Immersive Learning

I think the semester is catching up with me. Last week everyone in my house was sick and it took a while for me to shake it.  Unfortunately, since I was still not quite myself on Saturday, I missed our face-to-face session.  I had been really looking forward to bringing my son and trying out the HTC Vive, alas it wasn’t meant to be.  Fortunately, I had the opportunity to join Dr. Peter’s 643 class last semester and play.  Here is a bit about that experience

Last semester, I had the opportunity to try out the Hololens at Dr. Peter’s Immersive Game Play and Talk story session.  Though I only got to use it for about 15 minutes or so, it was quite engaging and lots of fun.  It also made me think about how AR technologies can be used in the language classroom.

Interest sufficiently  piqued, I decided to look for studies on AR technologies and second language (L2) vocabulary learning, which is a particular area of mine.  I was surprised by how few studies have been done on AR-enhanced vocabulary learning as they seem somewhat of a natural fit.  One interesting article that I stumbled upon by Marc Ericson C. Santos, Arno in Wolde Lübke,Takafumi Taketomi,Goshiro Yamamoto, Maria Mercedes T. Rodrigo, Christian Sandor and Hirokazu Kato was entitled Augmented reality as multimedia: the case for situated vocabulary learning.  It is about several usability and effectiveness studies on using AR technologies for German and Filipino language vocabulary learning.  They found a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the immediate post-test, with the non-AR group outperforming (M = 86, SD =20 ; M = 71, SD = 20)  the AR group, however in the delayed post-test no significant difference was found (M = 70, SD =18 ; M = 68, SD = 23).  This is interesting, however, I think that the significant difference found in the immediate  post test may be somewhat artificial.  Firstly, there was a very small number of participants (N=31) in the study and secondly, there was no true baseline measure (or pre-test), so it is hard to know if the groups were indeed the same to begin with.  

I think larger and more carefully controlled studies on the use of AR technologies to aid vocabulary learning are needed, it would also be beneficial to examine participant perspective as well.

Pleasantly? FRUSTRATING

Overall I’m getting ( a little bit) better at building and not feeling quite as inept or lost, however, I have been running into a not so pleasantly frustrating problem on OS.  Every time I try to upload a file, OpenSim crashes...every time! After learning how to add sounds to objects during last week’s build, I had the idea of creating flashcards with pictures, text, and audio (I’ve been reading a lot on Mayer’s Multimedia Learning principles for another class). My idea was that students could use the cards to quiz each other on vocabulary words in pairs or use them alone to practice vocabulary and/or pronunciation. So, I tried and tried (in vain) to upload picture and sound files, but each time the results were the same--crash!  I looked on a few message boards and forums, but couldn’t find an answer.  Ty was very kind and took time on a Sunday night to trouble shoot with me, but unfortunately I continue to have problems.  

I do have a workaround, which is creating very short videos of the words and images, publishing the links to them online and then using them instead of the uploaded media.  It’s okay, but they end up being more like 2-sided posters rather than flashcards.  So, while overall I’m becoming much more comfortable in virtual worlds, just like the real world there are unforeseen setbacks we all have to deal with.