The Immersive Education Laboratory: understanding affordances, structuring experiences, and creating constructivist, collaborative processes, in mixed-reality smart environments

Abstract

In this paper we describe how the iClassroom and other technologies are providing the testbed through which we are able to design, develop, and research future intelligent environments. We describe the process of distinguishing between the technical and pedagogical aspects of immersive learning environments, while simultaneously considering both in the redefinition of effective intelligent learning spaces. This paper describes how our laboratory is working on specific projects that increase our understanding of the distinct advantages of technical design elements, like immersive visual displays, and pedagogical design elements that need to be in place as we go through the process of structuring learning situations that create constructivist, collaborative experiences. We describe specific technologies and their design across these multiple dimensions and the ways in which they are helping us better understand how to maximize technological affordances for increased positive learning outcomes. Finally, through this design research process, as we begin to better understand the affordances and iteratively create design guidelines, our hope is that eventually a prescriptive framework emerges that informs both the practice of embedded technology development and the deliberate incorporation of technical attributes into both the educational space and the pedagogy through which students learn.

Furthering Service 4.0: Harnessing Intelligent Immersive Environments and Systems

“…Learning with technology (rather than from technology) is what distinguishes technology as a cognitive tool [41]. Moreover, learning within technology creates a mechanism of interaction between content and experience [42], [43]. Immersive learning can provide highly interactive first-person sensory scenarios, creating unique real-life learning experiences in the work field.…”

Augmented and Virtual Reality for Engineering Education

“…MR provides immersive and engaging experiences through creative problem solving (Gardner and Elliott, 2014, Lindgren et al, 2016, Janßen et al, 2016, Thornhill-Miller and Dupont, 2016. MR has the potential to be a transformative technology in education -i.e., the ability to evoke empathy and the ability to trick the brain into experiencing another environment as real.…”

Proceedings of the 58th Conference on Simulation and Modelling (SIMS 58) Reykjavik, Iceland, September 25th – 27th, 2017

“…MR provides immersive and engaging experiences through creative problem solving (Gardner and Elliott, 2014, Lindgren et al, 2016, Janßen et al, 2016, Thornhill-Miller and Dupont, 2016. MR has the potential to be a transformative technology in education -i.e., the ability to evoke empathy and the ability to trick the brain into experiencing another environment as real.…”