Showing posts with label mixed reality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mixed reality. Show all posts

Oct 1, 2013

Learning to Teach through Mixed Reality: UCF's TeachLivE

Imagine this.  A mixed-reality environment designed to provide pre-service student teachers and teachers looking to improve their skills a chance to try out new strategies, without messing up with real kids!   TLE TeachLiveE™ was developed by researchers at the Synthetic Reality Lab located at the Institute for Simulation & Training at the University of Central Florida. It  looks like a great training tool for young college students who are planning to take on the challenge of a career in education.  

With modifications, the TeachLivE system looks like it would be a good tool for building skills of principals-in-training, as well as others who plan to work in the schools, such as  future school psychologists, school nurses, and school resource officers.

Below is a description of the system from the TeachLivE website, along with some videos and related links. 

(Be sure to watch the video of MILES, near the end of this post. MILES is a similar application designed to support the training of social workers and therapists, and features that could be used to enhance the TeachLiveE system.)


"TLE TeachLivE™ is a mixed-reality classroom with simulated students that provides teachers the opportunity to develop their pedagogical practice in a safe environment that doesn’t place real students at risk. This lab is currently the only one in the country using a mixed reality environment to prepare or retrain pre-service and in-service teachers. The use of TLE TeachLivE™ Lab has also been instrumental in developing transition skills for students with significant disabilities, providing immediate feedback through bug-in-ear technology to pre-service teachers, developing discreet trial skills in pre-service and in-service teachers, and preparing teachers in the use of STEM-related instructional strategies." -TeachLivE 

Virtual Reality Classroom Trains Teacher

"There is a child with ADHD, there is a child who is going to take out their cell phone, and do something with his cell phone right there for our pre-service teacher, if our preservice teacher is not paying attention to that child.  So what they've tried to do is actually program different types of children into each simulated avatar." -Dr. David Rock, Dean, School of Education, University of Mississippi. 




RELATED
A good overview of the use of virtual worlds and environments for learning.At 7:44, Stephen Bronack, of Learn NC, provides an overview of TeachLivE at TEDX Greenville. TeachLivE is in place at Clemson University in S.C.
 


MILES: Motivation Interviewing Learning Environment and Simulation (MILES) was created by researchers at the USC Institute of Creative Technologies and uses the power of a game engine to create the main character.  MILES is used at the USC School of Social Work to help future therapist develop their therapist/client interactive skills to provide treatment for service members, veterans, or family members of people impacted by the military, and is used by group of students in social work graduate courses in a way that tracks learning progress and informs classroom discussion.



TeachLivE Website
TeachLivE program at UCF attracts interest from Sesame Street Creators
Amanda Palmiera, Central Florida Future, 7/21/13
My World Has Been Rocked: Educator reviews 'TeachLive', a virtual teaching environment
Brian Greenberg, edSurge 6/24/13
UM Uses Student Avatars for Teacher Training
Andrew Mark Abernathy, Ole Miss News 3/18/13
SLU using avatars, virtual classrooms as teaching tools
The Times-Picayune, 4/9/13

TeachLivE publications:
Elford, M., Carter, R., & Aronin, S. (2013). Virtual reality check: Teachers use bug-in-ear coaching to practice feedback techniques with student avatars. JSD, 34(1), 40–43.

Hayes, A. T., Straub, C. L., Dieker, L. A., Hughes, C. E., & Hynes, M. C. (2013). Ludic Learning: Exploration of TLE TeachLivETM and Effective Teacher Training. Int. J. Gaming Comput. Mediat. Simul., 5(2), 20-33. doi: 10.4018/jgcms.2013040102

Andreasen, J. B. & Haciomeroglu, E. S. (2009). Teacher training in virtual environments. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Atlanta, GA. 

USC Develops Virtual Tool to Train Child Interviewers
Evy Jacobson, USC Gould School Of Law, 5/14/13
Emergent Leader Immersive Training Environment
USC Institute for Creative Technologies

SOMEWHAT RELATED
Blend My Learning 
NewSchools Venture Fund

Dec 5, 2012

Augmented Human Conference '13 (ACM CHI) March 7th and 8th; CFP paper deadline Jan 8, 2013

Looks like a fascinating conference!

ACM SIGCHI 4th Augmented Human International Conference





















Call for Papers
The 4th Augmented Human (AH) International Conference in cooperation with ACM SIGCHI will be held in Stuttgart, Germany, on March 7–8 2013, focusing on augmenting human capabilities through technology for increased well-being and enjoyable human experience. 

As in previous years, the conference proceedings will be published in the ACM Digital Library as a volume in its International Conference Proceedings Series with ISBN. 

Topics 
  • Wearable Computing and Ubiquitous Computing 
  • Bionics, Biomechanics, and Exoskeletons 
  • Brain-Computer Interfaces, Muscle Interfaces, Implanted Interfaces 
  • Sensors and Hardware 
  • Smart Artifacts and Smart Textiles 
  • Augmented Sport, Health, & Well-being, Training/Rehabilitation Technology 
  • Augmented and Mixed Reality, Tourism and Games and Context-Awareness 
  • Augmented Fashion and Art 
  • Trust, Privacy, and Security of Augmented Human Technology 
PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Submission Categories for Papers 

Full papers 8 pages, anonymized, 30 minutes presentation 
Short papers 4 pages, anonymized, 15 minutes presentation 
Demonstration papers 2 pages, anonymized, demonstration at conference 
Poster papers 2 pages, anonymized, presented at conference 
Art pieces 1–2 pages, not published, exhibited at conference 

The four paper categories will be published in the ACM digital library and follow the ACM paper format. We encourage authors to submit supporting video material in addition to the PDF submission. 

Important Dates 
  • January 8, 2013      paper submission deadline 
  • February 5, 2013    author notification 
  • February 12, 2013  camera-ready and ACM copyright form due 
  • March 7–8, 2013    scientific conference in Stuttgart 

Art and Exhibition 

Augmented Human 2013 will feature contributions by art researchers and practitioners. Artists participating and exhibiting at Augmented Human 2013 will have to be self-funded to attend the conference. 

All art pieces will be included in a video to be published on the Augmented Human YouTube channel. Additionally, an exhibition catalog will be published on the Augmented Human website, including full-page pictures and the descriptions provided by the authors. 

Submission of Art Pieces 

Authors may choose the format to present their art pieces for submission. The submission should include the requirements of space, light, electricity, and equipment.

Organizing Committee

General Chair:  Albrecht Schmidt, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Program Co-Chairs: Andreas Bulling, University of Cambridge, UK; Christian Holz, Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany

Jan 3, 2012

"Kinect-based Telepresence with Room Sized 3D Capture and Life Sized Display", Includes Behind-the Scene "how-to" (UNC Chapel Hill)

Jim Spadaccini, of Open Exhibits, recently told me about a project that involves the real-time, interactive 3-D capture of people in a room.  As the viewer moves around the screens, the depth-detecting feature of the Kinect is harnessed to set the stage for a realistic telepresence experience.  


Take the time to view the video, which contains some interesting views of how the system works:





Thanks, Jim, for the link!

RELATED/SOMEWHAT RELATED
Kinect Real-Time Room Telepresence
Kinecthacks, 1/3/12
From the project's website:
Maimone, A. and H. Fuchs. "A First Look at a Telepresence System with Room-Sized Real-Time 3D Capture and Large Tracked Display." The 21st International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence (ICAT) (Osaka, Japan, November 28-30, 2011) [paper] [video]
Maimone, A. and H. Fuchs. "Encumbrance-free Telepresence System with Real-time 3D Capture and Display using Commodity Depth Cameras." The IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) 2011 (Basel, Switzerland, October 26-29, 2011) [paper] [video]
Open Exhibits