Appendix A: Earlier Research on VR in Education

(based upon ERIC’s database ‘91-’97)

1991 * - 1992 * - 1993 * - 1994 * - 1995 * - 1996* - 1997 *

Though already in the eighties there were researchers who claimed the idea that computer users would finally ‘feel’ immersed in a virtual or fictitious environment, there is a steep increase in the reports on VR after 1994 when the technology allowed laboratories to start small-scale experiments. Military training, interactive games, urban planning and interior design were the main pushers of VR, even when they did not mention the term itself. Seen from the question how VR may finally contribute to media-based learning environments, the work of Christopher Dede, is an early precursor to this application field. The main focus of Dede’s work is on the integration of VR techniques in Physics education, like getting acquainted with mechanics according to Newton’s laws. Also Chemistry (at a molecular level), geology, astronomy and the human anatomy are favorite customers of the VR approach.

In parallel to the ongoing VR prototypes go the many projects which try and integrate VR in the more traditional instructional systems like simulation programs. VR for improving synchronous chatting and conferencing is coming up quite soon since the Internet arrived at a larger scale. Multi-user Object Oriented (MOO) environments are the synthesis of the attempts with avatars, MUDs (Multi-User Database) both covering the exploratory technology from gaming to non-recreational settings.

1991

Brockenbrough (1991) described VR as a computer-created sensory experience that allows a participant to believe and barely distinguish a virtual experience from a real one using computer graphics, sounds, and images to reproduce electronic versions of real life situations. He sees virtual realities as environments in which visual, aural, or other stimuli, which are generated in the mind of the user a sense of navigable, frameless, three-dimensional space. It predicts that the availability of computer technology to create real time, three-dimensional graphics will bring radical changes in the educational use of visualization in the nineties.

 

1992

Stephen Marcus (1992) already discussed issues surrounding VR and virtual books. He suggested that those who are exploring the territory of virtual realities are already helping to expand and enrich expectations and visions for integrating technology into reading and writing.

Christopher Dede (1992) describes two stages of potential development that could make multimedia the core of an information infrastructure for educational reform:

  1. incorporating hypermedia to enable knowledge construction by learners; and
  2. using visualization and virtual communities to create artificial worlds.

James Randall (1992) defines VR as a three-dimensional, participatory, multisensory, computer-based simulated environment occurring in real time. Applied to instruction, it has the potential to revolutionize teaching and learning processes. Dialogue must begin for development of a national agenda to link this technology with higher education, addressing administrative, social, and instructional issues.

Jaron Lanier (1992) describes the equipment or clothing necessary to achieve the illusion of being in a virtual world. Recent developments with this technology and current VR applications are discussed, including experiential prototyping, telepresence, and educational applications. He also describes an empirical exploration of the instructional potential of VR as an interface for simulation-based training, and shows that subjects learned spatial procedural and spatial-navigational skills in VR. It is argued that VR provides new ways to engage students in literature classes, particularly in the creation of virtual spaces from fiction. Lanier discusses VR technology and its possible uses in military training, medical education, industrial design and development, the media industry, and education. There are three primary applications of VR in the learning process: visualization, simulation, and the construction of virtual worlds

Merickel (1992) reports: The premise of the Creative Technology Project was that children's cognitive abilities could be enhanced by having them develop, displace, transform, and interact with 2D and 3D computer-generated models. Subjects of the study were 23 elementary students between the ages of 8 and 11 who worked at either a computer workstation or a VR/cyberspace system. Results of the project showed that spatially-related problem-solving abilities of children are influenced by training in visualization and mental manipulation of two-dimensional figures and displacement and transformation of mental images of three-dimensional objects. Further research regarding computer workstation graphic-based treatments and perceived realism and their relationship to problem solving should be undertaken. It is concluded that the technology known as VR is highly promising and deserves extensive development as an instructional/training tool.

Schwier (1992) rejects in his paper the hardware-based levels of interaction made popular in interactive video literature to describe human-machine interaction in favor of a new taxonomy of learner-media interaction based on the type of cognitive engagement experienced by learners. Interaction can be described on three levels, based on the quality of the interaction. A reactive interaction is a response to presented stimuli, such as an answer to a specific question. Proactive interaction emphasizes learner construction and generative activity. The learner goes beyond selecting or responding to existing structures and begins to generate unique constructions and elaborations beyond designer-imposed rules. Mutual interaction is characterized by artificial intelligence or VR designs in which the learner and system are mutually adaptive, each capable of changing based on encounters with the other. Reactive, proactive, and mutual interactivity can be described at five functional levels: confirmation, pacing, navigation, inquiry, and elaboration. The transactions (mechanics of how interaction is accomplished) can also be described in terms of their functions and levels of interactivity. Although several transactions can be employed at all levels of interaction, as interaction reaches for higher levels of engagement with learners, generative transactions are required. One of the major implications this taxonomy carries for instructional design relates to learner control. As levels of interaction are ascended by the instructional developer and reflected in the design of interaction, the amount of control abdicated to the learner changes. At the reactive level, the instructional developer retains almost complete control over the content, its presentation, sequence, and level of practice. While research in the area of learner control is relatively new, some tentative advice is available from the literature. Inherent in this emerging literature is the concept of learner control, an issue which will occupy a central position in multimedia research during this case.

1993

Allan (1993) reports that motion media refer to film, television, and other forms of kinesthetic media including computerized multimedia technologies and VR. Imagery reproduced by motion media carries a mix of mental experiences. The blending of these experiences intersects with the reality and perception of words, images, sounds, numerical data, and artistic expression. Aural, verbal, visual, and kinesthetic (A-V-V-K) imagery produces, in a recall mode, images that become symbolic and sign-bearing. VR, interactive computerized multimedia, and other forms of media technology stretch our minds' ability to perceive and interpret A-V-V-K imagery. The many literacies of this imagery may bring another challenge. In the future, other sensory forms (smell, touch, and taste) may be incorporated into communications, which will bring us closer to an age of total media and total imagery.

Madeja (1993) maintains that computers have provided a creative device for image creation and enhancement for visual arts educators. Traces the development of educational technology in art education from the 1940s to the present. Describes a four-part visualization center that will be the center for art education programs in the future.

Henry Taitt (1993) asserts that in order to ensure that the classroom of the next century offers all its potential, schools must plan for changes in technology that will bring opportunities that currently can only be imagined. VR is already amazing, and has the potential to be the most effective method for training people who learn and remember best by doing. Verbal computer communications, multimedia instruction, and global information retrieval all promise to revolutionize education. By the 21st century, students may choose what schools to attend, as well as whether they wish to be educated at home or at school. Competitive public schools are gaining more and more support. Principals of the future will have more power and responsibility than they do today.

1994

Lloyd Rieber (1994) tried to clarify the potential of VR as he presented a paper with a historical overview of visualization as a human problem solving tool. Visualization strategies, such as mental imagery, pervade historical accounts of scientific discovery and invention. A selected number of historical examples are presented and discussed on a wide range of topics such as physics, aviation, and the science of chaos. Everyday examples are also discussed to show the value of visualization as a problem-solving tool for all people. Several counter examples are also discussed showing that visualization can sometimes lead to erroneous conclusions. Many educational implications are discussed, such as reconsidering the dominant role and value schools place on verbal, abstract thinking. These issues are also considered in light of emerging computer-based technologies such as VR.

Hedburg (1994) discusses situated learning and VR, focusing on the pedagogical aspects of the technology and its importance in achieving a learning environment which challenges and supports effective learning.

1995

Jorge Franchi (1995) describes VR as a computer-created sensory experience that allows a participant to believe and barely distinguish a virtual experience from a real one using computer graphics, sounds, and images to reproduce electronic versions of real life situations. It explains how VR works and discusses applications of VR in surgery, scientific exploration, and education and training. Franchi predicts that eventually, VR may be delivered through direct computer-to-brain connections.

Winn (1995) says that work in the design and construction of virtual environments (VEs) is described from the standpoint of semiotic theory. It is advocated that well-constructed visual worlds can create in a person the feelings and cognitions that arise from being in the natural world and that interactions with computer-constructed VEs are mediated through signs. The Human Interface Technology Laboratory at the University of Washington uses VEs for specific instructional purposes and also uses the construction of VEs by students as a way for them to learn content. The design of VEs draws guidance from research in human factors and from the general principles of semiotics. Semiotic theory rests on the proposition that we cannot know the world as it truly is, but only through signs. In the conceptual framework for VEs, knowledge is constructed from information by students. A constructivist learning paradigm was used with 120 seventh and eighth graders who undertook the construction of VE worlds through a process based on semiotic-centered practices.

McLellan (1995) demonstrates that artificial intelligence (AI) techniques and VR make possible powerful interactive stories, and this paper focuses on examples of virtual characters in three dimensional (3-D) worlds. Waldern, a VR game designer, has theorized about and implemented software design of virtual teammates and opponents that incorporate AI techniques including fuzzy logic, neutral nets, and genetic algorithms. He asserts that one of the primary goals of VR is to generate virtual actors with whom the participant can interact in a contextually meaningful fashion, and proposes a classification scheme for such characters, as determined by intelligence level and centrality to the game. Virtual characters that can reason about their environment in original ways are being developed. PLACEHOLDER, a VR art project inspired by Native American myths and stories, features virtual characters where VR explorers can play the role of a bird, snake, person, or other creature. Participants, embodied in smart costumes, take on the animal's pattern of movement, character, physical abilities, and may explore different sites or mark home territory. Other examples of virtual characters are: Dolby's Virtual String Quartet, which synchronizes animated figures with 3-D sound; and an avatar, a virtual character that reflects a person's look, mood and personality, and who represents him or her in a virtual world.

Rose (1995) reports about preliminary research on virtual VR suggesting that this technology could be a powerful tool for education based on its immersive and dynamic attributes. The VR Roving Vehicles (VRRV) Project explored these possibilities by taking VR equipment into elementary and secondary schools for students and teachers to experience and use in building virtual worlds. The question of how to assess VR is particularly significant because of the theoretical conflict between traditional and constructivist learning approaches. This report presents an example of how the VRRV Project is using VR in schools and identifies significant factors for assessment. Junior high school students integrated the building of virtual worlds into a curriculum on wetland ecology. With regard to this project and other VR uses, the issue of test reliability versus validity is addressed in terms of general education and using VR.

1996

David Ainge (1996) describes a grade 6/7 class which constructed and explored three-dimensional shapes with the VREAM VR development system program was compared with a grade 5/6/7 control group using card nets (diagrams which can be cut out/folded). Results indicated that VR had little impact on shape visualization and name writing, but it strongly enhanced recognition and enthusiasm.

John O'Neil (1996) reports on two experts, Crawford Kilian and Clifford Stoll, who disagree about the Internet's proper role in education. Kilian believes teachers must steer students through information white water to utilize the net more productively. Stoll thinks Internet will do little to resolve kids' reading deficiencies, restore music and art programs, or enhance interpersonal communication opportunities.

Fabian (1996) describes an interactive training model called SAVR (Safety in Construction Using VR) that was developed to train construction students, novice engineers, and construction workers to prevent falls from scaffolding. The SAVR model provides trainees with an immersive, interactive virtual environment to perform on-the-job safety training without physically being at a real construction site. The second task, model development, included the construction of the three-dimensional graphical objects of the scaffolding components, the construction of the texture images for SAVR's interface panels, and the construction of the SAVR program. Construction used a developmental approach that included six steps: (1) defining the problem, (2) designing the solution, (3) refining the solution, (4) considering a testing strategy, (5) coding, testing, and debugging the program, and (6) documenting the program. SAVR demonstrates the potential of VR technology in safety training using a safe environment.

Bernard Holkner (1996) says that the nature of the multi-user object oriented (MOO) environment lends itself to flexible and rich interactive collaboration space providing interactive discussion, mail, mailing list, and news features to its virtual denizens. EdMOO was created in mid-1995 as an environment for teachers to experience the text based VR environment offered by a MOO and intended to provide an environment for discussing education and training issues, as well as to possibly be supported by an online document library.

Gail Latta (1996) claims that higher education has traditionally been defined as a two dimensional affair concerned with content (curriculum) and pedagogy (instructional design). Information technologies are transforming the educational enterprise into a three-dimensional universe through the diversification of instructional delivery systems. The success of higher education in the virtual universe will depend upon the intelligent and creative application of these technologies. The resulting Virtual University will foster an emergent reality that will transform the learning experience, while making higher education more accessible, relevant, and affordable. A variety of societal factors--demographic, political, corporate, and technological--are converging to accelerate the creation of virtual universities. Existing efforts by entrepreneurs, educators, corporations, and politicians to create virtual learning environments are examined, providing a survey of the increasingly competitive marketplace in which universities must be prepared to deliver their unique educational experience. The components needed to ensure that higher education institutions continue to promote the highest standards of intellectual achievement, freedom and responsibility in the virtual environment are identified. A variety of roles and contributions librarians can fulfill in transforming institutions of higher education into virtual learning environments are outlined. Reproductions of visual aids are appended.

Chris Dede (1996) describes four forms of expression that are reshaping traditional distance education into a new instructional model:

Cornell & Bailey (1996) see VR as a new medium which allows total stimulation of one's senses through human/computer interfaces. VR has applications in training simulators, nano-science, medicine, entertainment, electronic technology, and manufacturing. This paper focuses on some current and potential problems of VR and virtual environments that should be studied and resolved before widespread adoption and implementation of this new technology. Issues considered in this paper include:

  1. physio-psychological aspects: VR is a spatial and temporal medium in which users can accomplish normally unrealistic or supernatural tasks along with normal tasks, so creators must consider how these events or tasks will be processed mentally and how they will affect the users' emotions;
  2. technology transfer: visual perception and information processing in the brain have yet to be fully understood, and VR adds another dimension that must be investigated;
  3. technology versus performance: the virtual environment has to be set precisely for each user so it does not cause adverse physical and psychological effects; and
  4. entertainment users will make up the largest share of the VR market by the year 2000, so designers should keep in mind that the heavy VR users are likely to have less skill and knowledge in making sophisticated reality judgments, and may get lost in the VR environment.

1997

Taylor & Disinger (1997) investigate the acceptability and possible role of VR in environmental education. Among the principal findings were that the sample population of environmental educators indicated an acceptance of VR as a teaching tool. VR applications that allow students to have an experience not available in the physical world were perceived as beneficial to environmental education.

Turbee (1997) explains: MOO stands for Multi-user domain, Object-Oriented. Early multi-user domains, or MUDs, began as net-based dungeons-and-dragons type games, but MOOs have evolved from these origins to become some of cyberspace's most fascinating and engaging online communities. MOOs are social environments in a text-based VR where people gather to chat with friends, meet new people, and help build the MOO. Users connect from anywhere in the world and communicate with one another in real time. Users can create rooms, objects, and programs that recreate in text anything the user might imagine. Educational MOOs have an academic theme and use a variety of MOO communication tools such as internal e-mail, newspapers, documents, blackboards, and classrooms to accommodate a variety of teaching styles. Teachers can use these tools in harmony with the goals for the class while exploiting the nature of the MOO as a student-centered learning environment.