From: LSPANTEL@ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU Subject: VR in the Schools ========================================================================= VR IN THE SCHOOLS June 1995 - Volume 1, Number 1 VR IN THE SCHOOLS, a quarterly publication of the Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory (VREL), is distributed in both print and electronic versions. Permission is granted to reproduce and/or electronicaly distribute this newsletter in its entirety and without cost. Editors: Dr. Veronica S. Pantelidis and Dr. Larry Auld, Co-directors, Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory, School of Education, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858-4353 USA. Telephone 919-328-6621 Fax 919-328-4368 Email lspantel@ecuvm.cis.ecu.edu lsauld@ecuvm.cis.ecu.edu Table of Contents: Welcome The Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory What is Virtual Reality? Virtual Reality Becomes Reality - Bob Trueman Virtual Reality in Australia - Dr. David Ainge Virtual Reality in Greece - Dr. Tassos A. Mikropoulos Christa McAuliffe Fellowship Features Virtual Reality - Marcia J. Talkmitt Changing Dimensions in System Interfaces - Dr. Lawrence Auld Virtually Experienced! A One-Month Practicum at VREL, May 2-June 1, 1995 - Karsten Wassermann Materials Available From VREL VR and Education Bibliography Virtual Reality and Schools Project Virtual Reality and Schools Project Reports Janet McLendon, Debi Hamill, Fred Bisel, Rich Gallo Reasons to Use Virtual Reality in Education - Dr. Veronica S. Pantelidis Software Mentioned in This Newsletter Request form for electronic or print version of this newsletter ************** Welcome! Welcome to VR in the Schools! This quarterly publication features news, descriptions of projects, interviews, notices of courses and workshops, new virtual reality resources, and other items of interest. While our primary interest is kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) applications of virtual reality, we want to know about other applications, too. Send us your news items. The development of model virtual reality applications suited to educational uses, particularly in kindergarten through grade twelve, is largely unexplored territory, although military, government, and industry training programs have employed simulations using some form of virtual reality for years. Interest is growing around the world in the use of virtual reality in education, and a number of institutions are conducting research in this area. ************** The Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory Based on a perceived need for a laboratory to study the implications of virtual reality on K-12 education, Drs. Larry Auld and Veronica Pantelidis established the Virtual Reality and Educational Laboratory (VREL) in 1992. The lab is open to visitors from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The goals of VREL are to identify suitable applications of virtual reality in education; evaluate and demonstrate virtual reality software, equipment, and related print and nonprint materials; set up virtual reality in specific classrooms; gather information on the use of virtual reality in education throughout the world; examine the impact of virtual reality on education; and disseminate the information as broadly as possible. Members of the VREL staff work with faculty, students, and educators, helping them to explore ways of using virtual reality as an integral part of instruction. ************** What is Virtual Reality? The Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory at East Carolina University is dedicated to finding ways to use virtual reality in education. Virtual reality is the computer - generated simulation of a real or imagined environment or world. It can be graphics based (e.g., a walkthrough of a building) or text based (e.g., a description of a city where participants can interact with one another). Virtual reality has the potential to change the way we learn. The question is, how can this new medium be incorporated productively into the learning process? ************** Virtual Reality Becomes Reality Bob Trueman email: Bob_Trueman@nynet.nybe.north-york.on.ca North York is a school district of over 66,000 students on the northern boundary of Toronto, Ontario. Many of the elementary and middle level teachers in the area were exposed to virtual reality 3-D programs, gloves and headmounts during a week-long summer conference held by the district to provide curriculum support and personal computer skills development. Despite the teachers' enthusiasm for the concept, the cost of the programming software, the required purchasing of DOS machines (North York is largely a Mac district), and the teacher training made implementation difficult. It was through the support of Veronica Pantelidis that we discovered that Virtus WalkThrough Pro might be the answer to our concerns. We purchased a program, gave it to one of our secondary school students to experiment with and realized from his enthusiasm that it was a package worth exploring with interested teachers. Twenty teachers attended two, 4-hour workshops to learn about the program and its curriculum implications. Before they arrived we shared some of the information pages and articles that were developed and shared by Veronica as well as additional articles from other sources. The workshops consisted of the teachers exploring the pre-designed environments of Virtus WalkThrough to let them get the feel of moving through an environment. Once they began to realize the potential for exploration, we then began the skill development of construction - simple one room structures, putting in textures, windows and doors and adding a roof. During the second of the two workshops, the teachers had a demonstration by two grade 9 students - one showing the Star Trek Enterprise that he had created using Virtus WalkThrough and another student demonstrating a completely furnished house he had constructed. The student who had created the Enterprise was working on a model of the universe (as he called it) complete with stars and the planets. Asked how long it had taken to create the model, he explained, half an hour to which the response came back, "And to think, it took God seven days." The work done by these students who had been using the program for several weeks amazed the teachers and was good motivation for them to see what they could do. The second session included using various collections of objects that could be added to the environments including QuickTime movies, creating "flythroughs," developing the concept of model building, and exploring the educational applications. Each teacher was given one copy of Virtus WalkThrough. The teachers are now working on classroom projects with their students. Some classes have joined with other classes to create cities and become part of the Cityscape project. Others have incorporated the program into the mathematics curriculum. In some classes, the students have been allowed to develop their own worlds as part of the creative arts program. VR examples are shared between classrooms of the teachers who took the workshop and the teachers continue to meet to share curriculum ideas. There are some frustrations, of course, the main one being that certain aspects of the VR software package will crash unexpectedly and, of course, its operating system doesn't allow for "real time" flythroughs. However, within our district, virtual reality is now becoming a reality - we will continue to expand the classroom applications and integration of the VR program into our outcomes and introduce more sophisticated modeling opportunities, including 3-D animation. Hopefully, virtual reality will make a difference for all our students in how we work towards developing and achieving our learning objectives. Bob Trueman is coordinator of computers in education for the North York Board of Education in North York, Ontario, Canada. He may be reached at: Computers in Education, c/o Northview Secondary School, 550 Finch Avenue, West, North York, Ontario, MZR 1N6 Canada. Telephone: 416-395-3681 Fax: 416-395-4188 ************** Virtual Reality in Australia Dr. David Ainge email: David.Ainge@jcu.edu.au After visiting the first Australian VR exhibition in October, 1994, I could immediately see great possibilities for education. I soon discovered that there was a lot of work going on in the United States, but if anyone in Australia is actually doing work in schools, they are keeping very quiet about it. So, I decided to run with it. November to March was spent gathering as much information as possible and learning the basics of the Virtual Reality Development System (VRDS) which is put out by Vream Corporation of Chicago. I met a local primary school principal who had seen a little VR on television and was very enthusiastic about the possibilities. We managed to get a small grant, and the students in his grade 6/7 class have been doing work with VR for about a month. As far as we can find out, it is the first classroom in Australia to use VR. Once word got out, there was a lot of interest in the community, and we have had coverage in the Queensland state teachers' journal, a state newspaper, and local newspapers, TV and radio. The students will work with VR in three stages, and they will use only desktop VR, partly because of the budget, but also because I would expect difficulties if only one child at a time, in a class of twenty, had access to a head mounted display (HMD). They are in stage 1 now, exploring the demo worlds which came with VRDS. Before going on to work which has a specific educational purpose, we want to hear their initial reactions to VR, and give them time to learn the skills of navigation and object manipulation. In the second stage they will use the editor to build geometric solids. We want to see if having the students explore solids from inside as well as outside, shrink and expand them, deform them, and join them will give more understanding than the usual work with wood models etc. It is also quick and easy to create high quality VR solids, whereas many students find their efforts with traditional materials very frustrating, and it will be interesting to see if this helps their learning. At the same time, we shall find out how they react to the need to think in three dimensions when they use the editor. In stage three, we hope they will go on to build more complex worlds, and more teachers will become involved. One of the claims about VR is that it will encourage students to be more active learners, because it requires them to take action and make decisions. In another school I am going to be working with students who have learning difficulties, to see if VR raises their time on task and quality of involvement. Regular grade sevens in that school will also explore Virtus WalkThrough, using the Galleries and editor. Much of the literature on VR in education is highly speculative, and I am keen to compare VR with more traditional materials. There seem to be some basic assumptions in the VR literature, even though they are not always made explicit. Obviously,the fundamental assumption is that VR will enhance learning as a function of the intensity of the experience. It seems to me that this leads to the implication that students should have better recall of information gained from VR than other types of presentation, perhaps recalling more information, or retaining it longer. I have obtained a small research grant to investigate this question. I am also interested in how teachers might integrate VR into the curriculum in effective ways, using its unique features as fully as possible, rather than employing it for activities which could probably be done as well, or perhaps more easily, in other ways. I am working on an article which discusses this topic. It seems clear that VR will become a significant part of children's lives, both in and out of school. Educators will soon have to start thinking not only about how to use VR, but also how to help students become discerning consumers. There is plenty of concern about the kinds of VR games that might be available, but what about the power of VR advertising? How intense should VR be, and what might be the consequences of prolonged immersion? There will be many other questions, and children (and adult consumers) will have to learn to make their own judgments. Anyway, it's a fascinating field, and I'm really enjoying working in it. It's great to be in this first issue of VR in the Schools, and I am looking forward to reading what other people have written. Dr. David Ainge is at the School of Education, James Cook University, Townsville 4811, Australia Telephone ( national) 077-815141 (international) 61-77-815141 Fax: (national) 077-251690 (international) 61-77-251690 ************** Virtual Reality in Greece Dr. Tassos A. Mikropoulos email: amikrop@cc.uoi.gr The EARTH team was founded in the Department of Primary Education, University of Ioannina, Greece, in the beginning of 1993. Since then, researchers work with faculty, and educators on the design and development of Virtual Learning Environments in domains such as geography and environmental education, and physical sciences mainly for primary and secondary education. The group is interdisciplinary with scientists from various disciplines. The main group consists of Professor G. I. Dimou (pedagogical psychology, chairman of the department), Professor Ph. Kossivaki (didactics), Professor A. Katsikis (environmental education), Dr. T. A. Mikropoulos (physicist, computers in education), and the postgraduate students Mr. A. Halkidis, Mr. A. Emvalotis and Miss J. Nikolou. The group is also collaborating with other Institutes in European Communities research projects, such as the Educational Software Development Laboratory, Department of Mathematics, University of Patras, Greece, and VIRART, University of Nottingham, UK. The main aim of the EARTH team is the design and development of affordable hardware and software virtual reality systems for uses in the classroom. For that reason, all the systems are PC based. The software used is Superscape VRT, Sense8 World Tool Kit, Vistapro, etc., with peripheral devices such as spaceball, 3-D space mouse, joysticks, data glove, haptic actuators, HMDs (in the future). The EARTH team has a number of research projects currently underway. The primary one is the LAKE (virtuaL Approach to the Kernel of Eutrophism) project. This work proposes the introduction of VR in the education process in the discipline of environmental education, by the design and development of a virtual environment on the phenomenon of eutrophic lakes. Concerning the conceptual basis for education applications of VR, constructivism, experiential and social learning are the best models for building a theory of learning in virtual environments. Environmental education and virtual environments have parallel ambitions, favoring learning through senses, providing a sense of freedom. Virtual reality is a potentially beneficial tool in environmental education, and especially VR applications that allow students to "visit" natural environments are beneficial. The developed virtual environment LAKE offers the possibility for the understanding of related concepts, observing directly the behavior of the system using the conceptualization tools of the students without referring to data representation techniques or languages. They perceive the system directly and have some control over the system behavior or structure depending on the flexibility of the system itself. Moreover, the specific topic does not allow experimental work with the real world. The environment helps students to learn by doing, suggestions are tested, and feedback allows the change of the process. The model of the mechanism of eutrophism is continuous, dynamic, and deterministic. The steps of the mechanism are the growth of the usage of fertilizers, growth of salts in the lake, increase of plankton, decrease of the dissolved oxygen, decrease of fish population. The objectives of the virtual environment are the finding of the factors and their relation involving in eutrophic lakes, the sensitization of the children, and the development of their critical abilities. The initial assumptions are a shallow lake, and the increase of amount of salts coming from the surrounding agricultural activities. The decision variables are the rate of increase of fertilizers into the lake, and the initial populations of fish and plankton. The responsive variables are the final populations of fish, plankton, and oxygen. The general characteristics of the virtual environment contain the possibility for the evolution of ready made scenarios, charts showing the time dependence of the main variables, and different views. The student can also "dive" into the lake, move and manipulate objects, or even "be" a fish. The LAKE project has been developed with the Superscape VRT software. The next step of the project is an empirical study in the classroom to get the appropriate feedback for its further development. Another project focuses on geography education, and is an entry level for education "doing" and learning in virtual environments. Using mainly the Vistapro software, researchers build basic geographical and geomorphologic characteristics, as well as virtual visits to them, using simple principles. This way, they can teach educators and students to build their own, and they teach the same thing to children. The aim is for young children to construct such geographical characteristics by themselves, constructing knowledge at the same time. A third project focuses on the design and development of hardware interfaces for virtual learning environments. Projects under development are simple and low cost haptic systems based on shaped memory alloys, as well the real time user imaging inside virtual environments. Part of the work of the EARTH team has been presented in relative journals and conferences. For more information on the Earth Team, contact: Dr. Tassos Mikropoulos, The EARTH (Educational Approach to virtual Reality TecHnologies) Team, Department of Primary Education, University of Ioannina, Doboli 30, 45110 Ioannina, Greece. Telephone: 30-651-45298 Fax: 30-651-45298 Dr. Mikropoulos is a physicist in the Department of Primary Education, University of Ioannina, Doboli 30, 45110 Ioannina, Greece. Telephone: 0030-651-42723 Fax: 0030-651-40674 ************** Christa McAuliffe Fellowship Features Virtual Reality Marcia J. Talkmitt email: mtalkmit@tenet.edu Marcia Talkmitt writes: I have recently been awarded a Christa McAuliffe Fellowship for the first organized VR project in Texas. My project is: VESAMOTEX--Virtual Education--Science and Math o' Texas. The project will be conducted in four phases: The first phase will include the investigation and purchase of basic equipment. The second phase will involve the students and teachers in the production of various scientific and mathematical applications through video production and other media. The third phase will involve all students in the use of virtual reality within the science, computer, and math classrooms. The fourth phase will involve the demonstration of virtual reality to schools within our district and surrounding area. Marcia Talkmitt is a teacher at Slaton High School in Slaton, Texas. She may be reached at VESAMOTEX, Box 10, Texas. She may be reached at VESAMOTEX, Box 10, Wilson, Texas 79381. ************** Changing Dimensions in System Interfaces Dr. Lawrence Auld email: lsauld@ecuvm.cis.ecu.edu Virtual reality is changing the system interfaces we use. Only a few years ago, we used a one-dimensional interface, the ubiquitous C-prompt, the C:>. that reappeared after each command had been executed. In one dimension, we waited for the C:> to appear at the left of the screen, typed in a command, pressed the Enter key, and, again, waited for the C:> to reappear. Then came two-dimensional interfaces in which a screenful of choices, often represented as icons, appeared. A command could be executed by selecting an icon from among the two-dimensional array of choices. Windows and the McIntosh interface are two well-known examples. Already, we are beginning to see interfaces in which the user interacts via a three-dimensional space, represented as a flat-screen or window-on-the-world virtual reality. The choices are represented as 3-D objects, including portals to other sets of choices. The objects themselves can be interactive. The user moves among the objects, rearranges objects, approaches objects from all sides, and makes choices by pointing at the objects or grabbing them. Objects can be customized to suit the user's preferences, e.g., bookshelves and file drawers, statues, pictures, even rooms and buildings. This display of objects is a workroom or area. Three-dimensional interfaces hold the promise of being both very powerful and exciting. Their potential for assisting computer use and improving instructional support will be limited primarily by our imaginations. And, now, I'm beginning to consider what a 4-D or greater interface might look like and which of the senses might be employed. ************** Virtually Experienced! A One-Month Practicum at VREL, May 2 - June 1, 1995 Karsten Wassermann email: K.Wassermann@viremax.ruhr.de Many thanks to Dr. Veronica Pantelidis, Dr. Lawrence Auld, and Nick Pantelidis who helped and supported me in every way during my practicum. I am very pleased to have met new friends! Virtual reality is not only what you read about. This was the very first of many experiences I had during my practicum at VREL. I began this practicum with my mind full of expectations according to professional, perfect, high-end VR applications and equipment and was looking forward to a fascinating and a great work with "HIGH END VR"! And there it was, a lab with "ordinary" computers and "ordinary" software. No HMDs, no Silicon Graphics machines, no high-end software. . .only equipment I already knew and nothing special. My imagination broke down like a house of playing cards and one question filled my mind: "How can I make experiences with this stuff I already know?" This was a very hard start for me, and I made a great mistake in defining virtual reality by the quality of its equipment. What a paradox . . . I made the same mistake I am always fighting against in Germany. But during my practicum I got to know that virtual reality does not need to be high-end based. The efficiency of VR depends more on its applications than its equipment. I saw kids successfully working, creating virtual worlds and learning - not just playing - with "simple" and affordable VR software (compared to high-end systems) like Virtus WalkThrough. They really used VR as a medium for learning and that is what VR is supposed to be, a MEDIUM to improve the quality of life. Even if a success in using VR as a teaching tool seems to be small according to "revolutionary research," it is a great success for kids and for humans in general. They do not need to wait for a "perfect" VR system to use for reaching their goals, they can use it NOW. I appreciate VREL's work to introduce kids into this "right" meaning of virtual reality and I am glad that I got to know VR from a practical view. Sometimes you need to go one step back to go further. That happened to me . . . Karsten Wassermann is a graduate student in pedagogics at the University in Dortmund, Germany. His major field of study is education and mass media, with an emphasis on education and virtual reality. ************** Materials Available From VREL The following materials are available from VREL. To obtain copies, merely write, phone, fax, or email your request. 1. North Carolina Competency-based Curriculum Objectives and Virtual Reality 2. Reasons to Use Virtual Reality in Education 3. Some Virtual Reality Software Useful to Educators 4. Suggestions on When to Use and When Not to Use VR in Education 5. Virtual Reality - 10 Questions and Answers 6. Virtual Reality and Education: Information Sources 7. Virtual Reality and Ethics 8. Virtual Reality Books Available for Inspection 9. Virtual Reality Hardware Evaluation Guide (Condensed) 10. Virtual Reality Internet Listservs 11. Virtual Reality Journals, Magazines, and Newsletters 12. Virtual Reality Software Evaluation Guide (Condensed) 13. Virtus VR and Virtus WalkThrough Uses in the Classroom 14. Ways to Use Virtual Reality in the Business Education Classroom VR and Education Bibliography Virtual Reality and Education: Information Sources is a bibliography of print, nonprint, and electronic materials on virtual reality and education, which is updated on a regular basis. It is available in print form from VREL or electronically at the following ftp site: ftp.u.washington.edu directory: /public/virtual-worlds/citations/ Pantelidis-VR-Education-Bibl.txt ************** Virtual Reality and Schools Project One of the projects of the Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory at East Carolina University is the Virtual Reality and Schools Project. The goal of this project is to place virtual reality software in the hands of interested teachers to be used with their specific teaching objectives, in the classroom. Collaborative projects have been set up in over ten elementary, middle, and secondary schools. Virtual reality could be mandated for use in classrooms by principals, superintendents, or even, by the State Department of Public Instruction. The Virtual Reality and Schools Project works only with individual instructors who have volunteered, and the software provided belongs to the teacher and, ultimately, to the students in the class. This assures that only the most motivated teachers, and therefore, those who are most likely to succeed in integrating virtual reality into their curriculum, will be involved. The teachers do not feel pressure to force the use of virtual reality because some higher authority told them that they must do so. Thus, teachers are free to be as creative and as exploratory as they wish. Once a teacher has volunteered for the Project, he or she is provided with a PC or MacIntosh version of the virtual reality program, Virtus WalkThrough (TM). The next step is an introduction to the software with hands-on training in its use until the teacher feels confident that he or she can proceed alone. The teacher then meets with VREL staff to identify appropriate objectives from the "North Carolina Competency-Based Curriculum Objectives" that might use virtual reality either as a means to attainment or as a measure of attainment, in an area of the curriculum which the teacher chooses according to perceived need and goodness of fit. The teacher then designs the lesson to include virtual reality as another tool for teaching. VREL staff are available at every stage for consulting, visiting the school, and helping with evaluation. Teachers administer pre- and posttests or use other means of evaluation to determine whether the objectives have been met. Areas covered so far include 2nd grade and 5th grade math, drafting, creative writing, science, and social studies, as well as other subject areas. Since key elements in setting up a project are the teacher's interest and commitment, and a clear vision of the overall objective that should be accomplished, the Virtual Reality and Schools Project has been very warmly received, and teachers and students have enthusiastically embraced the medium. VREL is expecting to expand this project as long as there are teachers who wish to enter it. +++++ Virtual Reality and Schools Project Reports +++++ Janet McLendon H.B. Sugg Elementary School (Farmville, North Carolina) email: pimclend@eastnet.educ.ecu.edu Janet McLendon was the first participant in the VR and Schools Project. Janet used Virtus WalkThrough to teach her 5th grade mathematics class about pyramids. To initially prepare the class for using Virtus WalkThrough, she chose 5 of her most computer-literate students and taught them how to use the program after school, the day before the lesson was given. On the day of the lesson, Janet administered a pretest. The pretest required the student to draw the top, bottom, front, and corner (edge) of a pyramid. Each of the 5 students showed a group of 4 students how to use the program and how to draw a pyramid. The group was allotted 10 minutes. A timer bell rang at 7 minutes and 10 minutes. Each student in the group was given the opportunity to work with the pyramid, moving furniture and other objects into the pyramid, walking around inside, looking at it from different perspectives outside. When the group was finished, they were administered a posttest. Results from analysis of the pretest-posttest were good. The greatest improvement in understanding was in drawing a front view. It was missed by 16 of the 19 students on the pretest, but 13 drew the front view correctly on the posttest. Eight students correctly drew a corner (edge) on the posttest who had missed it on the pretest. Six students correctly drew a bottom view of a pyramid who had missed it on the pretest. Five students correctly drew a top view on the posttest who had missed it on the pretest. On the end-of-year test for 5th grade math, an X in a square was one of the choices on the test. The correct answer was the top view of a pyramid. The students pointed knowingly and chuckled as they answered the question. It is quite probable that the students would not have reacted with such delight had they not seen the view in virtual reality. Janet submits the following report: The program was a different type of learning and was new, and therefore left an impression that lasted. Here are the objectives [from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study] we met using VR: 2.1 Use concrete and pictorial representations, and appropriate vocabulary to compare and classify polygons and polyhedra. 2.2 Create models of polyhedra (cubes, cylinders, rectangular prisms, pyramids) using a variety of materials. 2.3 Use designs, concrete models, and computer graphics to illustrate reflections, rotations and translations of plane figures and record your observations. So, we have used VR to meet three objectives. Janet McLendon is a fifth-grade teacher at H.B. Sugg Elementary School in Farmville, North Carolina. +++++ Debi Hamill Belvoir Elementary School (Greenville, North Carolina) email: DebiHamill@aol.com Virtual reality is being used by Debi Hamill at Belvoir Elementary School with her 2nd grade class. Debi has used Virtus WalkThrough with a dyslexic child to teach directionality. She files the following report: Teachers are finding new and creative ways to help students using virtual reality. VR offers teachers new tools that allow them to show students concepts in brand new ways. In VR, students can work in 3-D and on a plane field simultaneously. This is a new way to help children who have difficulties transferring skills learned kinesthetically through movement to the more abstract pencil and paper activity. This new "dimension" coupled with the ability to provide the student with immediate visual feedback for fine motor movement makes VR a great new way to help students who are challenged with movement to paper transfer. Watch for further research into the area of helping learning disabled students perform better in the classroom by using VR simulations. Hopefully, more work will be going on this summer that will involve more students who have this type of disability and a variety of models will be developed. The Virtus WalkThrough directional model described below shows what has already been developed in this area. Any questions, comments or new ideas will be gladly accepted and should be directed to Debi Hamill through Dr. Pantelidis. Model for Dyslexia Compensation Left/Right Orientation Model _________________ |\ \ _________| \________________\_______ |\________\| |_______\ | | | | | | | | | | \|________| |________| \ | | |________________| This VR Model, made with Virtus WalkThrough, consists of three boxes with the center being the largest box. These boxes were drawn with the square box tool set at the opaque setting. Two smaller boxes of different colors were constructed that connect to each side of the box. It would probably be best if the center box were a neutral color, such as gray, so that the contrasting color of the side boxes were more predominant and the center box was not a visual distraction for the student. This model is also being used in elementary schools to help students who have hand/eye orientation problems or directionality problems that affect their use of manipulative devices or other VR learning activities. The student is asked to use the mouse to move the observer toward one side of the box or the other using the colors as a code (i.e., move toward the red box). The immediate visual feedback on the screen of the tactile movement of the mouse helps this type of learner to evaluate hand/eye movement relationships and begin to find "compensation" techniques for the learning disability. This left/right mouse exercise, once mastered, can then be related by steps to other learning activities that are problematic for the student due to directionality confusion. Debi Hamill is a second-grade teacher at Belvoir Elementary School in Greenville, North Carolina. +++++ Fred Bisel Jones Senior High School (Trenton, North Carolina) email: fbisel@jcss.jones.k12.nc.us Using VR is an exciting way to teach. I teach technical mathematics at Jones Senior High School in North Carolina. Using Virtus WalkThrough, the students created an environment and then found the dimensions. The students made up their own scale (e.g., 1 block on the grid equals 2 feet). Then the students calculated the cost to paint the room or to put carpet in the room. The students used newspaper ads to find the cost of paint or the floor covering. The students found the area, had to figure how much material they needed and the cost. Some students even figured in the cost for labor. There are endless possibilities with VR in the math class. The problem I have is having enough computers! The students really enjoy VR and are glad to help each other. Fred Bisel is a math teacher at Jones Senior High School in Trenton, North Carolina. +++++ Rich Gallo Pender County Middle School (Burgaw, North Carolina) email: GalloR@aol.com Rich Gallo teaches technology at Pender County Middle School. He submits this description of his planned VR activities with Virtus WalkThrough: The students will be designing a bridge on paper first and then use the program to design their bridge in a VR world. After using the program, the students will then build the bridge using basswood. The students are very excited about using the program. Richard Gallo is a technology teacher at Pender County Middle School in Burgaw, North Carolina. ************** Reasons to Use Virtual Reality in Education Dr. Veronica S. Pantelidis email: lspantel@ecuvm.cis.ecu.edu Graphics-Based Virtual Reality 1 Provides motivation. 2. Can more accurately illustrate some features, processes, etc. than by other means. 3. Allows extreme closeup examination of an object. 4. Allows observation from a great distance. 5. Allows the disabled to participate in an experiment or learning environment when they cannot do so otherwise. 6. Gives the opportunity for insights. 7. Allows learner to proceed through an experience at their own pace. 8. Allows learner to proceed through an experience during a broad time period not fixed by a regular class schedule. 9. Provides experience with new technologies through actual use. 10. Requires interaction. Encourages active participation rather than passivity. Text-Based (Network-Based) Virtual Reality 1. Encourages creativity. 2. Is motivating. 3. Highly interactive. 4. Provides social atmosphere. 5. Allows passive student to become active. 6. Allows student to experiment with different personalities. 7. Allows student to take on role of persona in different cultures. 8. Provides equal opportunity for communication with students in other cultures. 9. Teaches computer skills. 10. Builds keyboarding skill. ************** Software Mentioned in This Newsletter Sense8 World Tool Kit (WTK) Sense8 Corporation, 4000 Bridgeway, Suite 101, Sausalito, California 94965 USA. Telephone: 415-331-6318; fax: 415-331-9148. Superscape VRT Superscape Ltd., Zephr One, Calleva Park, Aldermaston, Berkshire, RG7 4QZ, England. Telephone: 44-734-810077; fax: 44-734-816940. United States address: Superscape, Inc. 2479 East Bayshore Road, Suite 706, Palo Alto, California 94303 USA. Telephone: 415-812-9380; fax: 415-812-9390. Virtual Reality Development System (VRDS) Vream, Inc., 2568 North Clark Street, Suite 250, Chicago, Illinois 60614 USA. Telephone: 312-477-0425; fax: 312-477-9702. Virtus WalkThrough, Virtus WalkThrough Pro Virtus Corporation, 118 MacKenan Drive, Suite 250, Cary, North Carolina 27511 USA. Telephone: 919-467-9700; fax: 919-460-4530. Vistapro Virtual Reality Laboratories, Inc., 2341 Ganador Court, San Luis Obispo, California, USA. Telephone: 805-545-8515; fax: 805-781-2259. ************** Do you wish to receive the printed and or electronic version of this newsletter? If so, please fill in and return form. Thank you. Name_________________________________________ Address______________________________________ _____________________________________________ City_________________________________________ State________________________________________ Zip Code________________Country______________ email_________________________________________ phone________________________________________ fax___________________________________________ format desired: electronic ____ print ____