Introducing Children to Adult Tasks through Virtual Reality

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Introducing Children to Adult Tasks through
Virtual Reality

• Ted Leath
• University of Ulster, Northern Ireland

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Introduction

• The early introduction of school children to
  adult tasks through non-immersive virtual reality
  (VR) should develop dexterity, task-oriented
  memory and appropriate attitudes while being fun
  at the same time.
• VR allows the provision of a safe environment for
  children to attempt tasks not safe enough, or
  appropriate in the real world.

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Introduction (continued)

• An example project is proposed which will allow
  the evaluation of the extent to which successful
  completion of the virtual task translates to
  competency in the real world task.

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Anticipated Benefits

• Children should develop dexterity and spatial
  awareness through interaction with a virtual
  world. This dexterity would be advantageous not
  only in terms of the simulated task, but should
  also be of benefit in acquiring computer skills,
  and in understanding metaphorical models.
• Children should develop task-specific competency
  and memory through repetition and experience. In
  addition, the exercise of memory should be of
  general developmental help.

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More Anticipated Benefits

• Tasks may be weighted to encourage the
  development of appropriate attitudes in the hope
  that these attitudes will become ingrained and
  carried into adulthood. For example, in the
  physical world, driving on the wrong side of the
  road may or may not result in an accident. In a
  virtual world where there are no enduring
  consequences (except in the participants memory),
  driving on the wrong side of the road might
  always result in an accident.

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Environment

• The ubiquity of PCs and networking in schools has
  made available teaching and learning environments
  that were hitherto unknown.
• Software tools for the development and display
  of three-dimensional learning environments or
  worlds are freely available and widely
  distributed through the Internet.

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VRML and VRML Worlds

• It is proposed that the example project be
  implemented through the Virtual Reality Modelling
  Language (VRML). VRML is widely supported,
  inexpensive and accessible.
• VRML is to three-dimensional environments what
  HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is to
  two-dimensional web pages. VRML does not execute
  like software, but is grammatically analysed
  (parsed) and then displayed. This is most often
  accomplished through a web browser with helper
  software. The presentation of parsed VRML files
  is known as a virtual world.

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When to use VR in Education

• When a simulation would be used
• When teaching or training using the real thing
  is
• (a) dangerous (b) impossible (c) inconvenient

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When to use VR in Education(continued)

• When mistakes made by the learner or trainee
  using the real thing could be
• (a) devastating and/or demoralizing to the
  learner (b) harmful to the environment (c)
  capable of causing unintended property
  damage (d) capable of causing damage to
  equipment (e) costly.

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When to use VR in Education(continued)

• Teaching tasks involving manual dexterity or
  physical movement.
• Essential to make learning more interesting and
  fun, e.g., working with boring material or with
  students who have attention problems.

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Immersive and Non-immersive VR

• Virtual Reality environments divide into two
  broad categories, immersive and non-immersive.
• Immersive VR uses specialist equipment or
  physical environment to immerse the user in a
  new sensual reality, completely manipulating
  senses of vision, sound, touch, and more rarely,
  smell and taste.
• Non-immersive VR is also known as through the
  window VR since a computer workstation is used
  to provide a window into the virtual world. user
  can move about the world using a pointing device
  like a mouse, or the keyboard.

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Use of VR in Education

• The first practical use of an educational VR
  application that has been identified occurred in
  1993.
• Twenty applications were expected to have seen
  practical use by the end of 1997. Of these,
  nearly 75 were immersive requiring specialist
  equipment.
• Use of both pre-developed VR applications and
  student development of virtual worlds can be
  educationally effective. Interactivity seemed to
  be the key rather than level of immersion.

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Use of VR in Education(continued)

• Students enjoy working with virtual worlds and
  this experience can be highly motivating.
• In practical terms, desktop VR is more suitable
  for widespread use than immersive VR technology.

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Example Project

• The example project proposes the creation of a
  VRML world containing a public telephone callbox.
  The task chosen involves a child successfully
  placing a telephone call with all that this
  involves procedurally including lifting the
  handset, inserting a coin, entering the correct
  number and replacing the handset at the end of
  the simulated phone call.

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Example Screens
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Elements of the Interface

• Visual movement on depression of touchtone
  buttons
• Audible touchtones and dial tone
• Visual display of numbers as pressed in callbox
  window
• Speech output on incorrect button depression
• Context sensitive help via help button using
  speech output
• Congratulatory speech output on successful
  completion

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Evaluation

• Evaluation will involve two groups of children.
  One group will use the VRML world to complete the
  virtual task a specified number of times. The
  second group who have not used the VRML world
  will serve as a control group. Both groups of
  children will then attempt the real world task. A
  comparison of each groups effectiveness in
  performing the task will be compiled, taking note
  of
• Whether or not the task was successfully
  completed
• The nature and number of mistakes made during
  task execution
• The time required to complete the task
  successfully

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Questions