Experiments in the Creation of Collaborative Learning Environments

The goal of this project is to create learning environments where children can be fully immersed in and engaged with their learning materials. Research objectives include:

• Develop strategies for reliable tracking and representation of the objects and the children
• Define gestural inputs for controlling multiple parameters in large sets of educational data.
• Apply qualitative probabilistic reasoning strategies to rapidly adjust tracking algorithms
• Fine-tune the gestural interface with adaptive learning, making it more natural and intuitive for the children

In our first experiment, we are making a game based on a variation of the coloring problem: given a concave polygonal gallery space, how can you arrange guards such that all parts of the gallery are visible to at least one guard? The goal is to minimize the number of guards needed to cover the space. The children's positions in the space are tracked by reflectors on top of their caps.
Participants

• Lori Scarlatos
• John Jannone
• Simon Parsons
• Rebecca Friedman

Publications

L. Scarlatos and R. Friedman (2006) On Developing User Interfaces for Children in Educational Virtual Reality Environments, CUNY Graduate Center Technical Report TR-2006015. (pdf)

This work is being supported by the National Science Foundation through grant number CNS-0420996. The opinions expressed in these pages are those of the authors, and in no way represent the opinions of the National Science Foundation.