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Learning by Doing and Learning Through Play: An Exploration of Interactivity in Virtual

Environments for Children


MARIA ROUSSOU UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

Source:
http://nexus.hsbremerhaven.de/Library.nsf/a249ddae15ac617ac12573460029d00b/3a857d47de4a673b
c125733e006d1061/$FILE/p10-roussou_Learn_through_Play.pdf

The development of interactive, participatory, multisensory environments that combine the physical
with the virtual comes as a natural continuation to the computer game industrys constant race for
more exciting user experiences. Specialized theme parks and various other leisure and entertainment
centers worldwide are embracing the interactive promise that games have made users expect. This
is not a trend limited to the entertainment domain; non-formal learning environments for children are
also following this path, backed up by a theoretical notion of play as a core activity in a childs
development. In this article we explore a central thread in learning, play, as well as an essential
characteristic of virtual reality environments: interactivity. A critical review of examples of immersive
virtual reality worlds created for children, with particular attention given to the role and nature of
interactivity, is attempted. Interactivity is examined in relation to learning, play, narrative, and to
characteristics inherent in virtual reality, such as immersion, presence, and the creation of illusion.
Key Words and Phrases: Interactivity, virtual environments, informal education, young users, virtual
art

1. INTRODUCTION
Virtual reality (VR), the three-dimensional multisensory, immersive, and interactive digital
environment, has triggered public imagination as the technology that will dominate the way our
work, education, and leisure are delivered in the future. To date, VR installations and applications
have been the main concern of the scientific visualization communities, and of certain industrial
research and development projects. However, in the past few years, there has been a proliferation of
VR installations (in the form of exhibits) and VR applications (in the form of experiences)
available and accessible to the public.
The entertainment market, traditionally concerned with the creation of spectacles and, more recently,
multisensory experiences, was one of the first to embrace current achievements in VR, in order to
advance the art of experience both through gaming machines and location-based entertainment.
Other public settings, such as museums and informal educational institutions, generally hesitant in
adopting cutting-edge digital technologies, are now considering various forms of VR to attract and
motivate visitors, but also to ultimately deliver their educational agenda more effectively. Recent
success stories that exemplify the edutainment1 venue include the Hayden Planetariums 400- seat
all-digital dome system at the American Museum of Natural History in New York,2 the Glasgow
Science Centers immersive Virtual Science Theatre,3 the VR Theatre in Korea (the largest
immersive and interactive theater in the world) [Park et al. 2002], or the cubic immersive (CAVE-
like) displays installed permanently at unusual museums such as the Ars Electronica Center in
Austria,4 the ICC in Japan5 or the Foundation of the Hellenic World in Greece [Gaitatzes et al. 2000].
Although these are high-cost semi- or fully immersive installations with interactive capabilities, it
may not be long before appropriated scaled-down versions make their way into the schools and
eventually into the home. The most notable example of an immersive system in such an everyday

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context is described in Johnson et al. [2001], which discusses the issues and reports the results of a
project involving the multiyear deployment of an immersive VR display in an elementary school for
science education. Consequently, VR application development has increased its range of practice
while advancing the techniques and art of constructing immersive worlds. On the other hand,
techniques for developing interactivity, the process with which users act upon and even modify virtual
worlds, are relatively unexplored. However, as the plethora of interactive systems of all kinds
indicates, our culture, formerly one of immersive ideals is now a culture more concerned with
interactivity [Ryan 2000]. Indeed, in every new application directed to the public, from computer
games to educational software, interactivity is widely advertised, primarily for its recreational
potential but also for its significance for learning. This is even more prominent in the case of virtual
reality, since interactivity is largely seen as one of the mediums essential properties.

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