Maaroof Fakhri, Head of K12 Education at Labster, joins the podcast to discuss immersive education in the metaverse, and why “productive failure” is where the best learning happens.
One of the most important lessons a student can learn is to fail early and often — by doing so, they discover how to tackle challenges consistently.
In this episode, Maaroof Fakhri, Head of K12 Education at Labster, describes the process of “productive failure,” and how immersive education in the metaverse can help students fail in a budget-friendly and safe environment.
The Importance of Failure Over Success
Failing can be fun. This seems counterintuitive, doesn't it? Failing is usually associated with negative consequences: If you don’t succeed, then the whole process is useless.
But students learn along the way with any project they take on, regardless of its success or failure. Consider the problem solving required when a project goes awry. When a project veers from the original plan, a student actually has more opportunity to learn new things.
Maaroof taught productive failure at schools in the form of a science project. Dressed as a superhero who couldn’t fly, he tasked students with the challenge of getting him into the air.
It usually took several failed attempts to help Maaroof fly with the help of an airplane or rocket before students found the solution: placing him in a hot air balloon. But even if the students didn't find a satisfactory solution, one thing was true: They had fun figuring it out.
By practicing productive failure, students are less rattled when they take on truly big challenges. The real world rarely provides a problem that can be solved without surprises; we must help the problem solvers of tomorrow recognize this truth.
Limitations of Budget and Student Safety
The current school situation isn’t as conducive to productive failure as it could be. Think of the science lab where two students must share a microscope, a school budget that only allows each student to conduct an experiment once, or the safety concerns that restrict students from dangerous, but important, situations.
Virtual simulations can help solve this problem: A student can try the experiment as many times as they need, at the pace they need. They don't have to worry about real-life safety concerns, such as lab fires or other dangerous situations.
Teachers can also keep a closer eye on all of their students. In a traditional lab, a teacher can only be in so many places at once. In a virtual setting, the teacher can check a student’s mastery afterwards, identify any problems, and report back to the student with a more formulated solution than if they needed to answer on the spot.
Virtual environments also don’t have to follow the same rules as a traditional lab. They can feature fantastical storylines by going into outer space, zooming into the structure of a molecule, or seeing a mysterious creature wash up on a beach shore. These possibilities can offer firsthand experience in how science works.
Learning from Video Games
Most students like video games. It makes sense: With interactive, engaging storylines and reward systems, there’s a real payout to playing.
Taking those same principles and applying them to traditional learning, Labster has found a sweet spot for students to get the most out of their lab experience — even helping lagging students catch up with their coursework more quickly than a traditional approach.
The Equity of Access
If a school already has budget constraints, adding virtual reality seems out of the question (Just one Oculus headset costs approximately $300).
Fortunately, Labster has been around for a lot longer than the recent metaverse boom taking place. Operating from mostly low-end laptops and tablets that schools tend to already have, the opportunity to use virtual reality resources is readily available for most schools.
While Maaroof doesn’t see a total shift over to virtual reality labs, he hopes to see more schools embrace the tool in the classroom to help students get the most out of their education and build their ability to productively fail.
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