Augmented Reality Is Lighter, Fancier, Easier, and Oozing with Sex Appeal – Workshop Tip #233

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Victor Tsimpinos is a good friend of mine. We used to work together with Volvo in the Chesapeake Bay Area. He shared this amazing tech video on LinkedIn and I’m thankful to have seen it. It is a VR/AR laptop from zSpace, Inc. that can ultimately change the way we study and learn.

It’s fascinating how technology is constantly pushing the boundaries. This could be a real gamechanger in training and learning especially in fields like medicine and engineering. Classes are now being developed into a lighter and easier process.  

A lot has been written about the many benefits of applying augmented reality for learning. Personally, the most significant one is not even in the context of learning, per se, but is on the aspect of taking action. Clark Quinn in one of his blogs explained that training and learning are really about making decisions and taking action. So with augmented reality, few things happen:

1. It facilitates faster yet more detailed processing of the problem issue or situation. This is in line with the concept of working and learning in the workflow. For example, you are in a shop and looking over a piece of equipment. You used augmented reality glasses so you can thoroughly examine the equipment. In an instant, you get to see options and make decisions on how you can approach the problem better.
2. The lightweight feature of the glasses makes it easier to do your trial and error expeditiously. In just a click of a button, you can test several options and make temporary decisions without necessarily impacting your equipment. Therefore, augmented reality accelerates problem-solving with zero to minimal risks. Accelerated problem-solving translates to stimulated discovery learning and improvements in the way jobs are done.
3. My final impression and takeaway are the following. Augmented reality is primarily similar to workflow learning. It fuses the process of getting relevant knowledge to fixing problems. Workflow learning is about the worker trying to figure out the solution, trying to find an answer, trying to test a concept, and trying to get a matrix, or what I call the Diagnostic Process. During the process of continuously diagnosing and solving problems, as in the case of augmented reality, workers learn as a result.

So, the next time you’re looking at new augmented reality products or any other tech tools, you always want to reflect back on how would it accelerate making decisions at work and consequently learning at work.

References:

HRtechnologist.com, The Impact of Augmented Reality in Training

Clark Quinn, Mental Models for Learning Design

Ray Jimenez, Ph.D. blog Technical eLearning Made Easy