Edtech Insiders
Edtech Insiders
Exploring Science in Virtual Reality with FotonVR’s Vijay Thakkar & Nisha Panchal
Vijay Thakkar is a visionary entrepreneur, educator, and the CEO & Co-founder of FotonVR. He’s transforming the way children learn by bringing immersive Virtual Reality experiences into classrooms around the world. With a deep passion for innovation in education, Vijay has pioneered immersive Virtual Reality solutions designed specifically for school learning.
Nisha Panchal is the Head of Global Business Development at fotonVR. With a strong focus on international business development and global expansion, Nisha plays a pivotal role in bringing fotonVR’s innovative classroom technology to schools across the world.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- How VR transforms abstract science concepts into tangible, engaging experiences
- Why localization and customization are key for global adoption of EdTech
- Measurable academic improvements linked to immersive learning
- How VR and AI are merging to create adaptive, real-time educational experiences
- What the future of globally connected VR classrooms looks like
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:03:44] Vijay on bringing immersive science experiences to 450+ schools globally
[00:06:52] Nisha explains how VR content is localized for different countries and curricula
[00:10:14] Entering a leaf: How VR makes photosynthesis unforgettable
[00:15:53] Making electricity flow visible: VR helps students see the invisible
[00:19:48] Inspiring the next generation: A child decides to be a scientist after a space simulation
[00:23:39] Balancing scientific accuracy with storytelling for maximum engagement
[00:28:49] Integrating AI into VR for adaptive, conversational learning experiences
[00:32:01] The vision of global multiplayer VR classrooms with real-time collaboration
[00:37:26] Tackling the digital divide with government partnerships and mobile AR
[00:42:00] Building volcanoes in the classroom: A mixed reality future for immersive teaching
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[00:00:00] Nisha Panchal: One of the most transformative example is how we teach the concept of electricity. Traditionally, students learn about MLO water meter and emitter without truly understanding how electricity flows. Mine doesn't understand how current is generated or how electrics move through conductor, but in our VR module, we'll break this down.
Students enter inside the conductor and they'll see metal molecules and electron moving through the surface of the molecules and jumping to other molecules. Moments of electrons is what we.
[00:00:36] Vijay Thakkar: So we have dedicated in-house content development team made up of subject matter experts who hold a master and bachelor degrees in specific subject like Fiji, chemistry, biology, and science.
And these experts are deeply familiar with the school curriculum and educational pedagogy. So they design content that not only explain the concept clearly, but also aligned with how students are taught in classroom. And it should be the scientifically accurate. Also, in addition to our internal team, we also get our content reviewed and validated by external academic faculty.
The real teacher who teach in the school, and the professor. Also, they help us to ensure our content meet. High educational standards and factually correct.
[00:01:26] Alex Sarlin: Welcome to EdTech Insiders, the top podcast covering the education technology industry from funding rounds to impact to AI developments across early childhood K 12 higher ed and work. You'll find it all
[00:01:40] Ben Kornell: here at EdTech Insiders. Remember to subscribe to the pod, check out our newsletter, and also our event calendar and to go deeper.
Check out EdTech Insiders Plus where you can get premium content access to our WhatsApp channel, early access to events and back channel insights from Alex and Ben. Hope you enjoy today's pod.
[00:02:06] Alex Sarlin: Vijay Thakkar is a visionary entrepreneur. Educator and the CEO and co-founder of FotonVR, he's transforming the way children learn by bringing immersive virtual reality experiences into classrooms around the world. With a deep passion for innovation in education, Vijay has pioneered immersive virtual reality solutions designed specifically for school learning.
Nisha Panchal is the head of global business Development at FotonVR. A strong focus on international business development and global expansion. Nisha plays a pivotal role in bringing FotonVR's innovative classroom technology to schools across the world. Welcome to the podcast. We have Vijay Thakkar, the CEO and Co-founder of FotonVR and Nisha Panchal head of Global Business Development at FotonVR.
Both of you, welcome to EdTech Insiders.
[00:03:00] Vijay Thakkar: Hello Alex. Thank you for inviting us for this podcast and we are happy to talk with you.
[00:03:06] Nisha Panchal: I'm glad to being here. Thank you so much for the invitation.
[00:03:10] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. I'm really excited to talk to both of you as well. You're doing some really interesting work and we're really excited to help amplify it outside of India because you're all over the world.
But I don't think the US market knows a lot about FotonVR. So as we start, Vijay, let me start with you. You have brought immersive VR educational experiences to over 450 schools. You do extended reality, virtual reality. Can you give us a little overview of what FotonVR is and how you're using extended reality and virtual reality to impact students'
[00:03:44] Vijay Thakkar: learning?
So over the years we've observed something truly powerful. When students interact with complex concept in 3D immersive environment, their understanding become deeper and more intuitive. Uh, traditional method often rely on memorization, especially for the abstract topic. Mm-hmm. But in vr, they experience the concept.
For example, walking inside the digestive system or visualizing entire water cycle in 360 degree make them the concept tangible. The feedback from teachers indicate that 30 to 40 percentage improvement in concept, understanding and retention, and drastic increase in students' engagement. They don't just learning, but they exploring the topic.
Let me share one example from one of our partner school that is Hamal School from India. After completing the V setup, we conducted detailed case study to measure the learning outcomes and make the measure differences in before and after the implementation of the lab, and the result was remarkable. We observed a noticeable increase in students' interest in science and interest is main point.
Once student start taking the interest in any subject, Alex, it become very easy for a teacher to train them or describe them. Any topic or any subject. The first point is student has to start taking interest in particular subject and where the virtual reality and augmented reality play a major role, and their academic performance is also
[00:05:24] Alex Sarlin: improved.
So there's lots of different benefits that I'm hearing you say from immersive vr, there's the engagement students by being immersed inside the body or in the water cycle as you're saying. They're starting to get really excited about these science concepts, and you've obviously already begun studying that excitement and engagement.
But there's also deeper conceptual understanding. So because they're, instead of learning it from a textbook or from a teacher's diagram on a blackboard, they're actually inside of it. I like your term. You know, they're exploring inside these scientific concepts, and this is exactly the dream of all of the virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality education.
Providers is how can we actually not only build engagement, but also actually affect academic performance? And it sounds like you're already doing it in a measurable way with FotonVR. Exactly. So Nisha, you are global business development and FotonVR. We mentioned it's, you have a lot of traction in India, but you're also in UAE.
You're in Korea, you're in South Africa, you're in Australia, you're in the UK and the us. You are in the midst of sort of taking what you've been building and going global with it. Tell us a little bit about what that is been. Like how do different education systems around the world respond to the integration of VR and ar?
Are they enthusiastic? Are certain areas super excited about this technology and other skeptical, or do you have to tell the same story in each place? Sure.
[00:06:52] Nisha Panchal: Alex, I would love to share my insights regarding global implementation perspective. Education system differ, differ across countries and even within visions.
From curriculum structure to teaching methods and technology adaption. At Foton, we, we understand this differences and have designed our solution to be highly flexible and adaptable. We currently offer more than nine science-based topics. Each district schools may follow a different syllabus, right, and teaching style.
Additionally, we closely work with them to customize the content. We have a system to customize a solution to according to school syllabus. Out of which 900 topics we select
sets our global.
Provide multiple languages option and. Even we offer content in local and more mother languages, so both teachers and student can learn in a way that feels familiar and comfortable. This level of customization makes it easier for schools to adapt new technologies like via without spreading the existing technology flow.
Understanding this and being flexible with implementation is a key to successful global adapt.
[00:08:21] Alex Sarlin: So I'm hearing translation, localization and customized curricular ordering or different, basically taking from your library, I think you mentioned over 900 different VR experiences and figuring out how to adapt them to different.
Countries, different districts, different school systems, in what order, which ones to use is one of the main ways you customize. I'm curious if you have seen differences in just reactions generally. I still think we're pretty early in the adoption of VR and AR in education. It's not that it's a huge part of any given school day or any school system.
People are. Just figuring out how to put it together. Do you see certain regions being more excited about the adaptation of VR A RXR into education than others?
[00:09:06] Nisha Panchal: Yes, of course. Alex uk, European countries like Germany, France are keen to accept this kind of technologies. They're already facilitated with the devices and they're finding content companies who can empower the devices with such content.
[00:09:25] Alex Sarlin: That's interesting to hear. I wonder if some of those countries, the European countries have interesting histories of sort of vocational education or of. Conceptual advanced science education for certain types of students. So I wonder if it fits into their models of how education works. Vijay, I wanna dig down into a specific example here.
You mentioned going through the body or the water cycle, but you have 900 different VR experiences and you're obviously continuing to build lots of them. Tell us about what it looks like on the ground where a student. It takes something that would be a difficult topic in science, something complex that involves lots of interactions or it's just something that's very hard to traditionally get your head around and it becomes more comprehensible and easier to understand through VR learning.
What's sort of a really clear go-to example of where this. Adds a lot of value in the classroom.
[00:10:14] Vijay Thakkar: If I talk about the one standout example is the concept of photosynthesis that happened inside the leaf of the plant. Traditionally it was taught with the diagram and theory, heavy explanation. But in VR, we take student to the, okay, and we take them near to the plant and we cut one leaf.
Now they enter in between the layer of the cells, plant cells inside the leaf and the life size plant cell, they observe and all the organal of the cell. Now sunlight is falling on the cell and on the chloroplast. Start work. And using the carbon dioxide and the sunlight, the cell of the leaf, that is the cell of the plant, start making food.
Okay? So the entire process, the journey of glucose formation, the student become part of it. They see how the cell of the plant is making the food and how the glucose is transforming from. Uh, sell to the other part of the plan. So these 360 degree perspective transforms the abstract process into the memorable journey.
Yeah. Teachers report that students not only grasp the concept more easily, but are able to explain it in their own words with a greater competence. If I take one more example that is about the work of lens lenses, the Aven convex lenses. So before training the student that how the lenses work, we take them to the factory.
Where Aven convex lenses are manufactured in virtual level factory. They see how the center of curvature or the radius of curvature is grafted when the lenses are manufactured. And then we take them to the physics laboratory where they can see that how image is formed for the different distance of the object from the lens.
[00:12:06] Alex Sarlin: Yeah.
[00:12:06] Vijay Thakkar: So we have had teachers report that 70 percentage increase in the taste score after using virtual reality for this particular modules. And topics.
[00:12:16] Alex Sarlin: Those are great examples. I'll tell you when I hear you describe this, I just wish that this type of education was around when I was in school. I, it sounds like so much fun.
I also feel like
[00:12:26] Vijay Thakkar: that,
[00:12:27] Alex Sarlin: I can imagine, I bet some of the teachers and administrators you work with too are like, oh man, I wish I could have gone inside a leaf or gone inside a lens factory, figured out how it all worked. Because we know from learning science that one of the strongest. Ways that our brain remembers anything.
This is like core to how we've evolved is through space, is through spaces. That's why, you know, every memory champion uses the same methods of basically mapping information onto spaces that they can then walk through and explore The method of loki's, like literally used universally for people who wanna.
It enhance their memory because our memory of space is so much better than our memory of text or our memory of words or concepts, and that's exactly what's going on here, right? The difference is if you're asking in a follow-up assessment, how does photosynthesis work? Put it into your own words. I.
They're saying, okay, I remember being inside the leaf. I remember seeing the light coming through. That's literally how our brains work. So it's so exciting to hear it actually generating those kinds of results. Nisha, I wanna pass it to you because you obviously work all over the world with different types of school organizations.
What subjects or science topics you just talked about, ones in biology or in physics, what topics get people really excited about this kind of. Immersive XR transformation. What are the topics where they say, oh, we're not seeing very good scores in this type of subject, or, students' engagement and interest in this type of material is low.
We could see huge transformation or, or coming back to you once they're already using Foton, what are they coming back and saying, we've seen huge changes in this area. I'm curious what experiences you have in that.
[00:14:04] Nisha Panchal: I would love to share those insights with you. Biology and environmental science are among the subjects.
That benefit the most form immersive learning. Topics such as digestive system reproduction and the human heart and plant physiology turns into engaging interactive experiences in environmental science. For instance, rather than just reading about the pollution, students can virtually stand inside the polluted environment and feel its impact.
This immersive experience creates emotional connection. Something a.
Also seeing major improvements can visualize atomic structures and physical forces in action. One of the most transformative example is how we teach concept of electricity. Traditionally, students learn about OMS law, Walter meter, and emitter without truly understanding how electricity flows. Manager doesn't understand how current is generated or how electric move through a conductor, but in our VR module, we break this down, students enter inside the conductor and they'll see metal molecules and electron moving through the surface of the molecules and.
This moments of electrons is what we call electric current. The VR experience shows how voltage pushes electrons and how resistance affect their flow making. Complex topic like M Low, much easier to understand. Oh yeah, the impact is clear. Seeing is believing and retaining by making invisible processes visible with, with stronger conceptual understanding and long-term memory with virtual reality.
[00:15:53] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, those are great examples and I, I love some of these terms, making the invisible visible, another classic learning science concept that I think you're doing, literally making things that would be invisible because they're too small. Being inside a electric wire, for example. Visible and experiential it feels like That's a great example.
The environmental science one is really interesting to me, especially as you mentioned, the sort of emotional connection. We know that the younger generation of learners right now around the world are really concerned about climate science and the future of, and the environment. Us. We have a very complicated and sort of problematic relationship with environmental science, but.
People do get this, and you mentioned this pollution example of what's it like to be in a place that's very polluted or what's it like to be on an ice cap that's disappearing? I feel like that almost transcends traditional conceptual education, and it could create a whole new generation of students who actually understand viscerally the effects of climate science.
They can warp to the future and see what will happen if we keep. Putting plastics in the ocean, for example. I'd love to hear you talk more about that, either of you. Well, let's start with you, Nisha. Like I'd love to hear you talk about the emotional and engagement side of this. 'cause the conceptual learning is obviously fantastic and that's what we wanna do in education.
But at the same time, getting somebody to feel passionate and to remember if they say, oh, I wanna avoid this future where this thing is happening and I feel like I've been there, I'm gonna dedicate my whole life to that. That's a whole different type of outcome. I'm curious if you've seen students say that kind of thing, or if you've seen educators say, Hey, my students care more.
They feel more excited or scared or anything about learning than they did before they were doing vr.
[00:17:35] Nisha Panchal: Yeah, of course. I heard with one student who has experienced reality and he learned about malaria, how malaria is spreading. He has seen this topic into the virtual reality, right? I forcing into the. I'll not give water in a bucket outside.
I'll throw it out. So he took the lead to not to do such actions, which creates mosquito of malaria as it appears in cleaner water. So that impact was very good as the student itself taking initiative?
[00:18:15] Alex Sarlin: Yeah. I mean, people can immediately make practical applications and say, I'm gonna do something differently in my life.
I think that's really matters. Do you see that kind of inspiration, like in other ways coming out of VR that students come out of a experience with any of inside the body or photosynthesis or any of the 900 and say. I'm gonna do things differently. I wanna study different things. I care more about something.
I'm curious, Vijay, have you seen that kind of reaction from teachers or students in classrooms?
[00:18:42] Vijay Thakkar: Yes, yes. If I take one example that for the chemistry subject, in our chemistry lab, virtual chemistry lab, we train students that how to measure the liquid or the material is acid or base using the litmus paper.
Yep. And we trained student how you can make the litmus paper at home using the home material, like some few powders or some materials that is available around us. So once they see this practical in virtual world, they start experimenting such things at home and made one litus paper to measure the acidity or basicity business of, uh, material.
[00:19:22] Nisha Panchal: I have one more example with my daughter. I have shown her a topic of Sunni time space. Where we are bringing students to a space shuttle, launching, we take them into a space and we are teaching like how sun is floating into the space and how gravitational force is not working in the space or the topic.
Said, mama, I would like to become so.
[00:19:48] Alex Sarlin: It was a
[00:19:49] Nisha Panchal: really positive feedback, which I have got from my daughter. So by experiencing such concepts, they would like to become such personalities into the future.
[00:20:02] Alex Sarlin: That's really interesting. I'm sure that is happening in classrooms everywhere as students have these immersive experiences. It's really neat to hear about.
It's funny, as I hear you both. Talk about the simulations and immersive experiences you're building. I have a 2-year-old, almost 3-year-old, and we've been watching Magic School Bus, which is American PBS TV show is from a long time ago. But they do in an animated, non-immersive way, of course, they explore inside the body or they go to space.
Right? And one of the things that I find interesting about that show is at the end of every episode, they'd have this little sort of funny add-on. Section where they have kids calling in to basically complain about the scientific inaccuracies in the show. They're saying, Hey, they turned into water and vapor, but that should take a week.
And you made it happen in just a minute. Or nobody's ever seen a dinosaur. So we don't know what sounds they make. How do you know? And the point is that the show has to really balance the accuracy. The scientific realism, which obviously you are all very, very thoughtful about with keeping the experiences fun and engaging and making something that would happen in a week happen in a minute, because you're actually designing an immersive experience.
I'm curious how you adapt that. I know that's a long tangent story, but basically how do you balance the engagement and sort of excitement of visiting a lens factory and then making your own lenses with the scientific accuracy? It sounds like accuracy is probably paramount there, but how do you balance them?
[00:21:25] Vijay Thakkar: This is the interesting question. Okay. And important tool At FotonVR, we follow very structured process to ensure that our content is both scientifically accurate and it. So we have dedicated in-house content development team made up of subject matter experts who hold a master and bachelor degrees in specific subject like Fiji, chemistry, biology, and science.
And these experts are deeply familiar with the school and educational. So they design content that not only explain the concept clearly, but also aligned with how students are taught in classroom, and it should be the scientifically accurate. Also, in addition to our internal team, we also get our content reviewed and validated by external academic faculty.
The real teacher who teach the school. They help us to ensure our content meets high educational standards and factually correct. Importantly, our content also reviewed in alignment with the National Council of Educational Research and Training that is the highest body in India for research in education.
Amazing. This help us to ensure that what we deliver. Is what should be delivered. Yeah. And our goal is simple to combine the power of immersive technology with curriculum aligned accurate content so students not only understand the complex concept, but enjoy the learning.
[00:22:51] Alex Sarlin: Right. And so in terms of the enjoyments, so you obviously have a lot of incredibly powerful, I mean, that's an amazing process, pieces of your process to ensure the accuracy, to ensure that people are aligned to the academic standards, that all of these important parts.
What is the part of your process that checks that it's really fun and engaging. I'm sure that you do this. I'm just curious how you make sure that it doesn't get too far into the accuracy at the expense of engagement, which I mean, just the fact that it's VR is already intrinsically engaging compared to regular non VR learning experiences, so I think you have an advantage there.
But I'm just curious if you are comparing, let's say, one environmental science module to another, how do you make sure that one is extra engaging for students and gets them really inspired and excited about learning?
[00:23:39] Vijay Thakkar: So we have a different type of expert. The Pew expert focus on the accuracy of the content and the topic should be covered, and the Pew expert have greater command on interactivity and engagement of the students.
So when the topic is being designed, even story is designed both expert work on the same topic. For example, we have to digest system of. Living organism. So it is simple that Amba take food by their pseudo body parts. Yeah. And digest inside the making the hall or body hall. But another team member sees it differently that if we directly saw the amba, it is not engaging late, uh, students to the jungle safari or going through one area of.
And then they go near to the one pond or water body. Now students are jumping inside the body, water body, and now inside the mud water, they see the amba with the microscopic view. And then the earlier part was for the uh, two angles, the students with the topic and now the scientific learning.
[00:24:49] Alex Sarlin: Makes a lot of sense.
So literally balancing the sort of storytelling aspects and the engagement and the setting the stage like you're in a jungle pond with the scientific concepts that are core to cover. Like how does an amoeba work and what are the different parts of the cell? That makes a lot of sense. It's really exciting.
A lot of the things you're both saying bring up to me is that we are in this really interesting moment in education where. The ability to create educational content has really been enhanced enormously by artificial intelligence. And then of course, the ability to create even visual content or video content or immersive content.
All of that is beginning to be AI enhanced. Meanwhile, there's so many different ways in which. Virtual reality and AI just overlap, right? You could have AI enhanced non-player characters inside a virtual reality. We've seen some of that so that you're inside virtual reality. You can turn to a virtual tutor and say, what is that?
I don't know what that is, and it can respond in real time. There's just so many different ways they overlap, and I don't want to put words in your mouth. I'm so curious about how you both see it. So Nisha, let me start with you. You know, as extended reality, this really interesting, immersive way of learning and artificial intelligence that can be real time.
Reactive or accelerate the creation of content begin to converge. What do you see as the most exciting future in which these two technologies play off of each other?
[00:26:13] Nisha Panchal: From a content and predict design perspective, the integration of AI and extended reality. Opens up exciting new possibilities of intelligent students and education.
Imagine a classroom where student is inside the VR module about electricity. As they explore AI monitors their responses, attention span and interaction patterns, if it notices confusion about particular concept, like how current flows or what resistance means. It can step in with real explanation, simple, or even shift the same to a different understanding.
We are also working towards wise enabled interaction within vr, where students can ask questions naturally and receive AI generated responses during the immersive journey. It makes learning feel like a conversation, not a lecture. Most importantly, these tech ensure that no student is left behind with artificial intelligence.
Learning student at their own pace. Master Foundation on and
personal mentorship at.
[00:27:34] Alex Sarlin: All really interesting ideas I'm hearing. You know, AI could be used to adapt the experience in real time to what the student is reacting to or enjoying. It could be used, like we mentioned, it could be used for conversational learning inside a virtual environment. That's incredibly exciting.
And then it could be used to. Tailor the experience in so many different ways to what students are learning or not learning, or what they're curious about or, so I hear that, you know, personalization or, you know, I, I sometimes call this precision learning with AI are one of the main ways in which extended reality can be expanded.
Through AI integration. And I totally agree. I'm so excited about these worlds coming. So, Vijay, let me ask you something similar. What are some of the most exciting things you see coming as you put together AI and extended reality? And actually, let me ask you in a slightly different way as well, do you see AI being really useful?
For you as a company to, you know, you say you have 900 simulations already, can, do you imagine AI being used to script simulations, to develop content, to basically make a curriculum out of the 900 simulations that matches particular countries or or districts curriculum, what are some of the use cases that you see?
I guess what I'm trying to ask
[00:28:49] Vijay Thakkar: Alex, now, AI is a part of life. Yes know sector can be separated or can be behind without ai. Okay, so I see the Future classroom as a place where technology support both teachers and students in powerful ways. Okay. XR will bring abstract and complex concept to the life, allowing students to truly understand what they are learning.
Okay? For example, instead of just reading about the electricity, students will see how electron flows as and interact with the circuit. And do the experiments in virtual lab after understanding how electricity flows. Okay. Without fear of making any mistake, because in it is virtual lab, if you make mistake, no problem.
We can divide it. Okay? We can use the same, same lab, uh, materials again and again, and now add AI to this experience. AI can monitor each student's learning journey inside the Excel environment. And if a student is stuck on the topic, AI can offer a, a simpler explanation or guide them with the real time hints.
It can also assess their understanding and address the difficulty level. The next topic accordingly. This kind of smart learning environment will help students not to just, uh, memorize but deeply understand topic with their own pace. That is the important understanding the topic is important. Memorizing is not important.
Teacher will become facilitator using data and insight from the AI to better support their students. And I believe this combination of extended reality and artificial intelligence will transform the classroom into the interactive learning hubs. But every child gets the attention and tool they need to succeed.
[00:30:37] Alex Sarlin: It is a really exciting vision of how the future may look. I think, you know, Foton is doing a really great job of, of building that future in, in real time, and obviously you're thinking very deeply about all the different, many different use cases of ai. One aspect I wanted to ask you both about, this is something that I think is just.
Something we wrestle with, I think as an education technology sector, the concept of VR being used for personalized adaptive experiences where individuals can go inside a a wire or a lens factory or a swamp, or all of these amazing things or a leaf is really, really exciting. And the idea that it could be adaptive to each student and individualized is even more exciting.
One of the other things that technology does really well is bring people together, right? It brings people into the same room, and you have students. In Korea and students in the UK doing the same photosynthesis VR experience, do you envision a future where these are going to be multiplayer, where you could have, you know, cross country group field trips and group experiences, or where students can explore something?
Altogether I, this is something I always wrestle with VR because sometimes VR is very social or IT potential to be social and sometimes it's very individual and you're sort of really exploring something deeply as a single student that you might be even adapting to you. How do you see that the future of XR and VR moving in terms of social versus individual?
[00:32:01] Vijay Thakkar: Yeah, Alex, you have the, to see what.
We are exactly working on this model. Okay. And very soon we'll come up with this solution where, where multiple students learning from their hometown or from the different country. Okay. And even the teacher is from different state or country, right? And teacher can connect with the multiple students. We can say the five or 10 or 20 student.
And in the virtual lab in. And they're doing the same experiment. Teacher is explaining the experiments in virtual world and all the students who are remotely connected in the virtual world, but they feel that they're in the same virtual laboratory. Yep. And they're learning. Once they learn from the teacher, they can do the experiment in this lab.
Okay. They all have the different lab set. They can perform the lab, perform the experiment, and teacher. How you are doing the experiment? Have you reached the result or not perform?
We are working on this and very soon we will come up with this type of solution and future is that,
[00:33:18] Alex Sarlin: it's amazing and you know, we just saw Google last week announced that they're adding real time translation into Google meets, so that is also an element that enables this type of we that you use that already.
Yes, of course. Wow, that's fantastic. So I mean, what an exciting vision of what education should look like. It really gets me very excited. This is exactly why I am in education technology to help ideas like. What you're just shaping the idea of a cross-cultural, cross country laboratory where you have teachers and students from different countries, from different parts of the same country, from all over the world coming together to solve problems, to share experiences, to learn from one another.
That is like I. So exciting and it feels like, you know, VR is a really amazing place for that to happen. It creates a common abrasive experience where everybody is working together. I'm thrilled that you're working on that. I did not know, but that's amazing. So let's get tactical for a second because this is a quick turn, but I'm very curious.
You know, we've talked to some of the VR providers of educational experiences in the US and one of the things they constantly say is. These visions of what the future should look like are so exciting. And teachers get it and school leaders get it. And the idea of this being what education looks and feels like is incredibly exciting to many people.
But there's the logistical issue of literally getting the headsets into the schools. You know, getting them to the right price point, getting them to the right procurement. Are they shared? Does every student have one? A couple years ago we talked to Meta and they said, you know. For all the amazing work that they have done and continue to do in education.
This is still a real hurdle, and you have really thought a lot about this. So I'd love to hear, uh, Vijay, start with you this time because I know that you're, you've thought a lot about this and Nisha, I'd love to hear how this works around the world because I'm sure it's different in different places.
How do you overcome the device issue? Do you have web versions? Do you need devices? Do you have low cost device? I'm just curious how you do it because this is something the whole industry, I think, has wrestled with.
[00:35:19] Vijay Thakkar: When we want a virtual world, we are devices required. We cannot eliminate that part, but augmented reality, we can work with mobile, Android, and everyone is having the mobile, mobile device.
So AI is a big promise, okay? Where device is not barrier. We don't need a device because already we are having all one is having the mobile device. But to give teleporting. Okay. Or to give the experience of being somewhere else. Right. Okay. Inside leaf or under the water or in the space? At the time we, devices are must Okay.
But, and its time pass. We Via device will become more common. Mobile in future. Not every one, but every home. That should be a one VR device because it's becoming more cost. Okay. Functionality and.
[00:36:21] Alex Sarlin: So it's coming. I'm hearing you say that mobile phones can serve as a stopgap because they can do augmented reality, but we're getting closer and closer to a world in which virtual devices, fully immersive VR headsets are something that will be ubiquitous.
They will be in schools, they will be in every home. Am I interpreting that correctly? Do you, do you see that you've been in the space for a while. Have you seen that trend picking up in terms of the cost going down and the tech being more accessible? Yeah.
[00:36:48] Vijay Thakkar: Yes. Yes. We are seeing,
[00:36:51] Alex Sarlin: uh, this, uh, safety. And Nisha, let me ask you, you know, you, you work in all of these countries and regions around the world, some of which have a lot of resources, right?
The UAE, I'm sure has a lot of money for each school to be able to buy these such devices versus other. Places may not. When you're talking to different schools or regions, or you do different potential customers, how do you have to explain this device issue? Have you seen changes in how accessible they are?
Do they already have devices? Are they looking to you for devices? Are they. Concerned that they wouldn't be able to do this because they don't have enough devices. What do you see?
[00:37:26] Nisha Panchal: I love to show the, uh, share those insights with you. In African countries, we are facing device constraint.
[00:37:33] Alex Sarlin: Yep.
[00:37:34] Nisha Panchal: They're having many issues and lack of resources, but government is supporting, government is ready to facilitate schools facilit with advanced, so they're chances to have it with.
C, social responsibilities, uh, let's example of.
Their schools are already having 50 to 80 VR headsets, but they're not having content,
[00:38:05] Alex Sarlin: right?
[00:38:06] Nisha Panchal: They're looking for content in regional languages as compared to past five to four years, to till today. Here they're not having issues of devices. They're needing the content to access the device. Now, every school in developed countries are having headset and they're for appropriate content requirement.
Language
[00:38:31] Alex Sarlin: that makes a ton of sense. The sort of technology adoption spectrum from well-resourced, you know, regions to less research regions, and then governments and corporate social responsibility jumping in to try to bridge the gap in places that don't have those, those headsets. That makes a lot of sense.
I think that's really informative. I appreciate that rundown and you know. It's so interesting 'cause this is, you know, people used to talk about the digital divide, that this is this phrase, I don't know if you've heard it, but for years and years, the digital divide, meaning, you know, certain schools, certain students had access to much newer, better, faster technology than others.
And in the US there was this huge broadband initiative to bring high speed internet to, you know, many regions, including rural regions. That was, you know, around the world. There have been similar versions of that. I feel like VR is one of the last remnants, like true remnants of the digital divide. And the way you just said that, Nisha is exactly where we are.
You know, if you're in an African country, the chance of you having a personal virtual device is very low. So you need the government hopefully to step in and subsidize. But if you're in a wealthy European country, you have a school with. A whole cart of devices. And now what they're looking for is great content and social content and ai adaptive content and, you know, proven out science content and all the things that, that you provide.
So I'm hoping that, you know, as with other aspects of the digital divide, we just keep pushing until equality is there or closer and more and more people have access to the type of learning that you're, you're all building. So it's exciting to hear, you know, we're getting to near the top of our hour, but we've talked about so many things.
I wanna ask each of you our final questions. The first one is. What is the most exciting trend? And obviously don't just say VR xr, you know, ar because we know that you were thinking about that. But what is the most exciting trend that you see in the EdTech landscape that you feel like listeners should keep an eye on something that's coming right around the next corner?
Vijay, let me start with you and then Nisha, I'd love to hear your answer as well.
[00:40:25] Vijay Thakkar: So here my and Mrs. Answer will be the same. Okay. And that is the mixed reality using with artificial intelligence. Yeah. Okay. So students can see the world around them and they can have augmented digital content inside the classroom.
The mixing of real world and digital world and with the AI technology. Mm-hmm. So let me give you example here in India, I'll be having one classroom and I'm teacher. Okay. I'm planning the students. Okay. And all have weird, the mixed reality headset, the same. One more classroom is happening in the Australia and one more classroom is in and one more classroom In usa and as an expert, I'm planning all the five classroom from one place.
Using the mixed reality headset, all the students from the five classroom feel that I'm in front of that, and I can feel that all the 50 students from the five different classroom are in front of me and the digital content that I want to use to explain the students. I can grab from Cloud. So it would be like a scientific, uh, science movie that we used to watch when I was younger.
[00:41:41] Alex Sarlin: Yeah,
[00:41:42] Vijay Thakkar: so that would be the future of education at technical landscape.
[00:41:46] Alex Sarlin: So a teacher could pluck a leaf out of a library of resources and hold it up and. Open it up and let everybody explore inside of it in mixed reality, in real time in the classroom. It is like science fiction. It's really exciting. Yes,
[00:42:00] Vijay Thakkar: yes, yes.
Exactly. If I wanna train the students about volcano, I can create the volcano inside the classroom. Okay.
[00:42:07] Alex Sarlin: Right.
[00:42:07] Vijay Thakkar: And make it bigger. And now students are walking around the volcano. And, uh, learning how it exactly work.
[00:42:13] Alex Sarlin: That is another vision of a classroom I would've loved to be in, makes me wanna be 12 years old even more than when we started.
That is, it's really exciting and it feels doable. I mean, that's what's so strange is that I, I think these things really did feel like speculative science fiction until. Just a few years ago, the combination of enhanced mixed reality and then ai, which just can just speed up at the way that everything is made and everything is evaluated combined.
It just makes this incredible thing. And the AI could also recommend things, right? A teacher could be teaching and it says, AI assistant can say, by the way, we have an amazing volcano simulation that you might wanna use in today's class or tomorrow's class, you know? Just grab it right here. So it also creates this incredible dynamic teaching environment.
Nisha. What is a trend that you are keeping an eye on?
[00:43:04] Nisha Panchal: Yes, I see future classroom as a hybrid ecosystem where technology works hand in hand with teachers, not to replace them, but to empower them. In this future, XR will take care of visualizing complex concepts, making abstract ideas, tangible and engaging.
It's exploring the solar system, seeing how neurons communicate with the brain or working through a historical site. Student will experience learning instead of just reading about it. AI will act as a intelligent assistant, continuously analyzing student performance, identifying.
Dashboard with real data showing which student need attention and which topics vision. This will allow educators focus more on monitoring, emotional support, and higher order thinking rather than teaching.
[00:44:01] Alex Sarlin: Yeah, that is what we hope will happen. And I, I'm optimistic that in a AI enhanced classroom, educators can be more human and not have to worry as much about some of the logistical tasks or some of the managing resources as much as they do now.
And they can focus on the actual deeper learning and the relationship building and sort of making the classroom a really exciting place to be. And. VR and AI and some of these technologies can take some of the complexities out and make it easier and more fun to be in the classroom, especially for the teachers because, but the students too, by taking some of the, uh, logistical administrative work off of their back.
This is the vision we all hoping for, let me put it, and all working towards, so that's really, really exciting. I know we're, we're right at the end of our time, just lightning round. What is a resource that you would recommend for somebody who wants to understand more about. Extended reality, AI in education or mixed reality or any of these things.
Uh, Vijay, let me start with you. What would you recommend
[00:44:58] Vijay Thakkar: the first resource is? This is, uh, where you are listening this podcast at Tech Insider. Ah, okay. And, and if you want to dive deeper into how virtual reality and augment reality are shaping the future of experiential learning, I highly recommend following the virtual reality augmented Reality Association.
Got it. So it's fantastic resource to understand what the technology advancement and the educational impact on of xr. This association is about VR and AR technology, not only for the education. Sure. The use cases of for in everywhere where AR and VR are used. Okay. Additionally, you can explore, uh, Foton.
Where we keep posting, uh, our different, uh, case studies, implement some stories and latest development in immersive education from school around the world. It's a great way to see how XR is being used effectively in real classroom settings. Fantastic.
[00:45:58] Nisha Panchal: Hi, and Mr. Bija rely on the same pages. Firstly, I recommend a tech insiders.
Another I would love to recommend for those in interested in exploring how immersive technology is transforming global education. I highly recommend. Following Holland iq, they publish insightful reports and the market intelligence oncap, including trends in xr, ai, and digital learning solutions across different regions.
Content is.
Looking to understand how technology is being adopted into the classroom around the world. And you're also doing a great job.
[00:46:40] Alex Sarlin: Thank you. Frankly, I wish we did more coverage of the virtual reality world. I think it's incredibly exciting and I'm, I'm just always waiting for it to truly, truly breakthrough and transform education.
I we're heading there and you know, when you look at the FotonVR. Website and the pictures of the kids in the classrooms really actually digging into these and some of the quotes, you can really see what the future will look like. I can't wait for it. So we have EdTech Insiders. Thank you both so much.
The Virtual Reality, augmented Reality Association, FotonVR blog, and hold on iq. We'll put links to all of those resources as always in the notes for this episode. Thank you both so much. This is Vijay Thakkar, the CEO and Co-founder of FotonVR and Nisha Panchal Head of Global Business Development at FotonVR.
Making VR content accessible all over the world with more than 15 countries and 50 million content views over 450 schools. Thank you both so much for being here with us on EdTech Insiders.
[00:47:36] Vijay Thakkar: Thank you, Alex, for this insightful forecast. I really enjoyed talking with you.
[00:47:42] Alex Sarlin: You too. Thanks for listening to this episode of EdTech Insiders.
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