Pearson has launched its latest augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) educational technology in the Middle East region in collaboration with Microsoft and Google.

This includes content for Microsoft HoloLens, the brand new augmented reality viewer, as well as content for VR including interactive 360° courseware.

Microsoft’s HoloLens, is the world’s first untethered augmented reality system. HoloLens is a device that allows users to interact with holograms within their own environment, creating enormous opportunity for enhanced experiences in the classroom.

Pearson is Microsoft’s education sector launch partner for the HoloLens device and is currently running a series of trials at schools globally. The content created by Pearson for the device includes a ‘Build a Castle’ app, where students can create their own medieval European castle.

Pearson said it is developing interactive VR 360° content to be used via devices such as Google Cardboard as well as via any web browser. This immersive content is aimed at taking student to places, or to time periods that they would other wise not be able to experience, it added.

It has developed content including a 3D tour of the London Transport Museum, given from the perspective of Albert Stanley, a British-American businessman who saved the London transportation system in the early 1900s.

The unveiling of the AR/VR technology in the Middle East comes as the market for this technology in the region looks set to expand rapidly, given the potential of the technology to enact transformation across a number of sectors.

Education, healthcare and gaming are just some of the industries where this technology is expected to have an impact.

Mark Christian, the learning and innovation director for Pearson, believes that AR/VR has the potential to advance learner outcomes across the Middle East.

"The technology used in immersive offerings like that of Google Expeditions or HoloLens was not a possibility only a few years ago," he stated.

Christian pointed out that AR/VR opens up a world of experiences to learners. "A fifth grade student in Dubai is now able to virtually experience Mars or the Great Barrier Reef – imagine what that means for engaging and motivating learners. Experiencing these places virtually offers a more enriched learning experience than can be provided by traditional texts," he added.

Sue Mainey, the director of marketing for Pearson in the Middle East, poined out that this new technology was affording countless new opportunities for learning.

"It has the potential to bring learning alive for students all around the world in ways we never imagined possible. As the world’s learning company, Pearson has been at the forefront of the educational revolution virtual reality has triggered, noted Mainey.

"We are committed to ensuring learners reap the benefits of the latest VR innovations and I am delighted to see such widespread interest in the technology here in the Middle East, from learners and educators. I am very much looking forward to seeing the impact it will have on learners in the region over the months and years ahead," she added.-TradeArabia News Service