Jeffrey Jacobson, Ph.D. has worked in Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality for more than 25 years, mastering each new wave of the technology as they have emerged. This is his talk about "Virtual and Mixed Reality for Active Learning" at the November 2017 BostonCHI meeting.
Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) can support powerful learning activities not otherwise possible, as we will see in three case studies. Learning is an adaptive response to a challenge, and a virtual environment can adapt to the student as s/he learns. Since the flight simulators of the 1970’s, this approach has long proven to be effective for learning procedures and processes.
The first study looks at a one-person “cave” used to diagnose and treat people with balance disorders. For example, patients with a damaged inner ear navigate a virtual grocery store, learning visual and physical strategies to stay safely on their feet. This facility is still in use, today, at the Medical Virtual Reality Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
However, VR and MR can also support active learning in some of the concept-heavy topics one learns in school.
The second study looks at a reenactment of an ancient Egyptian public ceremony, performed in mixed-reality (MR) with audience participation. The start of the show a projection of an Egyptian priest controlled in real-time by a live human puppeteer.
In the third study, children played a game based on an ancient Egyptian temple. Some played the game on a regular computer, but the ones who played it in VR demonstrated a more coherent and integrated knowledge of the temple’s features and their meaning.
Dr. Jacobson will use these examples of his work to show how the particular affordances of VR and MR support the learning process. He will then provide a broader look at how all immersive media (VR, AR, MR, MUVEs) are used today and near term trends. …...more
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