conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment yongwu miao niels pinkwart...
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Conducting Situated Learning in a Collaborative Virtual Environment
Yongwu MiaoNiels PinkwartUlrich Hoppe
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Overview Pedagogical motivation –
constructivism and situated learning Approach and principles of 3D
collaborative driving simulator Implementation key decisions (driving
place, situation detection, architecture for distribution)
Example scenes Conclusions and future work
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
3D Simulations as constructivist learning environments
Core position of constructivism: learners actively construct knowledge
Knowledge based on interpretation of experiences in the real world (includes other learners!)
3D Simulations of “real world” sometimes very appropriate (costs, safety)– learners can still be active and make experiences
Example: learning car driving
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Existing systems Lots of 3D car driving simulators exist
(games, educational, professional) Educational systems typically try to
confront learners with challenging situations
Often: “full size” systems very costly (advanced visual and audio systems, motion systems, functional cab, software components)
Growing PC and network performance allows “low cost” solutions – usually with pre-defined driving scenarios and tutors
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Our approach Low cost (standard PC and network),
support for multiple users Variety of challenging situations that
“might happen” through interaction / collaboration – no predefined scenes!
Consider situated learning principles:
Learner
Content
Context
Community
Participation
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Driving place design Key requirement: rich data model (realistic
content & context), but still small enough for distributed usage
General approach: cell grid Each cell containing typed objects (static or
dynamic) with attributes Example: “car” object with attributes
direction, speed, acceleration, turning angle, brake status, indicator status, sector information
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Map editor Create driving places easily by drag & drop Maps transformed to VRML Display via Java 3D
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Situation description and recognition
Not needed for most basic functionality (except collision detection)
Essential for advanced functions (user behavior analysis, feedback)
Technical approach: Jess rules acting on object attributes
Situation detection target specification Additional control rules to check if targets
have been reached
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Example: situation recognition(defrule safe_distance_violation
(vpcar (position ?pos) (direction ?dir)
(speed ?speed))(car_in_lane
(car_position ?carpos) (car_direction ?cardir)
(car_speed ?carspeed))(not (target_state (desc safe_distance_violation)))(test (violated_safe_distance ?pos ?speed ?carpos ?carspeed))=>(bind ?list (create$ "distance"))
(?*guidance* addInstruction 6 ?carpos ?list ?pos)(assert (target_state
(situid 6) (checkpoint ?carpos) (chkpt_passed FALSE) (targets ?list) (desc safe_distance_violation)))
(?*guidance* addMistakes ?list 6))
Attributes of student’s car
Attributes of other car in lane
Distancetoo small ?
Definition of new target
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Distributed system architecture Central tuple
space contains attributed objects (driving place and additional information)
Different roles for teacher and student client
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Distributed system architecture
Reduction of network traffic:1. Transmission of only local context
(sector arithmetic)2. Only status change
events (braking,accelerating, indicator) for cars, positions are inferred by clientapplications
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Feedback
Based on situations recognition and targets, different types of feedback and guidance possible:
Forewarn messages or hints Feedback after targets
missed/reached Implicit feedback (situation creation) Guidance on demand
Alreadyimplemented
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
System architecture
System prototype (simple graphics, small number of object types, restricted number of modeled situations) exists and has been used in a pilot study
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Example – student client
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Example – teacher client
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Conclusions “Low-cost” collaborative 3D educational
driving simulator, following situated learning approach
Allows training in a lot (though not all) of the skills needed for driving
No hard-coded “challenging situations” created by system, but (more realistic!) provision for collaborative situation creation
Students receive feedback on their performance in real-time
WBE 2006 Conducting situated learning in a collaborative virtual environment
Niels Pinkwart
Future Work
Agents simulating students “Subtle” creation of situations by
intelligent agents Integration of audio communication
functions Evaluations beyond pilot tests
Email: [email protected]