Future of learning – mind boggling

Jaron Lanier, the VR expert, vividly describes his work in You Are Not A Gadget, where the brain starts to believe in the virtual world instead of the physical one. Lanier takes this one stage further describing the experience of extending your body through morphing. In other words, you can become a lobster with extra limbs or have an arm that is ten feet long. This is because of the homuncular plasticity flexibility of the body image.

We experience virtual worlds every day when we get caught up in a TV programme, movie, computer game or theatre. This is involuntary. In other words our perceptual systems and brains are hard-wired to believe that the simulated is real. Even at very low levels of fidelity and interaction, for example simple e-learning, Nass and Reeves from Stanford University, showed through a series of ingenious experiments, that we regard the computer and the people presented in such programmes, as real.

I’m labouring this a little, because there are still plenty of people out there who seem to regard our minds as not having this ability (this includes many educators and trainers). Time and time again you see statements to the effect that cognitive and behavioural change can only take place through real world face-to-face interactions with real people. The most obvious objection to this is the success of flight simulators, where complex cognitive and behavioural change is effected in a way that is far superior to any classroom experience, and there are many others.

Patrick Dunn, a respected learning expert, had an epiphany recently. In his blog, he described experiencing the power of the mind in learning through a mind control demonstration. He told us how Ian Glassock had demonstrated of a game at a recent Learning Games Conference that allowed you to control a fish and get it to descend to pick up a coin. Trivial you may think, but the potential is huge. In terms of training the mind (and in the end that’s all education and training is) this technology has the potential to allow us to control our emotions in simulated scenarios, cure phobias, tackle post-traumatic stress disorder.

The important point here is that we have to literally ‘change our minds’ and practice ‘actual belief’ in simulated situations. Anything is possible in this most flexible of all possible worlds. In fact, it is more flexible than any real world situation, as any unusual and dangerous situation can be simulated. Clive Shepherd and I used to sell this stuff way back in the 80s where we had a PC stress game that measured skin resistance through a headband, but things have certainly moved on.

The games world is now producing a slew of technical inventions that we should take note of, for this is a glimpse into the future of learning. This stuff is huge in the games world. Nintendo have sold more Wiis than the Playstation and Xbox put together, all on the back of a new interface controller – the Wii Chuck. However, both Sony (Playstation) and Microsoft (Xbox) are fighting back with astonishing new devices. They fall into three main categories:

1. Handheld controller

2. Look no handhelds

3. Mind blowers

Handheld controllers

Wii Motion

Nintendo’s Wii Motion Plus is an enhanced Wii controller that fits onto the existing controller and, through a gyroscope and rate sensor, measures motion much more accurately for sports games and other physical acts. This type of sensor really comes into its own in sports simulations such as tennis and golf, where tiny variations in wrist movement result in hooks, slices and mishits. The Wii with its health sensors and Wii Fit board has already moved firmly in the direction of home health and learning.

Jonathon Flynn at the University of Huddersfield has been doing great work in physiotherapy with the Wii Fit. From sprained ankles to broken bones, osteoporosis and strokes, it really can help with rehabilitation, by retraining the mind. The advantages are clear; you can do it at home, it’s cheap, it’s fun increasing compliance. As usual, the resistance he’s had has not been from patients but senior managers in his institution!

Johnny Lee has used the Wii remote to create 3D VR. He uses the WII remote backwards to head track. This video is truly fantastic. The effect is stunning.

Playstation Move

Sony’s has its own Playstation Move, using the PlaystationEye technology and a controller with motion sensing. The sphere on top lights up and allows the sensors to accurately track position and distance. Internally motion sensors track acceleration and motion. A magnetometer also measures movement relative to the earth’s magnetic field. The advantage of the physical controller is that haptic dimensions are still present, including feedback. The orb itself will provide light feedback, such as muzzle flashes. This is pretty smart stuff.

The difference between the Wii and Playstation is largely in terms of the fidelity of the graphics, but we can expect controller and console advances to reach a level where the application will hold ‘ideal’ model as and you as a learners will be taught to mimic those models e.g. Federer’s forehand, Beckham’s free kicks and Tiger Woods missionary position. In the non-sporting world, any physical task, and there are thousands of them from manual handling to precision surgery, can be taught using these devices.

Look no hands

Natal it’s cracked up to be?

Afraid it is! Natal (named after a city in Brazil), launched at E3, is one of many technical initiatives that are literally game-changing. Imagine interacting with NO controller, keyboard or mouse. It knows how many people are standing there, at what distance and so on. The compute will know your every movement and allow you to drive, exercise, or whatever. No more searching for the lost TV remote; just a relevant hand gesture to sweep to the next channel, stop the action or increase the volume. Facial gestures are recognised for the reading of wishes, reactions and emotions. It also has voice recognition that can distinguish between voices and the voice of the application. None of this is science fiction – this is exactly what the future XBox Natal interface promises.

When Stephen Spielberg says, "This is a pivotal moment that will carry with it a wave of change, the ripples of which will reach far beyond video games" he’s more prophetic than even he realises. This may herald a new era, not only in games but in simulations. Peter Molyneux, genius games designer, rightly says that this means a slew of new genres but if we take this a little further we can also speculate that it leads to technical advances in learning. The very idea that one can just step into a world and experience meaningful interaction that allows you to experience and learn is literally mind blowing. Human interaction where all of your movements, gestures, facial expressions and language are understood is now starting to be realised.

Mind blowing

But there’s more, and this is literally mind blowing. We are now seeing signs that mind control is entering games and simulations.

Mind Flex

Matel launched a game in January 2008 called Mind Flex (with slogan Think it. Believe it. Move it). This is literally mind over matter, using power of your mind through three sensors (one on your head two on your earlobes) Your mind controls the speed of a little fan which controls the height of a ball (like blow football). You turn a set of obstacles on the course. One could call it mind-eye co-ordination.

It uses Neurosky’s ‘ThinkGear’ EEG technology (Electroencephalography) to read theta brain waves with a wireless headset. In effect, it’s reading the ‘complexity’ of the signal. EEG is busy and noisy when you focus but less noisy when you relax, so it’s not the level of data that is produced but its randomness that matters.

I also like this spin on the famous Milgram electric shock psychological experiment. These guys hacked Mind Flex to give you an electric shock if you concentrated too hard. What a wonderful way to raise learners’ attention!

Force Trainer

The Star Wars Force Trainer is a £45 toy available on Amazon now that allows you to train yourself in the Jedi ways, well, to raise a ball in a tube. It has some great sound effects and works

Other spins on EEG technology include the Neural Impulse Actuator from computer supplier OCZ, that allows your brain to control the pointer on your PC screen and Neurosky have their own Mindset pack.

Future promise

It’s too early to even grasp the possibilities of mind technology but it’s not too early to speculate that this will have significant impact at some time in the future. It makes 3D cinema look decidedly dull. I, personally, think that the next generation of games controllers has much more to offer learning than games.

Role playing for real

This is role playing for real, where you really are being someone in an environment, not just manipulating an avatar like a puppet on a couple of awkward strings. You’ll be able to walk the walk and talk the talk.

Softskills

Model behaviours can be taught by giving you corrective feedback on variants from the model e.g. presentation skills, coaching skills, interviewing skills and so on.

Attention Deficit Disorder

One can easily imagine how children, or adults, with attention difficulties, could be trained to focus more on learning, or at least recognise the difference between their attentive and non-attentive mental states.

Physiotherapy

Recovery from physical injury and illness can include everything from the rehabilitation of amputees to basic physiotherapy. The new interfaces can provide amazingly accurate feedback on position and movement.

Sports coaching

The technology is now reaching levels of fidelity that bring them close to training people in the optimal use of their body, club, racquet or bat. No surprise then that the first crop of games using these newer interfaces are in sports simulations.

Tools and instruments

The physical use of tools in trades and engineering can be measured along with most sophisticated use of scalpels and surgical instruments, where keyhole surgery had demanded higher and higher levels of dexterity.

Conclusion

These different technologies, separately or together, offer mind boggling possibilities in learning. They will become smaller, faster (less latency) and cheaper over the next few years. In practice a ‘Bird in hand, may be better than bird in bush?’ Retaining the physical controller may not be such a bad idea, as many games and simulations have the manipulation of an object as their goal. If you want to perfect that golf swing, then the enhanced Wii controller or Playstation Move may be better in terms of accuracy and feel. In terms of learning the manipulation of tools, instruments in surgery, sports racquets, bats, manual handling, button pressing and so on may be betters served by this approach. Recent interface advances on the WII, Natal, sensors and cognitive controllers (using just your brain to do things), all point towards a future where learning by doing trumps the hokey, training world of role playing and breakout groups. Another relevant advance is the recent introduction of real time brain scanners which can (to a degree) evaluate the success of such training. Mind control and mind reading are now firmly on the horizon.

Dinosaurs do not give birth to gazelles

BETT 2009 was weird this year. Confusing and oddly old-fashioned. It was more Flash Gordon than Google. I knew something was wrong when I heard senior government people talk about the next big thing – the Multi Touch Table. I couldn’t get my head around this – tell me again, you sit down at an interactive screen on a table? I’m old enough to remember Star War games on tables in pubs – they died a quick death because games migrated to PCs, consoles and mobiles. So my immediate thought was that this is a stupid,old-fashioned idea, the wrong technology at the wrong time. My first impressions were confirmed. It is horrifically expensive, hyped by Microsoft and hopelessly misguided.

Let’s lay some cards on this table. It’s a means for Microsoft to get into the classroom and ultimately into every school. Since when did Microsoft become the experts in hardware? You don’t look to them for innovation – they’re the ultimate jumpers on bandwagons. It’s simply a way of them getting their feet literally under the table. Remember Bill gates saying "The Internet? We are not interested in it." (1993). Dinosaurs do not give birth to gazelles!
Like the Whiteboard fixation, it suits people who only believe that technology should only be used in the classroom. All of the Interactive Multi-touch Tables I saw (RM. SMART, VIPRO and Microsoft Surface) were expensive cons. They overhype collaborative learning and at a prohibitive cost. I couldn't even get my legs under one, as it was box-like. Spend your money on more teachers, books, netbooks, woolly hats....anything other than these expensive table-tops.

CES 2009 far more interesting
There was none of this nonsense at CES. What’s was new there and how will it impact e-learning? First - realism. The future is tight, and we’ll all have to squeeze our spending. But in recessionary times, some technology is timely. At CES the technology is smaller, lighter, smarter, greener and easier to use. It’s wireless and more connected. But here’s the killer – it’s cheaper.

In learning, technology is always ahead of pedagogy and sociology. In fact, technology seems to be creating its own sociological patterns and pedagogies through massive, global business models, tested on the web and filtered by the opinions of millions of users and buyers. On top of the huge advances made through Google, Wikipedia, media sharing, blogs, wikis and social networking, we now have an explosion of cheap, powerful and easy to use technology. 2009 promises to be a period of evolution not revolution where things really do get better, cheaper, smarter and greener.

Another pesky Seven Great things to watch list
1. Netbooks - next big small thing
Sales of these tiny laptops are expected to triple this year, as dirt cheap as $2-300. The lovely Assus Eee PCs are an astonishing $269-699 with one model offering a swivel screen that turns it into a tablet. HP, MSI, Sony and others have an array of little wireless laptops that will slip into a sizeable pocket. With ubiquitous wireless this will allow mass market mobile internet access. These cheap netbooks and laptops work because of wireless.

The one laptop per child programme is getting into gear and Moore’s Law has some way to go, with some predicting the $10 pocket computer. This points towards a future where every child, even in developing countries could have access to a wealth of educational resources. It simply makes lots of sense for every pupil and student to have such a device for research, writing, assignments, submitting assignments, accessing content, communications with peers and teachers. The first step is to make IT a necessary condition for a job as a teacher, trainer or lecturer. The next challenge is content.

2. e-books – it’s about reading not ‘books’
This is the first wave of a technology that will not go away. There’s the Kindle, Sony Reader, Astak, eSlick and a few more with good feeds from publishers.The idea of having thousands of books on tap is mouth watering for everyone but those who ‘just love the smell of books’ (toxic bleaching chemicals).

For learning, we have Nintendo releasing 100 Classic Books for the DS at £20 and, of course, the internet projects such as Project Gutenberg, with over 25,000 free e-books available on the web. Their aim is to "to provide as many e-books in as many formats as possible for the entire world to read in as many languages as possible."

3. Mobiles – more power in your pocket
Apple still lead the pack with astonishing iPHONE and its wonderful apps, but Android has a growing developer community and a slew of Android phones will appear this year. There’s a resurgent Palm, gesture enabled and LG in catch up mode. Coming soon is the ability to watch TV on your mobile. Two wackier variations on the mobile are the Watchphone, a mobile on your wrist with camera for videoconferencing (LG), and the mobile that’s also a projector. Oh, and I nearly forgot, Google’s voice activated search from Mobiles. Then there’s the add-ons for mobile devices. Cinemiser – specs that plug into your iPOD to watch video, these are also 3D. I’ve tried these are they really are very impressive. Great for long flights. And microphones for iPODs, good for recording lectures to distances up to 45 feet.

From a learning point of view, it is the open developer environments and applications that are of interest. The Touch Physics game is a sign of things to come but it must surely be useful to use these devices for language learning and a host of other subjects. Everything points towards mobile devices being more learning friendly. You can record video, record audio, communicate, organise and project. It’s simply a matter of integrating them into the learning process. The first step should surely be the universal recording of lectures for replay by students.

4. Toys – play to learn
Furry pets that purr and spring into life when you touch them, iPOD singing furry animal speaker pods. Little chicks that chirp and wriggle. Facebank piggybank that it eats your money through a moving mouth. Then there’s the more sophisticated literacy and numeracy toys.

Learn while you play. This market is huge as concerned parents want to give their little darlings a head start. Toys already have immense computing power and clearly do have the power to improve competence at an early age in key skills for learning such as reading, writing and numeracy.

5. Mind blowing control
I can remember selling headband controlled stress busting software in the 1980s! It’s only now we’re starting to see this creep into computer games and now, in an $80 blow football game from Matel.

Early days but one can see how this type of focus and psychological attention (a core problem in teaching children) could result in dramatic increases in learning and retention. We know that learning depends on attention and internal rehearsal. For some tasks this direct form of contextualised control could result in significant increases in understanding and retention. This could be a real breakthrough technology.

6. Game on
Computer consoles have become very powerful and relatively cheap. The Nintendo DS showed that there’s demand for handheld consoles and demand for games beyond the traditional genres. Games design is now being seriously applied to learning even in the consumer games market, with the likes of Buzz and Brain Training.

Brain Training showed that a simple handheld console game can be bought and enjoyed by all ages. The games industry is already producing credible learning software with a study showing that Brain Training improves numeracy in primary schools. Good authoring software for 3D games is available from Caspian Learning and there’s an understanding that game pedagogy has massive motivational advantages.

7. Cloud on the horizon
Conceptually, there’s a cloud coming in computing, which combined with cheap wireless laptops may truly put learning in the hands of learners at very low prices. We really do have to question the vast expense of VLE installation in schools when a cloud solution is around the corner. Why get every school to procure, install and maintain their own VLE when this type of service is available outside of the institution? Interesting security gadgets include physical security devices that scans everything before it enters your PC and identification devices like Yubico with their three factor authentication.