A Mixed Reality Approach to Hybrid Learning in Mixed Culture Environments
Vic Callaghan, Liping Shen, Michael Gardner, Ruimin Shen, Minjuan Wang · IGI Global eBooks · 2010
This chapter describes a conceptual framework that aims to augment existing eLearning systems with a 3D virtual classroom environment to provide geographically dispersed online learners with a sense of being together and part of a natural class. The virtual classroom model the authors present is based on a combination a ‘massively multi-user’ games technology system from Sun Microsystems Research Labs, a distance learning platform based at Shanghai Jiaotong University and a mixed reality environment developed at Essex University. Learning is, to some extent, a social activity as it involves relationships between people (between students, between students and teachers). Networked technology has a global reach bringing not just new opportunities but also complex multi-cultural and pedagogical issues. Thus, in this chapter the authors discuss both the technology and the socio-educational aspects of designing online Mixed Reality Hybrid Learning systems