Learning Math with Conviction in Prisms of Reality

Welcome back to Good Vibes with VIVE! Today’s topic is math education, and our guest has  a super compelling story to share. Anurupa Ganguly is the CEO and founder of Prisms of Reality, where she is reimagining math education using VR technology. According to various studies, the interest around careers in STEM is significantly low, and Anurupa attributes this to the lack of application and physical understanding embedded in our education system. She believes that the VR technology Prisms of Reality has created will bridge this gap. It is a mission-driven methodology, where students can learn the abstraction that is often missing in education. During this episode, she weighs in on why problem-based learning was not a feasible method for teachers, how the pandemic has highlighted the need for innovative technology in education, and why now is the best time to take radical steps in VR. She also shares the hands-on process that they have followed to equip teachers to introduce the VR headsets into their classrooms and which channels of support and training they are focusing on, before touching on the Sandbox they are building as a support tool for their existing technology. We hope you join us today to hear all this and more! 

 Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to today’s guest, Anurupa Ganguly.
• Some of the staggeringly low statistics around high schoolers’ interest in careers in STEM.
• What Anurupa observed as a math teacher and interacting with students within that space.
• Why it is necessary for a child to have a vision for how they will use the knowledge they gain.
• How Prisms of Reality provides real life scenarios to illustrate application to students.
• Why she describes the product as being mission-driven rather than game-driven.
• How they are working to teach children abstraction which is usually missing in education.
• Why problem-based learning was not a feasible method for teachers.
• How the pandemic has highlighted the need for technology in learning.
• Why now is the time to take the radical step towards VR: there is funding for it!
• Which channels of support and training they are focusing on with the buyer driving the value, district coordinator as leader and manager, and the end user being able to facilitate.
• What using the headsets looks like operationally and why you don’t need to use it everyday.
• What teachers have seen: that VR gets non-participating students to engage.
• Why Anurupa believes that VR is the most efficient way to teach core cognitive processes.
• Her ultimate vision for Prism: to become the best in class STEM learning program.
• Challenges and hopes for the future at Prism. 
• Why she believes that being an education company rather than a VR one will lead to success.

 “If a child feels that my only role is to get the answer, perform on the test, and then that’s the end of the road for what my contribution looks like and I don’t have a vision for what I’m going to do with this afterwards. That’s of course going to be the end of their road.” — @anurupagang

“We’re not game driven. We’re mission driven. It’s not a game that kids are playing, they’re solving a mission.” — @anurupaganguly [0:08:28]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Anurupa Ganguly on Twitter
Anurupa Ganguly on LinkedIn
Anurupa Ganguly
Prisms of Reality
Pearly Chen on Twitter
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