I worry a little bit about the power of VR to manipulate users into feeling something they would have felt anyway. You walk in Birkenau, and you are overwhelmed by the space,
by what you see, what you hear. I do not know that you need to be pushed in that direction. […] I once did professional development with teachers. A teacher said she knew she did a good job when her students cried, when she saw that emotion. Could that be
a use of technology to get people to feel something that we think they should? […]
For those who cannot be in a space, I think that it can be enormously powerful
and impactful. […] I am more worried about the relationship between being in a physical space and using technology that is intentionally designed to pull those feelings. […] I am just worried as there is so much more to feel than just sadness. The more profound reactions are harder to get, and sometimes they take a really long time to get there. –
Dr. Jennifer Rich
It's a delicate matter to consider emotions in the context of Holocaust education and even to believe that we could come close to feeling or understanding what the victims endured. That is impossible. For Dr. Maria Zalewska, projects should primarily focus
on the moral imperative to remember and on how to evoke a sense of responsibility
in future generations.
Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński also raised the issue that contemporary debates often center around the responsibility of newer generations, while parents sometimes neglect
to include themselves in this equation. The responsibility of learning about this tragic history and feeling concerned about it is a shared responsibility that transcends generations. In addition to technological changes, there are deeper transformations within societies, such as modes of expression and communication, which will likely evolve significantly in the next 10 years, and these are aspects we need to be attentive to.
Conference participants, photo: Press Office