Interrogating VR for Immersive Learning
This study focuses on the affordances of technology to humanize engineering practices, specifically through the use of virtual reality (VR). Traditionally, engineering education has focused on teaching only technical concepts grounded in mathematics and science knowledge. However, the increasingly complex systemic issues that we face present a need for a more nuanced understanding of engineering education that fosters deeper understandings of local and global social justice issues …
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Updates
4.21.22: Sign-up to participate in a human-centered engineering design workshop (CLOSED)
Project Description
This study focuses on the affordances of technology to humanize engineering practices, specifically through the use of virtual reality (VR). Traditionally, engineering education has focused on teaching only technical concepts grounded in mathematics and science knowledge. However, the increasingly complex systemic issues that we face present a need for a more nuanced understanding of engineering education that fosters deeper understandings of local and global social justice issues. The goal of this study is to understand how we can integrate emerging technologies to create economically accessible and sustainable learning environments to engage broader participants from various age groups in emerging technologies. Participants use the interactive VR experience, ‘We Live Here’, that depicts an account of homelessness in modern America. They then move on to participate in a collaborative engineering design to discuss solutions based on the VR experience.
Understanding the Affordances of AR for Sustainability Education
This project aims to explore the affordances of augmented reality in supporting collaborative learning within sustainability and engineering education. After literature review, we concluded that sustainability related design education requires a systems approach that supports collaboration and iteration, which augmented reality uniquely affords.
Under this conceptual framework, we developed a workshop where elementary and middle school aged students use the software CoSpaces (an online platform for students to build 3D creations and animate them with code) and MergeCube (a physical cube that acts as a digital canvas for augmented reality) to plan and create sustainable digital cities …
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Updates
4.21.22: Sign-up to participate in a human-centered engineering design workshop (CLOSED)
Project Description
This study focuses on the affordances of technology to humanize engineering practices, specifically through the use of virtual reality (VR). Traditionally, engineering education has focused on teaching only technical concepts grounded in mathematics and science knowledge. However, the increasingly complex systemic issues that we face present a need for a more nuanced understanding of engineering education that fosters deeper understandings of local and global social justice issues. The goal of this study is to understand how we can integrate emerging technologies to create economically accessible and sustainable learning environments to engage broader participants from various age groups in emerging technologies. Participants use the interactive VR experience, ‘We Live Here’, that depicts an account of homelessness in modern America. They then move on to participate in a collaborative engineering design to discuss solutions based on the VR experience.
The Quilt Project
This project aims to understand how collaborative AR experiences can contribute to social-emotional learning, translate personal and familial narratives and creations, and develop a sense of a larger community.
Through community workshops, we encourage participants to tell their COVID stories through the creation of an e-textile quilt square that harnesses both audio and visual components …
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Updates
4.21.22 Sign-up for our research study! (CLOSED)
Quilt Square Upload
Project Description
This project aims to understand how collaborative AR experiences can contribute to social-emotional learning, translate personal and familial narratives and creations, and develop a sense of a larger community.
Through community workshops, we encourage participants to tell their COVID stories through the creation of an e-textile quilt square that harnesses both audio and visual components.
Leveraging AR technology, HER Lab has developed a dynamic augmented reality experience, which constructs a virtual quilt around the participant’s quilt square. When users point their device at a square of the quilt, the square is expanded and its unique sound or narrative plays.
In April of 2022, HER Lab collected data for this project for the first time at a community art gallery.