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> Although this is only tangential, the untapped potential for AR (once the price comes down) in education is absolutely fantastic. I'm highly, highly skeptica

> Although this is only tangential, the untapped potential for AR (once the price comes down) in education is absolutely fantastic. I'm highly, highly skeptical. There is a lot of evidence that people (especially children) learn much better through low tech approaches than higher tech ones (I'm pretty sure there was an article on HN recently comparing how kids learned when reading paper books compared to screens).

dyauspitr 2y ago
At that point if you can understand context and overlay relevant information, it’s not education, it’s augmentation.
djtango 2y ago
As usual the answer is probably "it depends" Old school pen and paper and physical books tap into tactile learning. Even writing on my tablet isn't as good as just scribbling on some scratch so I'm definitely team analogue. But its hard to not get excited for the prospect of being able to bring stuff like the dinosaurs and space to life for kids.
UltraSane 2y ago
AR wouldn't completely replace regular forms of learning but it does AUGMENT them very well. There are VR chemistry and anatomy programs that are amazing. Being able to scale a 3D model up and down in size is amazing.
14 2y ago
Ya I would love to see the studies and know exactly how they are gauging such things. I can say that my children have learned all sorts of things they would have never learned without technology. I honestly think it more has to do with what they are pushed to do on said technology. Yes your kid watching 8 hours of prank videos is stupid. But I make mine watch things like how to draw and they draw along with it, they have improved so much as artists. I have loaded up videos on how to do certain math that I had forgotten over the years and they are able to see someone explain how to go through the steps. With out that they would be stuck waiting on the teacher and the limited time between all students. Even something like obd2 readers is tech honestly. The other day I took my 8 year old out to my car as it was not running right. I showed him how to use the reader. Then showed that my car had a p0304 code. I told him that is a misfire cylinder 4. Then showed him how to open hood and where my coils are and how the car had 4 cylinders. Then explained why cars misfire and that often it can just be the coils so test those first. Explained how we could swap coil 3 and 4 and check the code again. We did that and when I plugged reader back in the code was now p0303. My kid immediately yelled the coil is bad! Because he knew that since the code moved when we moved the coil that is the problem. All that said I do think yes tech can absolutely be used to improve learning in some situations. The obd2 reader is a bit basic yes but if we had AR I can think of dozens or hundreds of applications we could make from it. If I could afford it I would use it with my kids.
vishnugupta 2y ago
Would be great to see some citations. I'm particularly interested to know the kind of tech we are talking about here. If it's PPT and the likes then I tend to agree. If we are talking about tools like geogebra [1] where students can manipulate and play around then I'll be extremely surprised. [1] https://www.geogebra.org https://www.geogebra.org
topkai22 2y ago
It’s far more situational than that. Yes, ebooks by themselves aren’t as good as physical books, but there are plenty of studies showing positive effects of multimedia tools in various subjects. I don’t think AR is going to teach kids to read, but augmenting instruction in things like the trades, sciences, and sports all seem likely to have strong benefits. Experiential educational opportunities like museums and historical sites also seem like likely targets. A good analogue is video. Video can be a great tool in certain subjects- I still swear everything I know about protein synthesis is from a video in college- but it is generally used as an secondary rather than a primary tool. The video is from the 1970s and protein synthesis is explained through interpretative dance and and poetry. Its truly amazing https://youtu.be/u9dhO0iCLww?si=lTO95vbysVTB6DLa https://youtu.be/u9dhO0iCLww?si=lTO95vbysVTB6DLa
askvictor 2y ago
On top of that, someone needs to create the content. That's very expensive, and there's not a lot of return for it (in the school sector at least; there are undoubtedly specific higher education use cases that are warranted).
anal_reactor 2y ago
My school got a lot of computers from the "make poor areas great again" social programme. The teachers had no idea how to use them, and the computers went unused until we got a batch of new ones and the old ones were just recycled. One teacher put the extra effort to actually use the equipment. The plan failed miserably. The core of the issue was that getting a bunch of teenagers to learn things they don't want to learn requires divine intervention, not a single underqualified teacher on a mission because all the qualified ones have better career options than working themselves to death for what amounts to one and a half minimum wages in a trenchcoat but no government will put serious investment into education because such projects span multiple elections.

dyauspitr 2y ago

At that point if you can understand context and overlay relevant information, it’s not education, it’s augmentation.

djtango 2y ago

As usual the answer is probably "it depends" Old school pen and paper and physical books tap into tactile learning. Even writing on my tablet isn't as good as just scribbling on some scratch so I'm definitely team analogue. But its hard to not get excited for the prospect of being able to bring stuff like the dinosaurs and space to life for kids.

UltraSane 2y ago

AR wouldn't completely replace regular forms of learning but it does AUGMENT them very well. There are VR chemistry and anatomy programs that are amazing. Being able to scale a 3D model up and down in size is amazing.

14 2y ago

Ya I would love to see the studies and know exactly how they are gauging such things. I can say that my children have learned all sorts of things they would have never learned without technology. I honestly think it more has to do with what they are pushed to do on said technology. Yes your kid watching 8 hours of prank videos is stupid. But I make mine watch things like how to draw and they draw along with it, they have improved so much as artists. I have loaded up videos on how to do certain math that I had forgotten over the years and they are able to see someone explain how to go through the steps. With out that they would be stuck waiting on the teacher and the limited time between all students. Even something like obd2 readers is tech honestly. The other day I took my 8 year old out to my car as it was not running right. I showed him how to use the reader. Then showed that my car had a p0304 code. I told him that is a misfire cylinder 4. Then showed him how to open hood and where my coils are and how the car had 4 cylinders. Then explained why cars misfire and that often it can just be the coils so test those first. Explained how we could swap coil 3 and 4 and check the code again. We did that and when I plugged reader back in the code was now p0303. My kid immediately yelled the coil is bad! Because he knew that since the code moved when we moved the coil that is the problem. All that said I do think yes tech can absolutely be used to improve learning in some situations. The obd2 reader is a bit basic yes but if we had AR I can think of dozens or hundreds of applications we could make from it. If I could afford it I would use it with my kids.

vishnugupta 2y ago

Would be great to see some citations. I'm particularly interested to know the kind of tech we are talking about here. If it's PPT and the likes then I tend to agree. If we are talking about tools like geogebra [1] where students can manipulate and play around then I'll be extremely surprised. [1] https://www.geogebra.org https://www.geogebra.org

topkai22 2y ago

It’s far more situational than that. Yes, ebooks by themselves aren’t as good as physical books, but there are plenty of studies showing positive effects of multimedia tools in various subjects. I don’t think AR is going to teach kids to read, but augmenting instruction in things like the trades, sciences, and sports all seem likely to have strong benefits. Experiential educational opportunities like museums and historical sites also seem like likely targets. A good analogue is video. Video can be a great tool in certain subjects- I still swear everything I know about protein synthesis is from a video in college- but it is generally used as an secondary rather than a primary tool. The video is from the 1970s and protein synthesis is explained through interpretative dance and and poetry. Its truly amazing https://youtu.be/u9dhO0iCLww?si=lTO95vbysVTB6DLa https://youtu.be/u9dhO0iCLww?si=lTO95vbysVTB6DLa

askvictor 2y ago

On top of that, someone needs to create the content. That's very expensive, and there's not a lot of return for it (in the school sector at least; there are undoubtedly specific higher education use cases that are warranted).

anal_reactor 2y ago

My school got a lot of computers from the "make poor areas great again" social programme. The teachers had no idea how to use them, and the computers went unused until we got a batch of new ones and the old ones were just recycled. One teacher put the extra effort to actually use the equipment. The plan failed miserably. The core of the issue was that getting a bunch of teenagers to learn things they don't want to learn requires divine intervention, not a single underqualified teacher on a mission because all the qualified ones have better career options than working themselves to death for what amounts to one and a half minimum wages in a trenchcoat but no government will put serious investment into education because such projects span multiple elections.