Some of the most exciting ideas in assistive technology are in the research and testing stage today. These emergent technologies are not yet proven, but they show promise to change the lives of people living with physical and cognitive disabilities. First, a caution. With over 40 years of research and integration of technology into education, we have very little to show for it. Unlike the experience of business, military, manufacturing, and healthcare, the education institutions have not experienced massive change or improvement. Hopefully, that will change, but we shouldn’t hold our collective breath (would not be healthy).
Here’s the first report (2021) of a national coalition of well-known institutions in the U.S. on evidence for what technology works in education. Their goal is to create a taxonomy or “EdTech Genome” of all the technologies and how they help learning. Please download and review the executive summary and brief findings. Ask yourself if there is ANY substantive knowledge that they present. THIS IS THE STATE OF OUR FIELD!
EdTech Evidence Exchange first report – PDF download:
https://edtechevidence.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/1.-FINAL-EdTechGenomeProject-FinalReport_7-27-21.pdf
Physical Disabilities
- Sensory Disability – Curing Blindness (Ritinitis pigmentosa) – Mar, 2021 – SecondSight vision prosthesis receives FDA approval to treat retinitis pigmentosa blindness: https://secondsight.com/
Brain-Computer Interface (Brain Implant)
Check out the milestones in 2020: https://futurehuman.medium.com/here-are-the-major-advances-in-brain-implants-that-happened-in-2020-14ee5d806aad
- ]Stentrode – a Brain-Computer Interface to communicate with the outside world or with the inside world of paralyzed or robotic body parts. Imagine the ability to implant a “neural lace” of electrodes INSIDE your brain without opening your skull! Synchron received first FDA approval for human subject trial of this brain implant to address paralysis: https://futurism.com/neoscope/neuralink-rival-approval-test-brain-implant-humans
- Watch the 2-minute video to see direct brain-to-action with Synchron’s Stentrode: Translating Thought Into Action: 2-min, 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNo2StiHEnE
Cognitive Disabilities
- Akili -may be the FIRST digital medication – a game that can be prescribed by a doctor to treat learning disorders! Here’s their website: https://www.akiliinteractive.com
- AtentivMYND uses a headband that picks up brain waves (brain activity) related to attention. The system is intended to help AD/HD students train their brains to become more attentive and less distracted. The system is made by Atentiv.com, and here’s their website: https://atentiv.com
- BrainCo’s Focus 1 EEG headband system for class attention monitoring (2-min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ3eW3qQ2pk
- The Focus 1 headband system is being tested now in Chinese schools (below). Note that BrainCo’s headband technology was developed at the Harvard University Innovation Lab. There’s a link below the video to explore BrainCo’s offerings and partners if you wish, so China is testing it with students, but it’s not a Chinese invention. Also note that the U.S. “expert” interviewed toward the end should be taken with a grain of salt. He knew nothing about a technology that my Lehigh students worked with 5 years before his interview!:
optional: Link to the BrainCo website to see how their technology is used in large U.S. companies and even in Olympics training! It’s a real thing. Just not yet accepted in the education community: https://www.brainco.tech/use-cases-new/
Autism – Robots for Therapy and Learning
Texas School approves Robots4Autism curriculum – April, 2018
https://www.techlearning.com/ed-tech-ticker/texas-school-adopts-robots4autism-curriculum-for-students-with-autism
How Kaspar Helps Autistic Kids Socialize (June, 2018): http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-05/the-creepy-looking-robot-teaching-kids-social-skills/9832530
Milo from Robots4Autism: https://robots4autism.com/
Nao – advanced robot with children (May, 2018): https://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20180509/meet-nao-the-robot-that-helps-kids-with-autism
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
First, a quick difference between VIRTUAL and AUGMENTED Reality (VR and AR). “Augmented” reality adds something to your existing perception of reality, it never takes anything away. “Virtual” reality has the capability of replacing your reality. VR can take away the visual, auditory, and spacial awareness of your world and place you in a world of its own that is the ONLY world you can sense while in the VR experience. AR is beginning to be a wonderful educational tool, but VR has inspired the most interesting research and development for learning disabled students.
Since 1998, autism researchers have studied Virtual Reality as a major treatment for some autistic issues. Even in the 1990’s, it was clear that virtual reality could create a safe, fully-controlled, immersive experience for autistics, especially children. The VR experiences have most commonly involved controlled introduction of social interactions, an activity that many autistics avoid. With repeated, gradual successes with increasingly demanding social interactions, autistics can overcome some of their fears; or at least they can try management strategies in a safe environment. The article below shares current autistic-VR research and projects what we can expect as this field matures and become commonplace in home and schools. Note the excellent biography at the end of the article if you’d like to explore some of the foundational research:
Read “The Future of Autism & Virtual Reality (What to Expect)” (2021): https://www.joinsprouttherapy.com/studio/autism/virtual-reality
Virtual Reality to Expand Student Experience and Imagination
One of the most common developmental delays in underprivileged students is limited exposure to the kinds of experiences that most kids have had. Simple examples would be a visit to a zoo, an ocean beach, riding a subway, or exposure to different languages. Virtual reality experiences captured in the videos below show how compelling these activities can be. Ideally, they would be experienced in full immersion, wearing a headset that automatically shows what you’d be looking at as you move your head. Such headsets like those made by Oculus and VIVE completely replace the student’s immediate environment with the virtual immersive visual and audio experience. Movement and interaction is possible with many VR experiences.
As students are taught more advanced subjects that are more challenging to understand, immersive virtual reality becomes a powerful way to not-just-read-or-see new ideas and processes, the new content is learned through almost-real experience with it. These systems are in use today for military training, business simulations, and some education.
How about VR to ease the discomfort (trauma?) of childbirth? Several studies have shown that calming scenes and sounds through an immersive VR headset can make the painful contractions of childbirth more bearable. Similar VR treatments to block out excessive sensory input are ideal for children and adults to block or minimize the loud sound, bright light, or excessive movement that characterize many with sensory processing disorder.
360° VR Videos. For best results, show the videos FULL SCREEN. As soon as the video loads, use your mouse or touchpad to move the viewpoint to see left, right, up, or down or to zoom in or out as you move through the 3-dimensional space. The first video is a 2-min VR experience designed by autistics to show the rest of us what it feels like to be an autistic child in a normal situation with your mother. You’ll see how simple-but-unexpected events can cause a meltdown. Remember to move the FULL SCREEN image around with your mouse or touchpad for best effect (best we can do without a headset, that is). Afterwords, ask yourself about the power of this 2-minute VR experience:
Now imagine flying around Angel Falls, one of the highest waterfalls in the world! Remember to zoom in and out, look up and down:
- VR visit to Petra archaeological site – the city carved in stone in Jordan. One of the most famous tourist destinations in the world. (I almost got to visit, but flooding in the canyon closed it while I was in Jordan. This VR experience showed me what I missed.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSiv4TkfSOE
- Enter and explore Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting in 3-dimensions through VR. A new artistic medium and new artistic experience! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Dt9ziemYA
- Explore surrealist painter Salvador Dali’s work, Archeological Reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus, in 3-dimensions for a true surreal experience. (I explored this with the VIVE headset where I could move independently through 3D space. Climbing inside one of the towers and venturing out on to the rock outcropping was one of the most memorable and terrifying experiences of my life! You are THERE, with nothing but air below you. You can look up, down, and [thankfully] back to the interior of the tower.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1eLeIocAcU
- You ask for Victoria Falls in Africa? Here it is in 3-dimensions from the edge! And yes, you can look DOWN safely! (2-min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsMjBMxpUTc
We can expect dramatic growth in both AR and VR research and treatments for some disorders, though products aimed at treatments for specific disabilities will likely be too expensive for the near future.