Pearson Education has announced a new collaboration with Microsoft that has the ultimate goal of exploring the power of mixed reality. As part of the collaboration, North American universities will begin using Microsoft’s HoloLens in courses.
Ultimately, with the HoloLens, Pearson also hopes to solve real challenges in areas of learning, ranging from online tutoring and coaching, nursing education, and engineering to construction and surveyor training. As an example, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock and San Diego State University are both part of a Pearson mixed reality pilot aimed at leveraging mixed reality to solve challenges in nursing education.
Lorraine Bardeen, general manager for Microsoft Windows and HoloLens Experiences expressed appreciation for the collaboration, and said:
“We are thrilled to partner with Pearson to expand the curriculum available to students to learn through the power of holograms on Microsoft HoloLens… Complex systems are more easily understood in 3D… HoloLens gives students access to things they may never be able to see in real life – historical artifacts, natural history, hands-on training, and a connection to the broader world.”
According to Pearson, With virtual reality, the user is immersed in a simulated world. Augmented reality overlays digital information on top of the real world. Mixed reality merges the virtual and physical worlds to create a new reality whereby the two can coexist and interact. There are also other plans for HoloLens, and the company is in the early stages of evaluating the impact of holographic learning at the late grammar school stage.
