Mikropoulos, T. A., & Natsis, A. (2011). Educational virtual environments: A ten-year review of empirical research (1999–2009). Computers & Education, 56(3), 769-780.
The authors have created a 10 year literary review of research regarding Virtual Reality in Education. The majority of this review shows that VR is still in its learning phase as an educational tool. There are multiple new aspects that VR brings to education, and they need to be explored more in depth. The tech though is adequately advanced and has the potential to drastically affect education if we can learn how to utilize it effectively and efficiently as educators. Multisensory interaction stimulates the immersion and helps increase the students “presence” in the learning environment. Presence seems to play an important role in Educational Virtual Environments (EVE), but instructors must be careful that a high degree of presence “is very motivating but could well take up too much of the users’ attention and produce a cognitive overload when it comes to understanding conceptual notions” (Whitelock, Romano, Jelfs, and Brna, 2000). The study also shows that social aspects of the environment are not only between participants but also with avatars for a new dimension of computer assisted learning and social motivation requirements.
As a literature review goes, this article is well designed and flows well. It encompasses a lot of information in a fairly short article, but doesn’t seem overwhelming or hard to follow. The study has a significant number of articles (53) and does a good job of breaking them down into categories for each topic that is addressed. The authors also synthesis and present some very important and unique information regarding the future of EVE’s in education along with the positives and pitfalls of an EVE system. I would have liked a little more of a comprehensive summary at the end of the paper to bring it together a bit more, but otherwise a well written article.
I find this topic fascinating. The possibilities for science, my teaching focus, are limitless with the ability to show students “first hand” what is happening at the sub-atomic level, at the planetary level, and on geological time scales. Topics that were considered difficult and abstract could be much more understandable with the help of EVE’s. I look forward to discussing this topic with the class.
Whitelock, D., Romano, D., Jelfs, A., & Brna, P. (2000). Perfect presence: what does this mean for the design of virtual learning environments? Education and Information
Technologies, 5(4), 277–289.
DET Blog - Todd Callan 