During today’s conversation on online learning, a student mentioned the benefits of in-person learning regarding human connection. After the last year and a half, most of us crave getting back to a sense of normalcy and a huge part of that is being in person.
We also talked about Facebook’s new “Meta”. I watched the video of Zuckerberg explaining their new advances over the next few years. In conjunction with the whistleblower news that’s been quite interesting to follow for the last few weeks, it was rather concerning to watch this video. It seems the company will be rather focused on AR, using goggles which inevitably will be expensive. I feel like the creation of this new technology will absolutely exclude those who can’t afford such technology or don’t have access to internet. It also takes away that human component. Zuckerberg suggests that you could play a game in your living room and have your friends “sitting” around the table with you. Personally, I would much rather actually invite my friends over and play a game with them rather than see them in avatar form through goggles. This new technology creates a completely false reality- under the guise of connection. I view this endeavour as having potential to further isolate us and I can see people becoming more and more disengaged with their surroundings.
In terms of education, I don’t foresee this tool being useful in the classroom. It is much more beneficial in my opinion to have students together in a room rather than in an alternate reality. It could have the potential to worsen how youth view themselves in comparison to their peers and who has access to these platforms and who doesn’t. Further, we know how much time youth are spending on screens and because of the whistleblower, we know how detrimental social media is to young brains. I see these developments at Meta as upsetting and irresponsible for the greater good.
In education, I’m focused on bringing youth together to have tangible, meaningful experiences that involve the physical world around us. While I do absolutely believe that technology has a role here, I don’t see myself as an educator gravitating towards these types of tech-immersive experiences which augment actual reality. I’m interested to see where this goes in the next few years- and whether or not Meta will begin to infiltrate schools as Google and Microsoft have.
