Transcript

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]


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