Besides Artificial Intelligence, another component of “Synthetic Media” that is creating a new dimension of learning and knowledge is extended reality (also called XR, extended reality, technology that creates an immersive multimedia experience).
What is the predominant feeling in the immersive experience? The user, particularly the child, experiences augmented perceptions, becoming almost an X-Men with sensory superpowers:
- It teleports to another place (remote places, the ocean, planets…)
- Travel through time, past and future (into ancient civilizations, future plans…)
- Sees through walls or objects (glimpses seeds in the ground, internal organs of the human body…)
- It can fly (over landscapes and cities…)
- Change size (as small as a bee, as tall as a skyscraper…)
- It has a super-view (active with hyperzoom eyes of microorganisms…)
This sensory super-power activated by extended reality can have a major impact on cognitive development, potentially enabling a new form of post-literate “immersive writing.”
The superpowers made available by Artificial Intelligence, on the other hand, do not pertain to the perceptual sphere, but more directly to the cognitive one: they consist, for example, of the ability to understand foreign languages, synthesize texts, and elaborate projects.
With AI, the risk of atrophying cognitive skills (secondary in extended reality) needs special attention.
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