According to nursing scholar Theresa Wiseman, there are four elements of empathy. These are:
See their world
Appreciate other people as human beings
Understand feelings
Communicate understanding
As we have seen in our readings, technology is blamed for reducing human empathy, but it's also currently an effective and viable tool used for empathy's restoration. Today, Virtual Reality headsets are widely available at retail stores for between $250-$400 dollars. These are marketed as mainstream in-home entertainment, specifically for enhancing video game play. But Jamil Zaki's research points to other uses for this rapidly evolving technology, specifically as an effective tool when applied to a field called Empathy Education. VR increasingly serves as a tool for increasing empathy in business, non-profits, policing, education, and healthcare. This is a growing field and gives credence to Zaki’s arguments that VR is effective in creating lasting change in thought and behavior.
Please choose ONE of the three prompts below to respond to and copy the prompt into your response so readers have context.
Discussion Prompt: After you post, please read and write a brief (and civil, even if you disagree) response to the person who posted before you. If you posted first, please respond to the person who posts after you. This assignment is designed to foster critical inquiry and thoughtful discourse. I am not stipulating a minimum word count, but please share three ideas of a length that adequately captures your perspective on your selected topic. I will advise you to spend time thinking about your responses because what you write here could be very useful for the conclusion of your first essay. VR is a hot topic right now and is very relevant to our daily lives.
Prompt 1: Briefly research how VR is currently being used for more than entertainment and gaming: increasingly it serves a tool for Empathy Education in business, non-profits, policing, K-12 education, and healthcare, and even customer relations. Share 3 specific ideas, observations, or recommendations you have about the application of VR beyond the entertainment realm.
OR
Prompt 2: For more than a year, the CDC has updated the US population about COVID-19 rates (Links to an external site.) and you can see today's case counts and recorded deaths at this link. As vaccination rates increase and the spread of COVID decreases among vaccinated groups, it is interesting to reflect on what we have just experienced, both individually and collectively. For some people, mask wearing, social distancing, and working and learning from home quickly became a way of life, and getting vaccinated was necessary to protect us from a virulent virus. For others, these are not actions they were or are willing to take because the pandemic had not touched them personally, or they think it's all hype or even a hoax, despite the astronomical numbers of sick and deceased people. How do you see the role of empathy during the COVID-19 global pandemic? How might this situation have been made better with some form of empathy education that uses available VR tools? Share 3 specific ideas, observations, or recommendations you have about the application of VR to the past or current COVID-19 situation.
OR
Prompt 3: In addition to poverty and homelessness, what specific current social issues might be addressed and ameliorated through intentionally applying VR technology in order to educate people? Racial justice? Police reform? Climate change? LGBTQ issues? Immigration policies? Child abuse? Animal rights? Addiction treatment? Disability awareness? Share 3 specific ideas, observations, or recommendations you have about the application of VR to larger social issues.
just choose one of the Prompt
Here are a few links that provide an overview of Virtual Reality and Empathy Education. Read/view as many as you would like to before responding to the prompt:
Sample Solution