Maria Roussou
ABSTRACT
This research sets out to explore children's interaction in immersive Virtual Environments (VEs), focusing on the role and the effect of interactivity on learning and conceptual change. The intention is to examine how interaction and conceptual learning are related in the context of virtual environments developed primarily for informal educational settings. In order to study this, a set of exploratory studies was carried out with children aged 7-12. The children were asked to complete tasks, such as the assembly of ancient columns from parts, which were designed to promote constructivist learning. Their interaction in the VE was analyzed using an Activity Theory framework [3]. The result of this analysis has informed the design of the main studies, which is currently underway.
- Barab, S. A., Hay, K. E., and Barnett, M. G., "Virtual solar system project: Building understanding through model building", Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada, AERA (1999).Google Scholar
- Harel, I., Children Designers. Interdisciplinary Constructions for Learning and Knowing Mathematics in a Computer-Rich School. Ablex Publishing, Norwood, NJ (1991). Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nardi, B. A., Context and Consciousness: Activity Theory and Human-Computer Interaction, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1996). Google ScholarDigital Library
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