Will online interaction be installed as a new teaching paradigm in the near future?

 

In words of John Whall, Digital Participation Curator at QUAD in Derby (UK), “we are currently living in an unimaginable time in human history [due to COVID-19], but never have we had such an ability to stay connected and access news, activities, education, entertainment and creative opportunities without leaving our homes[1]”. In this highly recommendable blog post, John shows the example of the Body Coach Joe Wicks, who has engaged 800,000+ participants in live streaming mass exercises from all over the world every day last week.

The article, which is focused on arts and culture organisations, raises very relevant questions:

“Will we see a rise in visitor numbers to arts and culture organisations, now that audiences have, through their computer screens, had a glimpse of what’s out there in real spaces? Will more people participate in mass experience projects instead of seeing their devices as a tool for entertainment over creativity? Or will audiences get used to online interaction, meaning that arts and culture organisations need to re-think how they engage with their audiences more than they thought they ever would?”

In times where so many children and young people are now at home, parents and carers are finding a key tool on the internet to educate and inspire, and, therefore, the aforementioned questions could be easily extended to education:

Will we see a rise of the interest in the use of new technologies, such as Augmented Reality, to enable collaboration and multi-user interaction of students and teachers, now that teachers, parents and children have realised that digital interaction is feasible and productive? Will the right combination of physical and online interaction be installed as a new teaching paradigm in the near future?

The future is uncertain, but the convenience of researching the effectiveness of Augmented Reality technologies in education applies now more than ever.

[1] https://johnwhalldigitalparticipation.home.blog/2020/03/27/when-digital-participation-becomes-a-necessity/