Introduction
Outline
5:15 - 5:35:
- Introduction (George and Arif)
- What are immersive environments, their many definitions, the graph
(George and Arif)
- Homework assignment feedback: Third reading, Gamercampus,
Secondlife (George)
- Homework assignment feedback: Pirates of the Caribbean (Arif)
- Ask question: "What is your definition of an immersive environment?
What attributes do you think enhance immersion? Ie, graphics, touch,
force feedback.
5:40 - 6:40
- Gaming break
6:45 - 7:00
- Pizza break
7:00 - 7:30
- Discussion + Readings 1 and 2 (George and Arif)
Homework Assignment
The homework we have planned for you has a few layers:
- The first layer will be to play in an immersive environment;
- The second layer will be to read the readings
- The third layer will be to reflect on immersive environments and what do they provide from an education/training design perspective that other approaches do not?
Play in an immersive environment.
- visit Games Campus, and login using any of the following username/pswd combinations:
- KMDI2003/abcd1234
- KMDI2003A/abcd1234
Select one of the virtual reality games offered and download the game files (I found the golf game quite good). Be mindful that this process may take up to 20mins depending on your bandwidth and the game you select.
You may or may not be walked through a tutorial on how to play the game
- If you had the tutorial, was it useful?
- If you did not have the tutorial, was it an obstacle to playing?
When you are done playing, reflect on the following questions:
- How immersive was the game?
- What made it immersive to you?
- Where on the graph above would you put the game you played?
The readings
- Manifold Relational Understanding [^MRU.pdf]
- Knowledge Building [^KnowledgeBuilding.pdf]
- The Evolution of Constructivist Learning Environments [^constr.pdf]
Reflection
What do immersive environments provide us that other more traditional approaches to education and training do not?
Is real life experience still the best possible approach?
How immersive does an environment need to be to be effective?
What technologies or approaches are you aware of that may be either lowering the cost of immersive environments or increasing the fidelity of the experience or both?
Design Issues
Talk from a Designer's point of view (Trade-offs)
*Fidelity vs. Cost
*Fidelity vs. Effect / Affect
*Tactile vs. Visual
*Accuracy vs. Representational
Enabling Technologies
that are lowering cost and/or increasing fidelity (or as a minimum not sacrificing it).
References and Resources
- Woodruff, E., (2003), "Manifold Relational Understanding - Moving beyond the mind as container metaphor in educational technology, OISE, University of Toronto [^MRU.pdf]
- Scardemalia, M., Bereiter, C.,(2003), "Knowledge Building", Encyclopedia of Education Second Edition, New York: MacMillan Reference, USA [^KnowledgeBuilding.pdf]
- Dede, C., (1997), "The Evolution of Constructivist Learning Environments: Immersion in Distributed, Virtual Worlds", Graduate School of Education, George Mason Universtiy. [^constr.pdf]
Comments (1)
Nov 05, 2007
N says:
I tried looking for a FAQ or a tutorial for the Pirates of The Carribean; I foun...I tried looking for a FAQ or a tutorial for the Pirates of The Carribean; I found the tiny screen that held the action was a bit crowded. I tried it once without the tutorial, and not being a gamer, I found maneuvering was not intuitive. However, the quality of the graphics is interesting! I remember when the first interactive games came out, the range of facial features were limited.