will, are keystones for designing VR experiences that can happen in no other way. A personally relevant embodied experience capable of producing (what the player believes is) original thought.
Augmentation and Atmosphere
It is important to keep in mind that ultimately we are looking to augment traditional methods of teaching and learning, not replicate or replace them. There is value in all types of information and learning methods. What works for some, may not work for others. Educational VR experiences should strive to hold a unique position in that landscape.
The strength of VR lies in the atmosphere it can generate around knowledge / learning. This atmospheric opportunity differs from all other avenues of learning because it can seamlessly blend the physical with the digital in one, self contained, immersive experience. The opportunities to leverage that blend are only limited by our design and imagination.
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