“What if you could enter a door at the back of your local coffee shop and see live into Lahore, Pakistan? What if you could share your morning coffee with people sipping their evening tea across the world, as if in the same room?”
— Amar Bakshi, Founder and Creative Director, Shared_Studios

Last week, I got the chance to experience an immersive environment created by Shared Studios.

At first, I couldn’t quite make sense of the inflatable gold pop-up structure that stood in the front room of Marymount School of New York. But as I indulge in my curiosity, I couldn’t help but think of the intention behind this innovation.

Creators of the portal took something that already existed and turned it to something new --- an experience that doesn’t come naturally when using FaceTime or Skype.

It is no different from using any video conferencing platform. In fact, during my experience, we used Zoom to connect with a group from Mexico City which is the exact same thing we use in some of my online classes at Columbia University. However, this initiative is innovating ways to connect people. Creators of the portal took something that already existed and turned it to something new --- an experience that doesn’t come naturally when using Facetime or Skype.

The portals have been called the “empathy machine” because of its ability to connect random people across regional and cultural borders either through curated encounters or videos that showed every-day lives of different communities across the world. These casual and random meetings allow people to share their experiences, collaborate, debate, or simply meet other groups from other parts of the globe. Pretty neat!

To enhance the user experience, portal prompts are provided as conversation starters. Our cue for the day was: “What would make today a better day for you?”. It was snowy and slushy out on the streets of New York that day so I said, “Good weather”. Another person said, “A hearty breakfast”, while the person from Mexico City said “A new tattoo!”. It was fun and interesting and really felt like we were just having a laid-back and unceremonious conversation with someone who is three thousand miles away. While these conversations may start trivial, I find that as random people come in and out of the portal on both sides, different topics and depth of conversation just naturally happens. We learned about the experiences of a teacher in Mexico City about the challenges of classroom management and how speaking English is a big advantage to their students which makes English tutoring a high-demand.

What sets the portal different from the usual video conferencing is the idea of being in a black room. This makes it seem as if you are standing in the same space with the person you are talking to. While I get the idea, I also can’t help but think of someone who may be claustrophobic or kids who may be shy or afraid of the dark and how the experience might not be the same. I wonder if AR background can help in these situations or will it just be distracting. I envision playing a card game with a random person that just happens to walk-in the portal to break some of the anxiety of talking to a new person.

This might just be the machine that can help the next generation understand what diversity truly means.

I’m curious to see where this innovation will lead us. It certainly has a lot of potential in different fields but most especially in EdTech where students and teachers can personally engage with communities around the world. I fancy the idea of being enlightened by educators from Finland and perhaps learn about instructional design strategies from schools in Singapore. Imagine how this portal can open doors for students to learn from diverse groups about cultures so different from their own. This might just be the machine that can help the next generation understand what diversity truly means. Just picture that!