FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 6, 2018
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Immersive technology has the ability to either connect or isolate members of society, said an assistant professor of learning technology during her lecture on Tuesday.
Professor Aleshia Hayes is from the University of North Texas and was invited by Purdue’s Information Technology Department to participate in the fifth annual Dawn or Doom conference.
During her lecture, Hayes discussed the growing field of immersive technology and how virtual reality, in particular, can serve both good and bad purposes in people’s everyday lives.
“We get to decide how we use the technology,” said Hayes. “Every person of every discipline has something to contribute to this field.”
Virtual reality is beneficial because it can be used to help people with social anxiety, to gain empathy for others, and to ultimately connect with people in the real world, said Hayes. She also noted how virtual reality can be implemented in both school and work settings for educational purposes.
Negative effects of virtual reality include isolation from social interaction, addiction to content within the virtual world, and the ability to bully others in a virtual setting, said Hayes.
Hayes went on to explain how immersive technology and virtual reality are still in their beginning stages. The idea of incorporating this technology into everyday life hasn’t stuck yet, but there is an increasing awareness of it, said Hayes.
“I’ve heard some theorists say that we are at the brick-phone stage of virtual reality, and I tend to agree,” said Hayes. “We still have a long way to go with VR, but it is pretty exciting.”
Hayes ensured that, although she is the director of a virtual reality lab, she doesn’t want virtual reality to completely take over. Rather, she expressed that she wants people to be able to take advantage of the technology when it’s appropriate.
The discussion by Hayes was ended with what is on the horizon for virtual reality. Both the ability to taste and smell in a virtual world are fields being worked on in the world of immersive technology.
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Writer: Carly Miller, mill1891@purdue.edu, 765-635-6111
Source: Aleshia Hayes, @AleshiaProf
Carly Miller 