Carlos J. Ochoa, Co_Chair VRARA Education Committee. Piacenza (Italy) 24.09.2019
“The true sign of intelligence
is not knowledge but imagination” A. Einstein
New technologies are an emerging industry
creating employment opportunities and entrepreneurial possibilities. Virtual
reality and augmented reality represent incredible areas of opportunity
for future job skills. “VR” failed to live up to the wildest promises when the
new VR systems launched in 2015. Nevertheless, the number of job postings for “VR and AR” have risen 93% since 2015,
with 17% of that growth happening in the past year.
According to projections set out by the European
Commission, market demands for qualified information and communications
technology (ICT) specialists will not be met, seeing a shortfall of up to 500,000
ICT professionals in 2020. Virtual and Augmented Reality solutions are
amongst those with some of the highest market demand in the ICT sector by Marketwatch. The
global market for augmented reality and virtual reality is estimated to reach
USD 766 billion by 2025, registering a 73.7% CAGR during the forecast period of
2018 to 2025
New skills development for more complex jobs is
a daily industry demand. Technicians and engineers need to be proficient and
continue to change rapidly as tasks become more complex. They need to find the
right information at the right moment. Technicians need fast access to all
integrated data, to take fast, right and complex decisions.
Education is the driver to sustainability of our economy
and functionality of humanity. Educating the individual is
the country’s most valuable investment. It represents the foundation for
progress and development. Every day we seek to learn new information and the
way we take the lessons and apply to our everyday lives, is the core of how we
explore we grow and we build futures for ourselves.
If we wish to prepare a generation of citizens,
entrepreneurs and leaders for the 21th. century who can face real-world
problems, we must give them real-world problems to solve. Future
jobs opportunities around VR/AR.
Through virtual and augmented
realities,
the technology allows the user to immerse themselves into a virtual experience
or location and the immersive lesson is retained at a much quicker time frame
with a more impactful lasting memory. VR & Learning, by the National Training Laboratory, advised
retention rates for lecture style learning were at 5%, with reading rates at
10%. Meanwhile, the teaching method of VR scored a retention rate of 75%.
Understanding we are moving into a world with
exponential growth, there is a necessary requirement to update our education
system to support innovative technologies to understand how it will be applied
to job creation and support digital support systems and processes.
The demand of the companies in the industry sector, with respect to their
future workers, is that they have social skills and competencies such as
leadership, motivation, perseverance, flexibility, communication, etc. Focusing
on the development of skills and abilities aimed at a specific sector, in this
case the Virtual Reality subsector
ensures its better assimilation, greater effectiveness of training and a more
complete response to what companies demand in profiles of these
characteristics. For instance, in the Vocational
Training includes subjects oriented to career guidance and orientation, but
they lack a transversal skills development approach and these are not addressed
directly in the itineraries.
The integration of transversal skills required
for the sector, as well as technical competencies related to the latest trends,
will comprehensively cover the labour market demands of new technologies and
will ensure the best inclusion of VET
students in the technological labour market of the future. The
Future of Work by EAPN.EU.
It is time to take actions and introduce
disruptive elements in our education system. Traditional methodologies and
normalization already fail to provide rapid solution to the society needs.
Velocity and acceleration are key factor for this unpredictable horizon, where
education will play a key role for citizens of the future. Disruptive
Innovation in Education?.
Humanity is at the beginning of a Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is
building on both VR & AR applications and solutions. The changes to the way
we teach, and the curriculum needed to support innovative time is required to
support the graduating generations into a workforce rapidly changing and
evolving using digital applications not yet taught in our schools’ systems. Day
to day operations and day-to-day systems will be using VR and AR systems to be
engaged in the operations.
VR & AR for Education is mandated for the
following reasons:
- To engage our current students and future generations in the Digital
Age
- To provide education of the tools, the technology, the applications of
VR & AR to be used in future jobs
- To provide best
practices for the classrooms
- To provide engagement tools for Students, Parents & resources for
Teachers & Mentors
- To be the leader and resource of VR & AR applications that relate
to extending knowledge to support the application, build or creation of
the technology to use in our everyday lives
At this moment, some relevant topics need to be
include in the Disruptive
School Environment and new teacher’s agenda for Schools of the Future:
- Reimagining new Smart Spaces at schools
- Classroom as a set of devices
- 5 Senses learning a immersive learning technologies
- Improve the hierarchy of needs in XR in Education
- Convergence of technologies with and integrated vision
- Soft skills integration with IT in the “Teachers
Training Program”.
- Collaboration Platforms. Virtual environments where the educational
community can share best practices and experiences in a global and
multicultural environment. Videos, presentations and forums
integrate education materials from different sources in
different formats.
It is in this context where Carlos J. Ochoa, Co_Chair of VR/AR Association
Education Committee and Co-Founder of ICICLE ( X-Reality for Learning and Performance Augmentation,
collaboration
with Acer
Education presented “Immersive Realities in Educational 4.0 Ecosystems”
in the framework of Scuola e Virtuale in Piacenza.
Scuola e Virtuale, an international event along with Liceo Melchiorre Gioia, Impara Digitale, Indire and Microsoft, to spread awareness about
immersive technologies in education, where more than 1000 professionals
attendants ( teachers, students, managers and experts from different industries
and sectors).
Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©
He is living now in a privileged place: Guadarrama Natural Park – https://bit.ly/3dDukjB
Creativity 
: Unique vision, Build Trust, Work a lot, Value Time, Strong Team, Good mentors, Create a Business Plan (importance of performing a Market Analysis, know your competitors!)
Carlos J. Ochoa Fernandez 