Rich White's "Mobile Immersive Learning Lab" Project; EduSim Update

Rich White is an educational technologist for Greenbush County, Kansas, has been working with the 3D interactive virtual world, EduSim, for quite a while. He's taking EduSim to the next level.

"The concept is one of an enclosed virtual learning space - with surrounded projection of the virtual learning world the students are exploring - similar to the StarLab Concept (with a rectangular configuration). along the lines of a CAVE - however simpler, mobile, and relatively in-expensive by comparison."

The project is at the beginning prototype stage.

Below is a demo of the virtual world as it is projected on two screens that are placed next to each other at a right angle, with the center of the virtual-world view positioned where the two screens meet:

This might be a great way of reaching students who have autism!

More about EduSim:

EduSim, for those of you haven't seen my previous posts on the topic, is a multi-user 3D interactive environment used in classrooms with interactive whiteboards:

Information from Rich White's Greenbush blog about Edusim:

Wikipedia entry:
"Edusim is a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment based concept of lesson driven 3D virtual worlds on the classroom interactive whiteboard or classroom interactive surface. The Edusim concept is demonstrated by the Edusim free and open source multi-user 3D Open Cobalt virtual world platform and authoring tool kit modified for the classroom interactive whiteboard or surface. The Edusim application is a modified edition of the open source Open Cobalt Project and relies heavily on the affordances of direct manipulation of 3D virtual learning models and Constructionist Learning Principles."

History of Edusim:
"The Edusim project began in September 2007 at the Greenbush Education Service Center in Southeast Kansas as an effort to bring an engaging 3D experience to the classroom interactive whiteboard. Pilot groups were established with 6th and 7th grade middle school students throughout Southeast Kansas to observe how students would be engaged through the software, and how the user interface would need to be augmented to account for the affordances of the whiteboard, and the usability of the students."

Here is a virtual world in Edusim in COBALT, showing how a drag and drop function is used for in-world VNC application sharing:

The Cobalt 3D metaverse browser has been modified for multi-touch interaction by some of the members of RENCI, a collaborative venture of Duke University and several other North Carolina universities. The video below is Dr. Xunlei Wu, demonstrating how gesture and touch is used to manipulate items and navigate through two Cobalt virtual worlds:

Some of the members of RENCI built a multi-touch table in addition to the collaborative multi-touch wall. For more information:

RENCI: Multi-Touch Collaborative Wall and Table using TouchLib: More about UNC-C's Viz Lab

Gesturetek Health: "Interactive Technology & Virtual Reality Systems for Therapy & Rehabilitation"

(Pictures from the GestureTek website.)

Gesturetek's Health division has created a variety of interactive applications designed "... for the disability, hospital, mental health and education sectors. Our touch-free, motion-activated solutions for virtual reality physical therapy, multisensory stimulation and immersive play let patients (regardless of age, ability or condition) have fun in a hygienic environment and experience marked improvement in their physical and cognitive abilities."

Here are a few highlights:




Overview of some demos from GestureTek:


References:
GestureTek Health and FlagHouse Announce Partnership to Bring Sensory Solutions to the Physically and Cognitively Challenged

GestureTek Videoclips

GestureTek Company Fact Sheet (pdf)

Note: Dean LaCoe, of GestureTek, will be presenting at the Interactive Displays 2009 Conference in April.

Classroom 2.0 Discussion Topics

If you are interested in technology and education, join Classroom 2.0! Here is a list of some forum discussions that I think you'd find worthwhile:

How are you using your classroom smartboard?

Gaming in the classroom

Second Life?

Let's share links to our blogs!

Favorite Open Source Software

Ten things every teacher should know about technology

Update: So you're getting interactive whiteboard! Now what?

(photo from http://www.nextwindow.com/)

If you hadn't noticed, there is an increase in the number of classrooms that have interactive whiteboards or displays. My school will have two whiteboards soon. To prepare for the transition, teachers are searching for information beyond what is provided by SmartTechnologies or Promethean, two industry leaders.

I've mentioned in previous posts that I tried out a variety of interactive whiteboards and large touch-screen displays when I worked on a project for a Human-Computer Interaction class I took in 2007. My favorite was the NextWindow Human Touch display, which contains WiFi and BlueTooth enabled computer. The display stays well calibrated, has a high resolution, and has excellent touch response. It does not require a projector, so shadows aren't cast when people are at the screen, which is formally known as the "problem of occlusion".

Fortunately, there are resources on the web to help teachers learn more about the various ways they can harness the power of interactive technology to support innovative, effective teaching and learning.

I came across this link, posted in Langwitches recent blog entry, Interactive Whiteboards: Which? How? What? that is suitable for beginners:

Thirty-Two Interesting Ways (and tips) to Use Your Interactive Whiteboard

Another good source , from the Georgia Department of Education's Educational Technology Training Center, is the Interactive Whiteboard Links

Here are some of my posts and links regarding interactive whiteboards and displays:

Nobelprize.org's Educational Outreach: Multimedia Games, Experiments, and Simulated Environments

Interactive Whiteboards Increase Student Attention, Engagement, and Test Scores!

Edusim: 3D Collaborative Application for Interactive Displays and Whiteboards

Explore Learning, Interactive Displays, Revisited

Virtual Reality Field Trips, Created by Psychologists

eSchool News Online: Microscope Imaging Station from the Exploratorium

Interactive Information Visualization: Digg Labs Website

Gigapan: Good for interactive whiteboards and large touch screen displays

Visual Simulations for K-12 Education: Great for interactive displays and white boards

Examples of interactive touch screen displays, on the Future-Making Serious Games blog:
http://elianealhadeff.blogspot.com/2007/09/ten-fingers-software-for-serious-gaming.html

For the technically inclined:
Johnny Lee's Wii Hacks
Video: Low Cost Multi-Point Interactive Whiteboard with the Wiimote




Scratch: A new programming language for kids that supports stories, animations, games, music, art, websharing, from MIT


RELATED:

Resource and Research List, "Interactive Whiteboards", from the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF)

Education World article "Speaking of Electronic Whiteboards?"

Large Display Research Overview from Microsoft Research (PDF)

Quotes about visual and multimedia literacy, Part I

Quotes about visual and multimedia literacy, Part II


If you'd like to explore and discuss new technologies, join Classroom 2.0. There is a section about interactive whiteboards in the Classroom 2.0 Resources Wiki.

Visual Simulations for K-12 Education- Great for interactive displays and white boards.

The Visual Simulations website provides a variety of educational applications designed to work with interactive whiteboards and displays. Most of the activities on the site are free.


AudioBoard:
"Pure tones can be visualized with an in-built signal generator. Alternatively you can use the microphone as an input or play a sound file in the background with media player."


AtomScope:
"AtomScope is a particle simulation program for teaching at KS3 and KS4. It features a collection of simulations which each reflect a key idea in the science of atoms and molecules."

MegaPost: Resources for All

Since I started blogging, new technologies have made their way into an increasing number of classrooms, and many educators are aware of efforts such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Response to Intervention or Instruction (RTI), as well as innovative technologies that provide engaged, interactive learning experiences for students.

I've consolidated information and updated links and resources from some previous posts from my TechPsych and Interactive Multimedia Technology blogs. Although many of the resources cited in this post relate to K-12 education, some of the information is useful for instructional designers, school administrators, researchers, college/university educators, parents, and technologists who are interested in developing interactive multimedia applications for children and teens.

Take the time to review the "MegaPost" on the Interactive Multimedia Technology Blog!