*35C3 preroll music*
Herald Angel: Judith Okonkwo is a technology ex-evangelist, a business
psychologist and a co-founder of "We will lead Africa". In 2016 Judith set Imisi 3D
creation lab, which is building the ecosystem of extended reality technologies
in Lagos, Nigeria. So, please welcome Judith. And let's have her talk.
Judith Okonkwo: Thank you. Thank you very much!
*applause*
JO: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you all for coming today. I am going to talk
to you a little bit about the work that we're doing in Lagos, Nigeria. Just
generally about that and then about some specific projects that we've been involved in.
So usually, when I'm speaking, people say: Wow, you're doing virtual reality in
Nigeria? How come? Why? How did you even think of starting that there? Let me tell
you a little bit about that journey. Now, I don't know if many people here have been
to Nigeria, but just to give you some context: it's a country in the western
part of Africa. Right now and the population is estimated to be about 190
million people. So, there are a lot of us. The projection is that by 2050 though, we
will be the third most populous country in the world, right. Third after China first,
and India second. It's also a country of lots of different cultures and lots of
different languages. At last count there are well over 200 of these. Very diverse.
So, in terms of VR, we started a creation lab there in Lagos called Imisi 3D. Imisi
is a Yoruba word and Yoruba is the language of the Yoruba people who you find
in the southwestern part of Nigeria. The word means 'inspiration'. We started out
really small. We, well basically I, got a computer, a VR ready computer, a few
headsets, a few books on virtual reality and set up in one of the leading hubs in
Lagos, called the Co-Creation hub. So basically, that's what it was.
That was the start. A desk in a corner where we said: Hey, if you're even
remotely curious about this technology, if you want to know what's possible with it,
then come on down. Because as you probably remember, in 2016, a lot of people were
saying: This is the year of virtual reality. There was a lot of expectation
that it would come into its own in some way and there was a lot of excitement
about it and we felt that that was a story that we needed to be a part of as well for
a number of reasons that I'll explore. So, in Nigeria if you think about the country
say 5, 10 years ago, certainly we weren't on the, you know, on the global map for
being creators. We were in some fields. So, for example you would always be able
to mention super talented Nigerian Authors for example. But when it came to
technology I don't think we were being thought of as creators a lot. Even though
a lot of creativity was happening, even though a lot of innovation was happening
in the country. And there's been a real drive, a real need, to shift that
narrative from one of consumption, where we're just a market where electronics
technology is being sold, to one where we are actually adopting these technologies
and using them for our own purposes. Making them work for us as well. So, being
able to move that needle from consumption to creation. Back to the start. We began
on the first week of July in 2016 and that first week we had a virtual reality
showcase. This is a picture from the event. We asked people to come, you know,
if you're curious, if you've never tried it before. If you're wondering what this
word that everybody's been talking about is. And that day, over the course of about
five hours, we had about 100 people come down to try out VR, talk about VR, find
out what the possibilities might be with this technology, figure out if it's for
them. And what's really interesting for me personally is that, back then in 2016,
that summer when we had people come into our space, probably 90 percent of them had
never tried out virtual reality before. They maybe heard about it, might have seen
a Google Cardboard, but you know, they didn't really know what it was. Today when
I have events like this, at least half of the people coming in, at the very least
half, would have tried out VR. So, it's just great to see even with time and with
activity, how things can change. But on this day in 2016 we had people come in
and, you know, they were challenged to think about what is possible with this
technology. But then it seemed like a lot of talk. You know, you come in, you put on
a few headsets, you try the Samsung Gear VR, you maybe try a Google Cardboard, you
start to talk. But then what next? And that's something that we really wanted to
make different. You know, let it not just be talk. We wanted people to know that
these were technology that they should use to create as well. So we decided to have a
hackathon. Then, when it held in November 2016, it was the first virtual reality
hackathon in Nigeria. And promoting the belief that we have, that these
technologies are actually tools, that we can use to create solutions, we challenged
the participants to think about creating solutions for either education, healthcare
or tourism. Now we chose these particular sectors because, we'd recognize that these
are areas in which there was quite a bit of scope for immediate significant impact
from a place like Nigeria. And here's what came out of it. In the picture there you
can see what was the leading hack by the winning team. It was a product that they
called "learn" but actually spelt L E V R N and it's an experience square, as you
can see there's a leap motion attached to a Samsung Gear VR. And it allows you to
learn how to code using hand based gestures. So it's really exciting to see
people thinking about how they could push the boundary beyond what was even just
traditionally possible with the gear VR as it was then. And to start thinking
creatively about how you might use these technologies and tools to learn.
Especially, you know, in disciplines that were always challenged about how best we
can get people to learn and move with the times. OK. So, I've got a few numbers up
on the screen. I wonder if anybody knows what they might refer to?
*silence*
JO: Anybody? No? Okay. So the first one, 263 Million, is a number from UNICEF from
2014. And then, that was the estimate about the number of children who were out
of school in the world. The second number, 13.2 Million, is a number out of school
children in just Nigeria. And that final number, 1 Billion., that's a number of
children in the world who don't really have access to good quality education. You
might wonder why have these numbers up right now. And that's because I believe
that virtual reality is something that we can use to tackle these kind of
statistics. One of the things that we're exploring in Lagos, is looking at VR for
schools. Now certainly back in 2016 when we were starting out, quite a lot of the
attention with VR was being put into sectors like gaming and entertainment. But
as I mentioned, we we've been wanting to shift the needle to to other sectors to
see ways in which we can adapt and use it. And I think that actually VR, despite the,
you know, the common perception that it's perhaps elitist, perhaps expensive, in its
low cost form could actually be a solution for education. And this is how it might
work. Imagine if we took low cost VR, something as simple say as a Google
Cardboard, mobile phones, and we all know the story of mobile phone penetration
increasing daily in Africa across the continent, solar portables because in some
places electricity from the grid is not reliable. And with that you have a device,
that once you have the right content available for it, is an all in one
learning solution that's fairly portable and can be deployed really just about
anywhere. Now for me, this is one of the super exciting possibilities with a
technology like virtual reality, that we can go into schools, or even the 13.2
million out of school children, go to them and give them a device with the right
content that will allow them to start learning. And learning in ways that were
not possible because, if you were to go to a traditional public school, I mentioned
we are 190+ Million people, the infrastructure is challenged in terms of
trying to deal with that number, and you'll easily have classrooms with over
100 children in them. Which means, that you're very limited in terms of the
interaction that's possible between student and teacher, and also with the
amount of infrastructure that you can provide. But as you know with VR, whether
it's a virtual lab where they can do experiments, whether it's the opportunity
to visit the pyramids in Egypt or even to explore the solar system, all of a sudden
opportunities and experiences that would not be available even if, you know, we
suddenly kind of like diverted our whole budget to education, are now possible and
I think that's really exciting. And that's just a picture from one of the schools
where we have been going in to explore using virtual reality to supplement the
curriculum for education. Education is one possibility, but something else that also
excites me about these technologies and what is possible, is when it comes to art
and culture. This past week one of the leading African philosophers, a Nigerian
woman called Sophia Oluwole, died and she was a very, very big supporter, promoter
of African culture, of Nigerian culture and of dipping into your heritage to take
that what was useful there and bring it and use it to help to define the life that
you're living today and the one you want to create for the future. And I
particularly like this, that you know, from one of her papers where she says it's
up to us and she was really calling out to everyone to discover and promote a
reliable African intellectual atmosphere based on narratives presented in the truth
of their language and authenticity. And I bring this up now because I think that
that is something else that this technology enables us to, in a sense,
convey our reality and tell stories and the truth of our language and authenticity.
And I want to tell you about two projects that relate to that. The first is one that
brings Nigeria and Switzerland together. So, earlier this year I was approached by
a team around the IAF festival in Switzerland. It's a festival that is
focused on contemporary African art predominantly photography and it's held in
Basel each year. Now each year, along with photographies that are exhibited, they add
an element of contemporary art. This year it happend to be virtual reality. And for
that, they said: Well, what would it be like if we were to juxtapose living in
Switzerland - take a city, Basel - and in an African country Nigeria. Let's take a
city, Lagos. What would that look like. So, what we created was something called
Reality Check. It was a very simple VR experience actually. But one with a lot of
potential and possibility. What we did was map out a number of locations. So, we took
traditional places that you would visit. If you've been to Brasel you know it's
quite compact, and it's really easy to walk around the center of the town. And we
took places like a church, a shopping mall, a school and map these, and then wanted
to do the same in Lagos. Now Lagos is quite widespread. So we chose a particular
neighborhood, Yaba, and then did the same. We went to a church for example and
captured the space with 360 video. And what was then possible was that, when you
came to this festival in Switzerland, you could go on a walking tour of the city.
But alongside that tour of Basel you could also have one of Lagos. So, you could walk
to the church in Basel, seen in the picture there. And while there, you would
then have an experience of a church in Lagos. We have, you know, over the course
of the week that I spent there with them a whole series of people come round to come
and figure out what it might be like, to step into a space in Lagos, Nigeria if
only for a few minutes. Now each of the videos was really short and just about two
minutes and I'm actually going to play one for you to see. But what was exciting for
the people who tried it out, from what they said back to us, was just being able
to shift your reality in a way that, as we know, is not possible with traditional
media, not with the books you read, not with the videos you watch in 2D. Well, let
me show you one. So here we are. This is the church in Lagos.
*JO mumbling* Let's just get that... *voices in the background of the video*
JO: And what we did is, during a weekday we were able to go in. Where the camera is
positioned, is up where the choir traditionally sits on Sunday. And it
happened to be a day when - it's a Catholic church by the way - they were
getting ready, I believe it was a benediction service, so you can hear he
has some of that going on down there. Here we are now in the (???) ave.
*voices in the background of the video*
JO: And so this video is much like the
others. They were all roughly two minutes. The camera was stationary. And what we
wanted to create was just the impression that, much like you were doing if you were
doing the walking tour, where you'd get to a location and stand and look around. That
you have that same experience in Lagos that you walked into, you know, the
location in question. You stood at a spot and you were able to look around and
observe what was going on for a minute or two.
*Video is still playing, no sound other than the voices in the background*
JO: Just give me a second. OK.
And that experience that I just showed in the church was also done in locations like a
university, a school, a library in Lagos, a bank, a Medical Center. So, just little
vignettes if you will, of life, everyday life in the city that you're able to
share. And we're hoping to do the flip later on, where in Lagos you will then be
able to have the 360 experiences of these locations in Basel for people who are in
Lagos. So, moving on and exploring art and culture. I have this other quote that I'm
sure a lot of people have seen around quite a bit. And I first encountered it in
one of Chinua Achebe's novels. It says: There is that great proverb - that until
the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify
the hunter. And of course you know, we know how this applies in lots of ways. We
talk about the way, you know, history might have been told. History as we know
it traditionally, might be repurposed if it's taught from another perspective for
people around the world. But storytelling I think, is particularly important with
360. And what was exciting for me as well earlier this year is, when we had a member
of our community, the Imisi 3Dcommunity in Lagos, actually go and shoot what was the
first 360 documentary. And this is just a short, about four or five minutes long.
But it's the first Nigerian made 360 documentary in one of the internally
displaced people camps that we have in the north eastern part of the country in
Maiduguri. And this short documentary in Bakassi actually tells a story of a boy
called Modu, who is an insurgency orphan. He's about eleven years old, but he has
lost his father to the issues with Boko Haram in the north eastern part of the
country. And his mother as well. So, he lived with his grandmother in an IDP camp
and you know, was someone who, through whose eyes we could start to understand
what it really means to be in that space, to understand that tragedy a little bit
more. We had a screening for this documentary in Lagos in November, but even
before that, I think what's really compelling is that we have had people who
had even been to IDP camps in the Northeast and other parts of Nigeria. And
when they came and they experienced "In Bakassi" what they would say is: This is
even more real than being there. Now, at face value you might think: Well, what are
they talking about? And when they broke it down, what they were telling us was, that
when you are actually there in the camps, you're overwhelmed by all that's going on.
There's so much activity, so much noise, so much jostling, that you are not really
able to process what's happening around you. But when you have the experience in
VR like this, through a 360 video, you're then really sensitive and focused on the
experience as it is, on the story that you're hearing, in this case Modu's. So I
am going to just play a little bit from the screening, not the documentary itself,
for you to see what it was like sharing that work with people in Lagos.
*music*
Toks Bakare: My experience watching the documentary was intensely moving. I think
because I had a phenomenally different experience watching it in VR. There's the
ability to look all around you and really feel like you are immersed in the scene. I
felt like I was in the camp and almost going through what the little boy is going
through. So that, that was an interesting feeling that was different from watching a
regular film.
*music*
JO: OK. So, I've talked a little bit about some of the projects that we've done or
been involved in in this phase with art and culture, looking at things, like telling
360 stories or being able to share reality across different geographies. I want to
talk a little bit more now about kind of like the future and where we see ourselves
going. I have the words "bright future" there because I think we all agree that
these technologies hold a lot of promise. But there are particular challenges for us
in a place like Nigeria, and one of them is, you know, even just access to the
hardware. So one of the things that we are exploring is, what would it be like if we
were able to, you know, actually deal with that obstacle. What if we created a VR
headset that was purpose built for our locale. An all in one solar powered VR
headset. One that's me with locally sourced materials. How would that change
things? Is that something that we are trying to do a design challenge around. We
started one last year but tried to do it virtually. We'll be looking at in the new
year having a team come into work on this and attempt to build one. Now if we can do
that, it becomes really exciting for us because yes, we have platforms like
YouTube where you can share 360 content, and Vimeo, and others. But not a lot of
people have access to headsets and other elements of the technology and we can
start to do something about that actively. So looking at ways in which we can build
and, you know, do R&D to suit our purposes it's something that's very big
for us. We are also working really hard to build a community of content creators.
People who will work with these technologies, the people who will create
the educational content that will make VR for schools a reality in a country like
Nigeria. For that we have started to hold community meet ups. They've been running
for over a year now. We have the very first one at the Google office in Lagos
and have since, you know, had the community grow with people coming from all
sorts of different sectors. From the arts, you know, from technology, people from
business as well who are even looking at the opportunities to commercialize the
technology locally. And we're excited about what's possible when all of these
people come together. We're also trying to connect communities across Africa because
we know that it's one thing to try and build communities locally and grow
expertise there. But if we're joined up together across the continent a lot more
will be possible a lot quicker. Earlier this year we held what was at that time
the largest VR event on the continent, where we had a Hackathon happen
simultaneously across seven countries. We had over 35 teams take part and the
overall winning team was a team of three females from Egypt. And much like that
first one that I mentioned in 2016 where we said create for education, or health
care or tourism, we asked the teams to do the same. So, create for education, health
care, tourism. However this time we added the environment, it happened around Earth
Day, and also social justice. The winning team created an experience that allows you
to learn about how to take care of the environment. And it was built for the HTC
Vive. We also have a growing community that is online on Facebook. They come from
over 20 different African countries. It's over 900 strong and growing every day.
We're really excited about the possibilities as we all come together and
start to figure out how we can work and create. We believe collaboration is our
future, whether it's across these African countries or further across the world, the
work that we did with Switzerland, whether it's being here and connecting with you
all. But we know that together we can do so much more. I usually end my talks with
this challenge to people particularly when I'm talking about using the technologies
for the first time. Very, very excited to know that the future is ours to create and
with things like VR and AR, solutions created in a way that maybe we're not yet
imagining but perhaps we should. So what will you do? I want to leave you with one
last video that shows what it's like in the lab.
*music*
JO: Thank you. *applause*
Herald: Thank you very much. We have time for Q&A. There are two microphones
here in the room. One in the middle, microphone number 2, and one out to the
side, microphone number 1. And there might also be questions from the Internet. So
please come up and we have already question from microphone number 2.
Microphone 2: Hello. So, thanks for the presentation. There is a concept that, I
don't know how valid it is, but the Innovator's Dilemma. Basically, if you are
already in a comfortable spot, you're not going to push yourself too much, either in
your community or your company. You have either a new player, that is going to make
something radical and is going to challenge you to make yourself better. And
there was some discussion on this based on the how for example maybe you not need the
big DSL or fiber infrastructure to just just use 3G or 4G and in some community
with other infrastructure maybe for example you do mobile payments, like in
China. Could this kind of useage of your free education be an equivalent of this,
that maybe the classroom as we have now is pretty good? But if you were so
challenged, that you need to go much further. Would it be like new oppurtunity
to use much better way to do it. JO: So thank you for the question. Yes,
actually I think it might be. And you know you gave some examples about how leapfrogs
have happened in other parts of the world apart from the West, just because they
have accessed technology at a time that's later than the West, and so they've been
able to kind of like evolve in a way that doesn't have to be anchored in the legacy.
You know, the history of the technology and how it actually grew. I think the same
is true for for technology like VR being used for education. And I think that
because, you know the public schools I mentioned, where you might easily have
over 100 kids in a classroom, you'll be in a space that is not like the modern
classroom in a private school in Lagos or you know or one in the West. It's not
like, you know ,where you have maybe a one to 20 or one to 10 you know teacher
student ratio. It won't have all of the infrastructure that aids learning as we
know it today. So, you are then challenged to think really creatively about what you
might do with with VR, what you might do with whatever tool is brought to you. And
that's why you know worth thinking about the low cost, you know, VR that might be
mobile device driven or something powered in a similar way, because we know one of
the challenges will be power, you know, as we know it. Because from the grid there,
it's a challenge. And I think as you start to innovate around those realities and
create them, yes, we will be able to leapfrog and potentially redefine what
education looks like, certainly in that space.
Herald: We have question for microphone number one.
Microphone 1: Thank you very much for your presentation. I have read a number of
studies where people have found that, if young children spend too much time in VR,
if they're very young, it has a problem with their cognitive development. And I'm
wondering if you're thinking about a sort of scaled approach at what age people are
working with regular computer graphics and then how they engage with VR.
JO: Absolutely Microphone 1: Get a good education.
JO: Thank you very much. Yes. So for the work that we're doing at the moment with
VR for schools, where working with children who are in secondary school. So
those are children who are typically from 12 years up and we're very conscious, that
there has been some information about the you know side effects of VR. But there's
not enough data yet. And so we're consciously studying, as we're going
along. We're about to start a formal pilot in one of these schools, where we will
actually have a researcher who's working on the ground and documenting as we go on.
We by default are limiting, you know, time in VR, because we know, just from what we
know generally about screens and eyes, that it won't be great to have extended
periods. But we're actively learning as well.
Herald: We have another question from Microphone number 1.
Microphone number 1: I see that you are working with unity alert.
But I was wondering if you're also working with the more open standard of web VR?
JO: We haven't yet worked with web VR. But that is something that we are about to
start exploring in the New Year. Herald: We have a question from microphone
number two. Microphone number 2: Hi Judith, thank you for
your talk again. I found it very interesting and inspiring that you've
presented the second talk where VR was considered like an interesting or an
important tool to create new narratives maybe in a rather or historically rather
oral based history culture or narration culture and to use it for alternative
narrations and create the new historian as you say it like the maybe the non colonial
historian if you want. And so I also wondered as I saw also in your
presentation and this is also my perspective as I have been working a lot
with Goethe Institute and have once worked in Kenya with Goethe Institute and I
notice that like the sort of still the Western platforms and of course the
institutions with money are kind of the only places and spaces where these things
especially the technological things can happen due to money reasons, are the only
spaces that exist basically. For example in Nairobi it was like this space that
could be used by artists. There's some other spaces in Nairobi but still it felt
like this strong like power maybe even more infrastructural power that's there
and you've used the Google space and I saw the Facebook logo and certificate. So I
wonder is this anything you feel doubts about? Or do you just think, ok we'll take
their money and that's cool? JO: Great question, thank you. It's
interesting that you ask because for me personally one of a kind of like the
buggers for me is that a lot of the major tech companies, in my opinion they don't
see, they don't see African countries as a real VR market. And you know you can see
that just by the fact that their products aren't even accessible there. You know,
they are not available. That said you know I think that I talked about collaboration
a lot. I think that the way forward is for us all to work together. They already have
done you know a ton of work in terms of what is possible with the technology and
even what will be possible in the future. Just by virtue of their R&D budgets
and what's possible. So I very much want as we grow that we are working with them
and not apart from them in any way. But alongside that, I am very very concerned
about as you know developing as ourselves and creating as ourselves you know if it
goes like truth and authenticity that Sofia was talking about that we have our
own voice and we can do it without being obliged to any one party. In that vein for
example the lab that we set up one of the reasons was because we knew that access
was difficult. We know that the equipment is relatively expensive. Things like that,
particularly given the purchasing power of the naira. So we wanted to create a space
where, if you wanted to do VR, or you wanted to create you could actually come
in and use the equipment and we provide that and city and we'll be doing that in
more states across Nigeria. But I think its initiatives like that locally that
will make sure that even as we partner we can be true to ourselves.
Herald: We have a question from microphone number one.
Microphone number 1: Thank you for your talk. I'm sorry if you already covered
this aspect. I came a bit late, but I want to ask about if you are working towards
minimizing the digital divide. How? What are your effords about closing this. I
understand that the project this is new, but your long term vision, how does that
help to empower the rural population also? JO: Yeah. Thank you. That's a great
question. Actually one of the things that drove the creation of the lab in 2016 was
even recognition of that digital divide. By that time I just spent about two years
in Lagos working within the tech sector and just being able to kind of like tap
into the talent that was there and see what was possible. And I'd seen what you
know young people were able to do there with traditional technology, you know,
with software development and all of that. So I knew that in terms of you know a
potential it was there in kind of like limitless way but the challenge is always
of course access to to the resources to opportunity and things like that and
that's what we try to do which is why that element of community is so important for
us. We we provide access to equipment and resources in the lab. We also hold those
community gathering so that people can start to network with each other and
collaborate together. We also look for ways to support learning and growth and we
do that by either holding activities or sometimes doing things like offering
scholarships for audacities virtual reality nano degree, but we're very very
particular about you know talent and expertise being available kind of like
locally and in country because that's critical. That's why I don't know if you
were here when we were talking about Amber Cassady 360 documentary. But for me what's
really exciting is that you know a Nigerian filmmaker will go acquire those
skills and be able to be the one to make that in Nigeria because of course there
have been other 360 documentaries made by say Al Jazeera for example you know and
other media houses but of course they'll be bringing their teams in to do that. So
yes very very conscious of trying to to narrow that.
Herald: We have two questions at microphone Number one. Let's see. First one.
Microphone number 1: First of all thank
you Judith for this great presentation. Very short question and specific question.
When it comes to VR in education there is one major problem in my eyes. I don't know
if you can answer this questions, but there is no real business lobby for that
right now. And when it comes to integrate VR content into educational program there
is one major hurdle which is how to integrate that into the official program.
Which content can be transformed into VR content? Are you working closely with
regular let's say official education authorities? Is any board like trying to
identify which content and how to integrate it progressively into your
curriculums? Are you thinking about that? Because there is some nice attempt like in
Egypt, in China to do that, but one of the major hurdle is, it is really hard to
integrate it one time into the official curriculums. So how do you identify the
content and how it is working with the officials?
JO: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Really great question. Yes. I mean all of the
things that you've just mentioned very very real issues for us. When we wanted to
start doing the VR for schools project the first thing that we actually had to do was
approach the education authorities in the local area where we are the district
office for education. So we had to bring them on board really quickly because we
even need their permission to be able to go into a school and work. Beyond that we
also decided to hold things like VR for education roundtables where we would bring
together different stakeholders. So, these would be people from both the local
governments from both secondary and tertiary education. And looking at both
students faculty and sometimes even parents because we very much wanted people
to come together to help us cocreate what a viable solution would be. And a lot of
what you mentioned I mean that's what the teachers were saying. How exactly does
this actually work? You know with the lesson you know, do you in the middle of a
lecture put on the headset. You know what makes sense. So, so far we've been doing
the VR sessions and special sessions that are carved out from the school time where
we go and see we're coming to do a session with you. Going into the New Year though
where we're going to actually start a formal pilot in a school. We're setting up
a lab in the school and we're going to have somebody who's, you know there with
them, so that we can start to work with the teachers to see how we can make VR
learning an element of the traditional kind of like classroom plan. So, I say to
people imagine what it used to be like when you would schedule a video as part of
a lesson. What if instead of the whole class is going to watch a video.
Instead they were going to go and have a VR experience as the content and the
challenge around that and what's appropriate to create. And that's really
interesting, something that we've been trying to tackle. When we first started to
explore this. We were quite constrained in terms of resources so we were just
curating what was actually already available and matching it to the national
curriculum for the junior secondary school. So, we have some content that we
have seen can match to some of the learning outcomes that are there at the
moment. But we know that we do have to create custom content. We particularly
have to create content that is much more accessible for people locally both in
terms of language and in terms of kind of the visuals that they are accessing there.
We are working with a major education publisher as well in Nigeria. And of course
they have the expertise having created quite a few of the textbooks that are in schools
currently to help us figure that out as well as collaborating with teachers in the
pilot school. Herald: And please don't be shy if you
have any questions please come up to the microphones and share them with all of us.
We have time enough for quite a few more questions. A question from mic number two!
Microphone number 2: Yes. Thank you Judith for taking on the journey. I have a
different question but also missed the first minutes of your talk. As I see your
talk here also a contribution from the Global South enriching us hopefully with
your cultural perspective and my question is: Do you think that this technology
could help us to bridge cultural understanding. Does it support empathy to
get more of a picture. Well the trouble from a Western perspective is that you
know the African countries exporting poverty that's not a major good selling
good. But there is other elements that might enrich or you might have to hack
into our minds. My question is: Do you think this technology can actually help to
support people understanding other cultures better? Or is this for the moment
more an experimental thing within your control as cultural context to do your own
educational or other purposes? JO: Thank you for that question. Yes
actually I do think that it will help us start to understand and experience other
cultures better and even experience empathy. And I say this because even just
you know when we first started the lab in 2016. So, a challenge for Nigerians you
might not know but one major challenge that people have when they want to travel
is getting visas. Yeah the stories you hear about visa refusals can be quite
heartbreaking. But people were put on their VR headset and sit in a chair and if
you know with Oculus you have this option under Oculus 360 photos of explore the
world. So, you can go to basically any country and people would do that. They
choose a country and go. And one thing everybody would say is you mean I can
travel and I don't even need to get a visa. That's the first thing that really
kind of like got people so curious and so engaged and I think that cuts across
regardless of who you are or where you're from. Nigeria is not a known tourist
destination right now but there is actually quite a lot to see in the
country. And most people don't realize [name of region] the south of the country has possibly the
greatest diversity when it comes to butterflies in the world. So, some things
like that are not known and are not explored per se because it's not on the global map
for tourism. But these are things that we can then start to experience via virtual
reality and that's looking at an angle like tourism. I mean we can take it right
down to the everyday to people's lives and stories. Much like, I think we've seen in
a sense with YouTube and what bloggers have been able to create. But in a much
more personal way now with with VR 360 that you can actually, say, step into my
home, step into my life and I think we'll start to see more of those stories as we
go on. Herald: We have about 15 minutes left and
we have a question from mic number two. Microphone number 2: All right. Thanks for
the talk. Maybe learning is not a privilege only to young people or did you
consider teaching also older people or people from other areas? And also are you
reachable outside Facebook? Do you have some webpage or something else?
JO: Yes. So to address the last part first: Yes absolutely outside Facebook.
So, if you do social media we are on Twitter as a Imisi 3D and Instagram as
Imisi 3D as well. We have a website imisi3d.com and you can also e-mail us at
hello@imisi3d.com. In terms of reaching people beyond young people: Yes, that is
that's very very important to us even as we reach things like say VR for schools
targeting students. We know that that is not possible if adoption doesn't happen
across the board. We need the older people, we need teachers, we need
principals to take it on board as well and want to work with the technology. So, we
embrace all. I mean the targeted project might look like it is very student and
young people focused but we work across the board because we recognize
stakeholders in all demographics. Herald: Two questions at mic number one
let's start with the first one. Microphone number 1: Thank you Judith for
the fantastic presentation. I was wondering about, I've never heard I think
VR and communal efforts and collective working together in such a beautiful way
because in the global north I think VR is in a lot of cases in the framework of
hyper individualized even isolated non- social as in such an activity. So, I think
this was a brilliant new way of seeing that potential. I would be very interested
in how you see that's kind of maybe a difference. Yeah and if you think a lot
about this isolation part as well. JO: Yeah. So thank you. I mean I really
believe that collaboration is the way forward. I think particularly in a place
like Nigeria, a place where you're already resource challenged. I think if you saw
the divisions early then there are too many problems. And I think given the scope
of these technologies we haven't even begun to approach the boundaries of where
they will be, where there's so much left to discover and explore that we must come
together to challenge ourselves and work together and push boundaries. And that is
enough scope for everybody to get involved. Yeah, I see the individualism
that you talk about in other parts. I mean when I was first starting out one of the
challenges for me was just even the multiple platforms that exist and the fact
that things are gonna be unified in one way that we could all tap into. I hope it
will change. But you know don't hold out too much but I think where we can work and
where we can actually impact stuff and effect change the way that we believe it
should be then we must. Herald: One more question from microphone
number one. Microphone number 1: Thank you also from
my side for you talk. I do have a question more like personally. What was for you,
since you started two years ago with this journey on VR in Nigeria. What was
for you the most surprising thing in this journey.
JO: The most surprising thing I have never been asked that question so I'm pausing for a
moment to think. Actually, so maybe not surprising in the traditional sense but
like a couple of months after I started I was at an event where Y-Combinator had
come to Nigeria. This was in September of 2016. So it was a year where quite a few
people were interested in what was going on in Lagos. So Y-Combinator had come to
Nigeria for the first time. And in one of the business schools they were having a
talk, a session and I was in the audience and I just happened to look down on the
road below me. There were two young men and they had a phone and they were
actually watching like a 360 video on it. And stereoscopic the screen was split and I was amazed. I
talked to them and I said "What are you doing?" And they're like "Oh, we're
watching this." I'm like: "Do you have a headset?" "No" "Have you ever put it in a
headset?" No, they hadn't. So luckily at that event I had a stand and the
exhibition space and I said well during the break come down and we'll put it in a
headset for you so you can actually see it the way it was intended. And so during the
break they came. They did that, they were completely "wow". They after that went on
and bought a VR headset. But for me why that stands out is because we started the
lab because we felt like we must do this. This is time with these technologies if we
want to be part of the story we get involved now. And I think that was a
beautiful example of the reality of that. Herald: And please don't hesitate. If
you're sitting in your chair thinking I have something to ask but I'm not quite
sure if there'll be time, there is time for another few questions. So, please get
up behind the microphones if there is something you want to know. We have
another question from microphone number two.
Microphone number 2: Thanks for the day. You mentioned during one of the answers
that one of the key indicator you crossed were the schools basically is the ratio of
the student pretty true or better. And then I'm wondering if let's say imagine
managing a school and I'm considering your as a solution, I have to consider my cost
to go through what I get out of those solution. So, which indicator is
traditionally used in education system. Which would VR in the classroom improve the
most? JO: Thank you. So for the VR for schools
part that I've talked about where we're actually targeting public schools. The
real target that we want to address with that is learning outcomes. We want to
significantly improve learning outcomes with virtual reality. And do this in a way
where what children are not learning about computers from a book of just from hearing
the teacher talk about it but they can actually see one in that sort of thing. If
you want operate it where they are learning about different experiments not
just by hearing it spoken about but by actually being able to do it in a sense in
that virtual space. So, it's really learning outcomes that is the key
indicator for us when it comes to the returns that we hope to see. But I think
that we will see depending on kind of like what school sector we're looking at that
change a little bit. So in the public schools I think that it'll be easy to go
in there and work targeting just learning outcomes. When we go to the private
schools with a lot more resources than it'll be more new ones there because
there'll be scope to do more things. For example we will have schools where they
can afford to set up labs to actually create virtual reality. And for them some
of the indicators that they might be looking at are technical expertise in
these students that sort of thing. Herald: And if we don't have any more questions I
think we should all thank Judith for an excellent talk!
JO: Thank you! *applause*
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