When Meta held its annual conference in late September, the tech giant announced that it is betting that the next wave of computing will come in the form of smart glasses.
Mark Zuckberberg, founder and CEO of Meta, showed off what he described as the first working prototype of Orion, which allows users to see both the physical world and a computer screen floating in the field of view.
“They're not headphones,” he said on stage as he announced the device, which looked like an unusually thick pair of glasses. “This is the physical world with holograms superimposed.”
For educators, this might not be good news.
After all, one of the hottest topics in educational technology these days is the growing practice of banning smartphones in schools, after teachers reported that the devices distract students from classroom activities and socializing. in person with others. And a growing body of research, popularized by Jonathan Haidt's book. amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>”The anxious generation” maintains that the use of smartphones and social networks damages the mental health of adolescents.
When it becomes difficult enough to regulate the appropriate use of smartphones, what will it be like to manage a flood of children wearing computers on their faces?
However, some educational technology experts see advantages when the technology is ready to be used in educational activities.
The idea of using virtual reality headsets to enter an educational multiverse (the last big idea Meta was promoting when it changed its corporate name from facebook three years ago) hasn't gained much traction, in part because having a classroom full of students equipped with helmets. and holding controllers can be difficult for teachers (not to mention it's expensive to get all that equipment). But if smart glasses become cheap enough to carry a cart with enough pairs for each student so everyone can do some activity together that combines the virtual world with in-person interactions, they could be a better option.
“Augmented reality allows for more collaborative sharing and working than virtual reality,” says Maya Georgieva, who runs an innovation center for virtual reality and augmented reality at The New School in New York City. “Many of these augmented reality applications build on the notion of active learning and experiential learning naturally.”
And there is some initial research that has found that augmented reality experiences in education can lead to improvements in learning outcomes since, as a recent research work Simply put, they “transform the learning process into a full-body experience.”
Cheating glasses?
The Orion glasses that Zuckerberg unveiled last week aren't ready for prime time; in fact, Meta's CEO said they won't be released to the general public until 2027.
(EdSurge receives philanthropic support from the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, which is co-owned by Meta's CEO. Learn more about EdSurge's ethics and policies here and its supporters here.)
But the company already sells smart glasses through a partnership with sunglasses maker Ray-Ban, which now retail for around $300. and other companies technology/gadgets/a44067373/best-ar-smart-glasses/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>manufacture similar products as well.
These devices, which have somehow been on the market for a couple of years, do not have a screen. But they do have a small built-in computer, a camera, a microphone and speakers. And recent advances in ai mean that newer models can serve as a talking version of a chatbot that users can access when they are away from their computer or smartphone.
While the number of students owning smart glasses seems low so far, there have already been some reports of students using smart glasses to try to cheat.
This year, for example, in Tokyo, an 18-year-old allegedly wore smart glasses. trying to cheat on a university entrance exam. He apparently took photographs of his exam questions, posted them online during the test, and was given the answers by users of x, formerly twitter (which he was presumably able to hear read on his smart glasses). He was detected and his test results were invalidated.
Meanwhile, students are sharing videos on TikTok explaining how to use smart glasses to cheat, even low-end models that have few “smart” features.
“Using these smart blue light glasses in a test would be absolutely diabolical,” he says. the video of a TikTok userwhich describes a pair of glasses that can simply be paired with a smartphone via Bluetooth and cost only about $30. “They look like normal glasses, but they have speakers and microphones so you can cheat on a test. So just pre-record your exam or your answers or watch a video while you're on the exam and just listen to it and no one will be able to tell that you're watching or listening to something.”
In Discussions on RedditTeachers have been wondering whether this technology will make it even harder to know whether the work students do is their own, compounding the problems caused by ChatGPT and other new ai tools that have given students new ways from cheating on tasks that are difficult to do. detect.
One commenter even suggested simply stopping doing tests and assignments and trying to find new ways to assess students' knowledge. “I think we have too many assessments that have limited benefits and no one here wants to run a police state to check if students really did what they say they did,” the user wrote. “I would appreciate it if someone had a functional and viable alternative to the current standard. The old way will benefit the rich and dishonest, while the disadvantaged and the moral will suffer (not that this is new).”
Some of the school and state policies that prohibit smartphones could also apply to these new smart glasses. A state law in Florida, for example, restricts the use of “wireless communication devices”, which could include glasses, watches or any new device that is invented that connects electronically.
“I would compare it a lot to when smartphones really came on the scene and became a regular part of our everyday lives,” says Kyle Bowen, a veteran educational technology expert who is now associate chief information officer at Arizona State University. and notes that these glasses could affect a variety of activities if they become fashionable, including education.
He predicts there could be advantages to college classrooms.
The benefit he sees for smart glasses is the combination of ai and the devices, so that students can get real-time feedback on, for example, a lab exercise, asking the chatbot to evaluate what it sees through the glasses chamber while the students perform the task.
