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Coming Down to Earth: Helping Teachers Use 3D Virtual Worlds in Across-Spaces Learning Situations
Educational Technology & Society, (2015)
  • Juan Muñoz Cristóbal
  • Luis P. Prieto, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
  • Juan I. Asensio Pérez
  • Alejandra Martínez Monés
  • Ivan M. Jorrín Abellán, Kennesaw State University
  • Yannis Dimitriadis
Abstract
Different approaches have explored how to provide seamless learning across multiple ICT-enabled physical and virtual spaces, including three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVW). However, these approaches present limitations that may reduce their acceptance in authentic educational practice: The difficulties of authoring and sharing teacher-created designs across different 3DVW platforms, or the lack of integration of 3DVWs with existing technologies in the classroom ecosystem (e.g., widespread web-based learning platforms such as Moodle, or mobile augmented reality applications). Focusing on a specific kind of 3DVW (virtual globes, such as Google Earth, used like 3DVWs), we propose a system that enables teachers to deploy across-spaces learning situations, which can be authored with a plethora of existing learning design tools, that involve different common web-based learning platforms, mobile AR applications and multiple kinds of virtual globes. A prototype of the architecture has been developed to evaluate this novel approach. The mixed-methods evaluation performed comprised both a feature analysis and a study where a teacher deployed an authentic across-spaces learning situation including Google Earth used as a 3DVW. Such evaluation shows that the system enables teachers deploy learning situations over different technological ecosystems composed by physical and web spaces, as well as by 3DVWs.
Keywords
  • 3D virtual worlds,
  • Virtual globes,
  • Google Earth,
  • Augmented reality,
  • Across-spaces learning
Publication Date
2015
Citation Information
Juan Muñoz Cristóbal, Luis P. Prieto, Juan I. Asensio Pérez, Alejandra Martínez Monés, et al.. "Coming Down to Earth: Helping Teachers Use 3D Virtual Worlds in Across-Spaces Learning Situations" Educational Technology & Society, Vol. 18 Iss. 1 (2015)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ivanjorrinabellan/4/