Virtual Reality and Education

2018 ◽  
pp. 970-995
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Melida Sala

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which combines hardware and software solutions. It permits to create three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds and virtual objects. This chapter describes how VR technologies find positive application fields in educational environments. VR, combined with multimedia technologies and in support of different learning styles, offers potential help in teaching and in learning paths. This chapter shows a set of examples in the applications of VR at different age levels schools, and in different countries (USA, Italy, Morocco, Romania, and Switzerland). VR, and their applications, are also described here.

Author(s):  
Nicoletta Melida Sala

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which combines hardware and software solutions. It permits to create three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds and virtual objects. This chapter describes how VR technologies find positive application fields in educational environments. VR, combined with multimedia technologies and in support of different learning styles, offers potential help in teaching and in learning paths. This chapter shows a set of examples in the applications of VR at different age levels schools, and in different countries (USA, Italy, Morocco, Romania, and Switzerland). VR, and their applications, are also described here.


Author(s):  
Nicoletta Sala

Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) are three different technologies developed in the last decades of the 20th century. They combine hardware and software solutions. They permit the creation of three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds and virtual objects. This chapter describes how VR, MR, and AR technologies find positive application fields in educational environments. They support different learning styles, offering potential help in teaching and in learning paths.


Author(s):  
Nicoletta Sala

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which permits to create virtual objects and 3D virtual worlds which are hosted on the computer’s memories. It is indispensable in critical simulation, for instance in military training, in surgical operation simulation, in creation of environments which could set off phobias (in psychiatry), or in realization of virtual prototypes, for instance in industrial design. The aim of this paper is to present how VR technologies also find excellent application fields in architecture and in engineering. For instance, in the teaching of the basic concepts, in techniques of graphic rebuilding for the building restoration, in realization of virtual visits inside buildings, and in urban generative processes simulated by computer. Another use of the virtual reality is in the introduction of a new kind of architecture: Virtual Architecture, strongly connected to the Information and Communication Technology (ITC) and to the Internet, and in the virtual prototyping which connects engineering and architecture.


Author(s):  
Aliane Loureiro Krassmann ◽  
Tito Armando Rossi Filho ◽  
Liane Margarida Rockenbach Tarouco ◽  
Magda Bercht

Virtual Worlds emerge as three-dimensional environments that have the potential to stimulate advances in the educational field by promoting interactivity, freedom and autonomy for students. However, its effective adoption in educational institutions is still considered very limited, and few studies have so far sought to identify more specific causes for such limitation. This research aims to contribute to the theme through a preliminary study about the impact of individual characteristics of learning styles and digital experience on users’ initial perception about 3D Virtual Worlds. An experiment was conducted with a sample consisting of potential influencers in the decision making process for adoption of this type of approach, being composed by professionals from educational area that experimented a 3D virtual laboratory for the first time. As a result, some insights about the mentioned characteristics’ influence on user first impression are identified and some potential adjustments necessary to better fit different profiles are suggested, envisioning to disseminate theuse of Virtual Worlds in Education.


Disputatio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (46) ◽  
pp. 309-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Chalmers

Abstract I argue that virtual reality is a sort of genuine reality. In particular, I argue for virtual digitalism, on which virtual objects are real digital objects, and against virtual fictionalism, on which virtual objects are fictional objects. I also argue that perception in virtual reality need not be illusory, and that life in virtual worlds can have roughly the same sort of value as life in non-virtual worlds.


2014 ◽  
pp. 474-497
Author(s):  
Demetrios G Sampson ◽  
Pavlos Kallonis

3D Virtual Worlds provide realistic three-dimensional environments accessible through the web that can offer engaging, interactive, and immersive experiences. This can create new opportunities for teaching and learning. Yet, the possible use of 3D Virtual Worlds in formal education is a major challenge for school teachers, even for those who are experienced and keen on using digital technologies. In this chapter, the authors present a 3D Virtual Classroom Simulation appropriately designed and implemented using SLOODLE for supporting a module for teachers' continuing professional development based on the Synectics “making the strange familiar” instructional strategy, aiming towards acquiring appropriate competences for teaching within 3D Virtual Worlds and for developing innovative educational practices.


Author(s):  
Vicente Galiano ◽  
Victoria Herranz

In this chapter, the authors describe the project of a virtual world that they developed in their university and with their students. In this work, they joined concepts like social networks and virtual reality, creating a virtual model of the University Miguel Hernandez (UMH), where students are able to walk around the campus, inside the buildings, chat with other students, and moreover, use videoconferencing rooms where students talk and see other students in the same virtual world. The authors describe this project, called UMHvirtual (available in http://virtual.umh.es), which has been supervised by the authors, implemented by a group of students, and focused on all the university students.


Author(s):  
Silvia Panzavolta

The contribution aims at exploring previous and current practices of use of virtual environments, 3d Virtual Worlds also, for inclusion in education. There are many experiences of developing and using virtual environments for the inclusion of disabled and problematic students (autistic student, Asperger Syndrome students, dyslexic students, etc.). The majority of the experimentations gave important beneficial results. In particular, the essential technological characteristics of VR that are beneficial for inclusion are: immersion, presence, interaction, transduction and conceptual change. The design of those environments is sometimes conceived together with the final users, applying participatory design techniques. Virtual environments and Virtual Worlds are being used also in the management of drop-out rates and school failure, by using it for curricular diversification classroom with students in a situation of educational exclusion or academic failure. The contribution will discuss 7 cases of successful use of Virtual Reality at school, ranging from primary to secondary education.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce H. Thomas

This article presents a user study into user perception of an object’s size when presented in virtual reality. Critical for users understanding of virtual worlds is their perception of the size of virtual objects. This article is concerned with virtual objects that are within arm’s reach of the user. Examples of such virtual objects could be virtual controls such as buttons, dials and levers that the users manipulate to control the virtual reality application. This article explores the issue of a user’s ability to judge the size of an object relative to a second object of a different colour. The results determined that the points of subjective equality for height and width judgement tasks ranging from 10 to 90 mm were all within an acceptable value. That is to say, participants were able to perceive height and width judgements very close to the target values. The results for height judgement task for just-noticeable difference were all less than 1.5 mm and for the width judgement task less than 2.3 mm.


2008 ◽  
pp. 176-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
James G. Jones ◽  
Stephen C. Bronack

Three-dimensional (3D) online social environments have emerged as viable alternatives to traditional methods of creating spaces for teachers and learners to teach to and to learn from one another. Robust environments with a bias toward peer-based, network-driven learning allow learners in formal environments to make meaning in ways more similar to those used in informal and in-person settings. These new created environments do so by accounting for presence, immediacy, movement, artifacts, and multi-modal communications in ways that help learners create their own paths of knowing using peer-supported methods. In this chapter, we will review the basics of the technologies and the theoretical underpinnings that support the development of such environments, provide a framework for creating, sustaining, and considering the effectiveness of such environments, and will conclude by describing two examples of 3D virtual worlds used to support course instruction at the university level.


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