Virtual Reality in Education

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Flying over the Mississippi River from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and continuing on to South America, learning about the migratory habits ofswans; walking across a busy intersection; or becoming a hydrogen molecule as you bond with a second hydrogen molecule and an oxygen molecule to form a drop of water—these are just a few examples of the experiences offered by virtual reality technology today. And now, climbing the Eiffel Tower, fishing in the Chesapeake Bay, and investigating the far regions of the world are closer to becoming virtually possible in the very near future because of recent advances in computer technology.

Scientists and educators are working together throughout the United States to introduce "virtual reality" to teachers and students via CAVEs, ImmersaDesks, ImmersaWalls, and head-mounted displays (HMD). The CAVE is a standard 3.05 meter by 3.05 meter by 3.05 meter (10 foot by 10 foot by 10 foot) space, with three walls, a ceiling, and a floor, and refers to Cave Automated Virtual Environment. The student typically wears a pair of stereographic glasses that enhances images and carries the standard CAVE wand that is used to help the student as bird/pedestrian/molecule navigate the virtual environment. The desks, walls, and head-mounted displays that are now available are less costly alternatives to the CAVE, and are alternatives that are also portable.

The emergence of virtual reality as an instructional aid in the classroom is just beginning. Although there are numerous examples of educational applications in use throughout the United States today, the growth of virtual reality has not reached anywhere near its potential in the classroom and beyond.This article explores several examples of how scientists and educators are collaborating to develop new ways of learning, including considering the student's ability to learn by being totally immersed in that learning environment.

At George Mason University, for example, Chris Dede and his colleagues have developed a SpaceScience World that consists of three applications, referred to as NewtonWorld, MaxwellWorld, and PaulingWorld. In NewtonWorld, students are introduced to the laws of motion from multiple reference points, including becoming a ball hovering above the ground, colliding with another ball, and virtually experiencing motion with neither gravity nor friction being a factor. MaxwellWorld allows the student to experience an electrostatic field from multiple reference points that are influenced by force and energy. And finally, PaulingWorld introduces chemical bonding and molecular structures, such as becoming a drop of water through the bonding of hydrogen and oxygen molecules, or even becoming complex proteins as a result of manipulating amino acids. Such activities are described in Dede's book Learning the Sciences of the 21st Century: Research, Design, and Implementing Advanced Technology Learning Environments.

At the University of Illinois, recent research has focused on providing opportunities to learn important safety skills for students of all ages across K-12 (kindergarten to twelfth grade), including those with disabilities. Frank Rusch and his colleagues were motivated to combine the emergence of virtual reality technologies and self-instructional strategies in the promotion of traffic safety among school children, including students with disabilities The CAVE provided multiple opportunities for school children to learn street-crossing skills without having to cross real streets, reducing the time needed for instructional learning to occur and reducing safety-related concerns during training.

In this demonstration, Rusch, Umesh Thakkar, and Laird Heal sought to determine whether students could use a self-instructional sequence in their navigating with a wand as they crossed three different intersections (an intersection with two-way stop signs, an intersection with four-way stop signs, and an intersection with electronic lights); each intersection virtually displayed three levels of difficulty (simple, typical, and complex). Difficulty was directly related to how many cars crossed the intersections, including a Porsche driven by ex-basketball star Dennis Rodman. Utilizing their own verbally generated cues, eighty-one students learned to cross the three intersections, with little or no differences between those students with disabilities versus those without.

Virtual reality is becoming increasingly important as a learning tool in the school as well as in university laboratories where CAVEs are typically located. Recent research has investigated the use of an ImmersaDesk in an effort to teach students to better understand concepts that do not fit with their pre-existing conceptualizations by guiding them through a series of exercises that confront their pre-existing knowledge with alternative ideas. For example, young students are quick to disbelieve their teachers when they are told that the world is round. For most young students, the earth is simply flat, and they do not have the cognitive capacity, nor the conceptual firepower, to make the leap from what they see and experience (a flat Earth) to what they do not see (a spherical Earth).

The Round Earth Project at the University of Illinois at Chicago, as described in The Round Earth Project: Deep Learning in a Collaborative Virtual World, has conducted a series of studies to better comprehend the emergence of complex understandings when given the opportunity to become involved in virtual representations of the Earth as a globe as seen from a spaceship. Using an ImmersaDesk, A. Johnson and his colleagues found that they could teach new concepts like a round Earth versus a flat Earth. They allowed students to assume the role of astronauts and provided the astronauts with activities that displayed the Earth as round versus flat. The ImmersaDesk is a standard desk with a 15.4 centimeter by 10.3 centimeter (6 inch by 4 inch) screen placed on it. Students use stereographic glasses and a wand, just as they would in the CAVE.

Virtual reality will continue to make important contributions to education. In the very near future, high schools should be able to utilize Walls and Desks to learn new concepts, to use HMDs to help students who are easily distracted to learn, and to teach increasingly complex concepts outside of the textbook.

Frank R. Rusch, William Sherman, and Umesh Thakkar

Virtual Reality.

Dede, C., M. Salzman, B. Loftin, and K. Ash. "Using Virtual Reality Technology to Convey Abstract Scientific Concepts." In Learning the Sciences of the 21st Century: Research, Design, and Implementing Advanced Technology Learning Environments, eds. M. J. Jacobson and R. B. Kozma. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000.

Johnson, A., T. Moher, S. Ohlsson, and M. Gillingham. The Round Earth Project: Deep Learning in a Collaborative Virtual World. Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago, 1997.

Rusch, F. R., D. S. Millar, R. E. Cimera, D. L. Sheldon, U. Thakkar, D. A. Chapman, Y. H. Khan, D. D. Moore, and J. S. LeBoy. "Crossing Streets: A K-12 Virtual Reality Application for Understanding Knowledge Acquisition." Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium (1997): 211.

Rusch, F. R., U. Thakkar, D. A. Chapman, L. Heal, and B. F. Wallace. "Investigating Student's Ability to Cross Intersections Utilizing Self-Instructional Strategies in the CAVE." Proceedings for the Seventeenth IASTED International Conference on Applied Informatics: A Publication of the International Association of Science and Technology for Development (1999): 275–278.

Sherman, W. R., and A. B. Craig. "Literacy in Virtual Reality: A New Medium." Computer Graphics 29 (1995): 37–42.

Thakkar, U., and D. A. Chapman. "Virtual Reality and Education Programs for Educators." Computer Graphics 31 (1997): 35–37.

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