Virtual Reality: Immersive Learning Minus the Immersion

by AJ George

In James Cameron's blockbuster Avatar, scientists created avatars to interact with natives of another planet without the scientists actually having to use their own bodies to interact with said natives. The avatars allowed the scientists to blend in with the natives and accomplish tasks that the scientists couldn't physically do on their own. While I think that this made for a delightful movie-going experience, perhaps it could, in a sense, be applied to learning in the real world. And not in 2154. More like now-ish.

Learners using avatars, like those used in Second Life, have the opportunity to create characters representative of their individual personalities and physical traits (or, at the very least, representative of the personalities and physical traits they wish they had). Creating an alter ego fosters a type of bond between learner and avatar that goes beyond 2D learning that uses just a name or a picture. That's weird, but apparently it's true.

While doing research with Stanford undergrads for their book, Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete, Byron Reeves and Leighton Read noticed that students showed an actual bodily change in their heartbeats and their brains while controlling their avatars and genuinely seemed to care about what their avatars did, even though the avatars existed entirely in a virtual world.

In situations where learning is essential to business functions, presenting information in a virtual world where a learner-controlled avatar can act out procedures, learning becomes more hands-on than simply seeing the procedure in video format. Students can work together with other students to collaborate on processes together, even if they are on opposite sides of the globe. There is less chance of losing more reserved students or those that would be uncomfortable asking questions. And in situations where a failed learning attempt could mean a wasted product or an unsafe environment, learning through a virtual world could save money while ensuring safety. Connie Malamed of The eLearning Coach blog, calls it "The Power of Being There" in her review of Karl Kapp and Tony Driscoll's book Learning in 3D, because knowledge is being applied, rather than just taught.

Also, learning in a virtual world is fun! Toy and video game manufacturers market products to our children all the time that promote learning while having fun. 8D World, a startup out of Massachusetts, runs a virtual world for Chinese-speaking children who are trying to learn English. Each player selects an avatar and moves up levels for properly pronouncing English words into a microphone. The program's use of virtual worlds has even caught the attention of China's CCTV which will be using the program as the official training platform for its Star of Outlook English Talent Competition.

So maybe we're not going to incubate ourselves in a vessel on another planet. Maybe we're not going to feel the wind on our faces as we leap through trees, big and blue and wearing a loin cloth. (Not this year anyway.) But what we can do (and not one day, but now) is immerse our learners in virtual worlds to make learning more hands on while saving money and resources…all while our students actually (gasp!) enjoy themselves.

About the author: AJ George, a cum laude graduate of Towson University, is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of the book "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and the soon-to-be released "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.