Augmented Reality Leading an Educational Shift
On July, 28 2016 The Internet reached it’s 10,000 day of invention. The Internet was created on March 12, 1989 by Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, who is widely accredited for the invention of the web as we know it. The 10,000 hour rule by Malcolm Gladwell has validity that things shift and begin to blast-off once 10,000 hours are invested into area of study. Applying this same theory to 10,000 days, may explain why the Internet is experiencing its greatest shifts. Granted, if you take the Internet and apply mobile, cloud, and geo-based technologies that are being developed – you may grasp the exponential explosion of technology advancements.
These advancements or exponential explosions of technology over the last 10,000 days have created some unforeseen shifts that go well beyond the Internet-of-Things (IoT). One such shift is augmented reality. Using the classic case of augmented reality being Pokémon’ Go, let’s examine the shift that it has made.
- At the same time the Internet hit 10,000 days of invention, Pokémon Go surpassed pornography traffic on the Internet. It was the first technology to surpass internet usage of pornography. [1]
- Pokémon Go engaged 50 million users[2] in less than 38 days.
- It took the TV 38-years to reach 50 million users.
- It took the Internet 4-years to reach 50 million users.
- It took Facebook 3.5 years to reach 50 million users.
- Pokémon go exceeded any revenue growth[3] by a mobile application in its first month at $206.5 million.
Who would have guessed that Pokémon Go would have been the first technology to surpass pornography on the internet, reach over 50 million global users in less than 40-days, and break revenue growth records in its first month of existence. A much better question may be … “How did augmented reality quickly jump to the forefront over virtual reality?” For many people the shift or trend may be unexplainable. However, the shift occurred due to the collective maturity of the Internet – aided with cloud computing, mobile devices, and app store convenience. In addition, the maturity of these technologies met a world that was desperate for a clean, easy, and engaging escapism to the world events happening around them.
Imagine the shift in global education if millions of people see education as exciting and engaging as Pokémon Go. Ironically enough, during the same time period the Internet was reaching its 10,000 day of invention, a shift was happening in education through the work of a partnership with Oral Roberts University and EON Reality. Through this partnership people from anywhere around the world can now access over 7,000 academic learning lessons in augmented reality style. The video below shows an example of using Augmented reality in an academic learning environment. For the cost of a piece of paper or email, people from any corner of the world can access intelligence that engages their intellect and provides personalized engagement.
The partnerships that EON Reality forms with leading universities like Oral Roberts University, have found an intersection between entertainment, education, and industry. This intersection also provides the very shift in cloud computing, mobile technologies, design technologies, and the Internet that are happening in all facets of a digital world. In fact, students from around the world can now be part of creating the augmented and virtual reality shifts that the world is now expecting. The EON Reality School opportunities in places like Tshwane, South Africa and Tulsa, Oklahoma can be viewed here
The shift in educational technology through augmented reality now allows Oral Roberts University to embed a digital code within any of their campus images and allow students in any class or anywhere in the world to access the academic lessons. The partnership with EON Reality has allowed the development of ORU’s Reality Continuum (Figure 1) that allows augmented, virtual, and mixed reality to come together within their award winning whole person curriculum. Faculty can create their own augmented reality learning objects by using the cloud based mobile application by EON Reality; viewable here.
The trend of augmented reality in education will continue to include geo-fencing and allow the spatial aspect of a students’ location to provide further engagement and learning. In Spring of 2017 EON Reality will upgrade their cloud based mobile app to include geo location capabilities that provide a similar Pokémon Go look-n-feel.
Possibly, one day (around the 11,000 day of the Internet) we will wake up and read news articles that state “education has now become one of the most engaging apps on the internet, surpasses vices on the Internet, and reaches 50 million citizens every 38 days.
[1] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pokemon-gos-popularity-surpasses-porn-in-web-searches
[2] http://visual.ly/reaching-50-million-users
[3] http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2016/8/pokemon-go-catches-five-world-records-439327
Michael L. Mathews
Chief Information Officer, Oral Roberts University
