Is that a revolution I hear? Some educators say Immersive Education -- virtual worlds and game-based learning technology -- can reform the way students are taught. Others call it a natural and necessary evolution. Still others call it heresy that has no place in education whatsoever. Only time will tell for sure, but at least one thing is certain: The initiative is stirring up the status quo and has academia talking about the future of online learning.
Immersive Education combines interactive 3D graphics, commercial game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat, Webcams, and rich digital media with collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Unlike traditional computer-based learning systems, the virtual learning environment is designed to immerse and engage students in the same way that today’s best video games grab and keep the attention of players.
The technology supports self-directed learning, as well as collaborative group-based learning environments that can be delivered over the Internet or using fixed-media such as CD-ROM and DVD.
This is exciting new ground for many educators, but it’s also a cause for concern among some teachers about its disruptive potential. Critics question the effectiveness of computer simulations for education, while others are worried that introducing video games as learning tools in schools will diminish education.
Learning.now blogger Andy Carvin has an interesting post about whether video gaming belongs in the classroom, which was discussed by a panel at this year’s South By Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi). The forum, entitled Let's Get Serious: Could Video Games Replace College?, included panelist Eliza Gold, of the University of Texas at Austin’s Digital Media Collaboratory, who explains, “As engaging as videogames are, it makes sense to apply some of it to schools and learning. Part of what makes it hard for students to be motivated is because what’s taught is taught out of context… It’s possible that videogames could be used to help people learn curriculum in a real world sort of way.”
In some instances, teachers feel that their jobs may be threatened. One question that is often raised is, “Will immersive education replace teachers?”
On the contrary, as a collaborative tool, Immersive Education has the potential of fostering a deeper connection between student and teacher and a richer teaching environment. It liberates the teacher to become a more effective teacher instead of simply a lecturer.
In fact, some studies indicate that students can learn faster and more effectively using these types of technology. It can be argued that studying in a virtual reality environment is better than learning from a book because the virtual world, when properly constructed, is highly interactive, engaging, visual, and full of rich and interactive educational materials.
Immersive Education is developed by the Immersive Education Initiative, a non-profit international collaboration of universities, colleges, research institutes, consortia, and companies that are working together to define and develop open standards, best practices, platforms, and communities of support for virtual worlds and game-based learning and training systems.
Members of the Immersive Education Initiative participate in any one (or all) of 10 focus areas. These activities are chaired by faculty, administrators, and doctoral students from the Grid Institute, Boston College, Amherst College, MIT Media Lab, and NASA.
Virtually all types of higher education institutions offer online curriculum, adding to a substantial growth in online learning. Immersive Education will play an integral role in the future of online education because it offers richer, deeper, and more meaningful learning experiences than are possible with traditional online classes.
The technology gives participants a sense of "being there," which in turn provides educators and students with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience.
its good to hear that immersive education is initiating game based learning through which students can surpass in almost every field easily. But don't you think it will lack one major thing just take an example of a dictionary, if someone is searching for a specific word let's say "divisive" then for that he will first search for the letter D then DI and after that he will finally get to the required word. In doing so he will come across more or less 90 to 100 words which will somehow augment his vocabulary but if he uses a digital one i.e technology he will come to know about that particular word only. Same example goes for game based learning as well, they will only teach the students what they have in their programs and nothing else while a teacher's lecture doesn't only fulfill the requirements of a specific topic but also has a bulk of knowledge apart from itt..!!
Most technology when used effectively by teachers can
deliver an enhanced level of education for students.I do not envision it replacing teachers any
time soon because that interaction with another human being is a valuable relationship.
Perhaps it could pave the road to create more educational
video games compared to some of the games that are being created today.It could also make it possible to conduct
various science experiments or even field trips to far away places around the
world!
I think we all agree that there is great potential to
improve the quality of education with technology but, as a society, we should
also work to spread quality education to those from economically depressed areas.It is disheartening to read about schools
such as the Richard E. Byrd Community Academy
in Chicago.
I think it would be for hard for anyone to maintain a straight face while being against immersive education. Take away the technical nature and it would seem like immersive education has always been used:
1. Internships
2. Guest speakers
3. Class projects
4. Accounting and business cases
5. Science projects
6. Math word problems
7. Filmstrips and movies
8. Books and in-class reading
9. Acting
10. Study-buddies and mentoring of lower-grade students
Oh, and then there are athletics and team sports.(And, of course, scholarly banter on internetevolution.com).
Point is, immersive education isn't new, is it? It just seems like the infusion of new technology always changes what's relevant and creates new levels of resistance. For instance, I've maintained it's more important to learn how to retrieve information than hope to know every piece of information. This might make multiplication tables less important to learn than knowing how to use a calculator, but my third-grade teacher would disagree. So, would plenty of others (myself included, perhaps) because many believe that what we learned in school years ago must be what is taught in school years from now.
Plus, any learning that becomes relevant to the student sticks. Again, I can't imagine a teacher disagreeing. I think a push against game-based learning would be formed only by a minority, probably many of whom lament the loss of chalkboards in classrooms.
Certainly a very interesting post. I think it's a very good thing that so many prestigious organizations are now working on immersive education, which might finally lift an initiative like this off the ground. Your these is similar in many ways to the work of a professor of mine, Ian Bogost. He mainly works on serious games, which he calls 'persuasive'. Game environments offer users a unique possibility to interact with learning material in such a way, that one can learn about complex processes while interacting within these. This characteristic of games is called procedurality: more than any other medium––whether or not used in education––a game can teach us how complex systems work. Procedural learning would be a great supplement to traditional forms of education in my opinion, here's a clip of Bogost explaining procedurality in the Colbert Report.
One other thing: This is not necessarily meant as a critique on the Immersive Education project, but I've noticed that all too many people use the word 'immersive' without really explaining what they mean by that. Beyond the 'standard' definition of an intense mediated experience, there arise some issues. Where does 'digital' immersion differ from 'analog' immersion? Because surely immersion isn't something limited to the digital sphere. Moreover, does immersion make you more active or passive as a user? How consistent, complex and/or familiar needs a immersive environment to be in order to be successfully immersive? I guess my question would be: how would you define immersion?
Using technology could motivate and lead kids to proper, faster and usable knowledge. But which technology environment is better? Games, realistic, graphic or simple logical cases? I belive in second. Teaching kids throght game is adopting tools to their way of thinging. Is it right way? We will leave them in their virtual worlds, showing them less and less real tools for real life?
Few days ago I surfed to some "learning proffesional institute" from UK, which are dealing with online learning tools. It is for a bit different education purposuse, but it is a bit related to the article - best online education tool is del.icio.us. Very, very simple engine rox the world. Google and many other did.
You have written a very thought provoking post ... it raised some questions
Do you think ,while Immersive eduction will most certainly enter the training area, perhaps it will be in the corporate arena first and then primary and secondary eduction ?
Secondly, seems the costs in the primacy education sector would be significantly more when using this technology. So would it be appropriate to say that the developed world is likely to see more of this than areas that get the OLPC and similar products. Secondly would OLPC support this technology ?
Thirdly it does seem unlikely to replace a teacher in most subjects. What subjects do you think are most suitable for this technology ? What are the implications for connectivity ?
Finally, in an increasingly mobile world, how does this technology integrate into mobile platforms ?
Many thanks for this great post. I certainly believe that with this initiative by your group, humanity is about to unlock or earnest to the fullest our abilities. I read through this article on the exploration experience of a 12-year girl in an immersive education enviroment and was really impressed:
Encompassing Education
One could only hope that you go about setting the protocols and standards for this initiative in a very proper way.
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