This position paper focuses on our efforts to implement and evaluate a Mixed Reality Teaching and Learning Environment (MiRTLE) in higher education institutions and other organisations, our current technical research to streamline and improve the utility of the system, and potential pedagogical developments for MiRTLE in the future

Gardner, M

O'Driscoll, L

English

University of Essex Research Repository

Position	  paper	  for	  the	  workshop	  ‘Learning	  activities	  across	  physical	  and	  virtual	  spaces’	  (AcrossSpaces)	  EC-­‐TEL	  2011	  conference,	  Palermo	  (Italy),	  20	  -­‐	  23	  September	  2011	  MiRTLE	  (Mixed-­Reality	  Teaching	  and	  Learning	  Environment):	  from	  prototype	  to	  production	  and	  implementation	  Michael	  Gardner,	  School	  of	  Computer	  Science	  and	  Electronic	  Engineering,	  University	  of	  Essex,	  Colchester,	  UK,	  CO4	  3SQ	  	  mgardner@essex.ac.uk	  Marie-­‐Luce	  O’Driscoll,	  Faculty	  of	  Health	  and	  Social	  Science,	  University	  of	  Bedfordshire,	  Luton,	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  	  LU1	  3JU,	  UK.	  Lucy.O’Driscoll@beds.ac.uk	  Position	  paper	  We	  have	  previously	  presented	  our	  work	  on	  building	  a	  Mixed	  Reality	  Teaching	  &	  Learning	  Environment	  (MiRTLE)	  in	  a	  series	  of	  presentations	  and	  publications	  [1	  –	  4].	  Moreover,	  we	  have	  suggested	  how	  we	  could	  go	  beyond	  the	  classroom	  to	  create	  much	  larger	  mixed-­‐reality	  environments	  based	  on	  the	  wider	  university	  campus,	  with	  greater	  integration	  between	  devices	  and	  resources	  in	  the	  real	  and	  virtual	  worlds	  [5].	  MiRTLE	  is	  a	  mixed	  reality	  environment	  that	  links	  the	  physical	  world	  of	  the	  classroom	  with	  a	  virtual	  world	  for	  remote	  learners,	  so	  permitting	  real	  and	  remote	  students	  to	  come	  together	  in	  a	  single	  traditional	  instructive	  higher	  education	  setting.	  A	  key	  objective	  of	  the	  MiRTLE	  project	  was	  to	  provide	  online	  access	  to	  classrooms	  for	  remote	  students	  while	  providing	  education	  practitioners	  with	  a	  ‘business	  as	  usual’	  environment	  for	  their	  teaching,	  so	  allowing	  institutions	  to	  increase	  class	  size	  while	  retaining	  their	  existing	  practices.	  Figure	  1	  illustrates	  the	  MiRTLE	  virtual	  classroom	  from	  an	  online	  student	  perspective.	  The	  environment	  augments	  existing	  teaching	  practice	  with	  the	  ability	  to	  foster	  a	  sense	  of	  community	  amongst	  remote	  students,	  and	  between	  remote	  and	  co-­‐located	  locations.	  The	  first	  achievement	  of	  the	  project	  was	  the	  successful	  demonstration	  of	  the	  concept	  of	  combining	  physical	  and	  virtual	  worlds	  into	  a	  single	  practical	  service.	  This	  was	  then	  validated	  in	  several	  deployment	  scenarios.	  Others	  have	  now	  begun	  to	  adopt	  MiRTLE	  [6],	  and	  its	  use	  has	  also	  moved	  beyond	  Higher	  Education	  to	  other	  sectors	  including	  Community	  Education	  and	  the	  K12	  school	  system	  in	  the	  USA	  [7].	  	  	  Figure	  1	  –	  MiRTLE	  student	  interface	  This	  position	  paper	  reports	  on	  our	  latest	  research,	  which	  aims	  to	  take	  MiRTLE	  beyond	  the	  prototype	  stage	  into	  ‘production’	  and	  regular	  use	  and	  describes	  the	  planned	  content	  for	  the	  presentation	  which	  will	  accompany	  this	  paper.	  From	  the	  initial	  evaluations	  of	  MiRTLE	  at	  the	  University	  of	  Essex,	  a	  number	  of	  valuable	  issues	  were	  highlighted	  that	  have	  implications	  for	  future	  uses	  of	  this	  technology.	  It	  particularly	  highlighted	  potential	  social	  issues,	  such	  as	  the	  impact	  on	  student	  motivation	  and	  perceptions	  of	  crowding	  and	  jostling	  for	  position	  in	  the	  virtual	  classroom.	  	  The	  trial	  also	  showed	  that	  there	  was	  potential	  for	  impromptu	  and	  naturalistic	  social	  interaction	  between	  virtual	  and	  physically	  present	  students.	  Teachers	  also	  recognized	  the	  potential	  value	  of	  the	  product,	  reporting	  that,	  once	  students	  are	  logged	  on	  and	  settled,	  the	  MiRTLE	  environment	  had	  a	  minimal	  impact	  on	  normal	  patterns	  of	  teaching,	  and	  the	  teachers	  perceptions	  of	  the	  learning	  occurring	  in	  their	  teaching	  environment.	  An	  important	  emerging	  theory	  is	  that	  the	  previously	  described	  finding	  of	  spontaneous	  social	  exchanges	  between	  virtual	  and	  physically	  present	  students	  suggests	  that	  MiRTLE	  can	  facilitate	  a	  breaking	  down	  of	  the	  Position	  paper	  for	  the	  workshop	  ‘Learning	  activities	  across	  physical	  and	  virtual	  spaces’	  (AcrossSpaces)	  EC-­‐TEL	  2011	  conference,	  Palermo	  (Italy),	  20	  -­‐	  23	  September	  2011	  barriers	  between	  the	  virtual	  and	  the	  physical,	  and	  increase	  a	  sense	  of	  presence	  for	  all	  learners	  and	  teachers	  involved.	  Emerging	  uses	  for	  MiRTLE	  lie	  not	  only	  in	  expanding	  class	  size,	  but	  also	  in	  providing	  a	  teaching	  tool	  for:	  remote	  settings	  where	  it	  is	  difficult	  for	  all	  students	  to	  come	  together	  in	  a	  single	  physical	  environment	  routinely	  and	  regularly;	  post	  graduate	  professional	  education	  where	  employers	  would	  like	  to	  reduce	  absence	  from	  the	  workplace	  whilst	  still	  encouraging	  continuing	  professional	  education;	  and	  in	  providing	  a	  communication	  tool	  for	  policy	  or	  other	  decision	  making	  environments	  where	  bringing	  together	  thinkers	  who	  are	  distant	  from	  each	  other,	  and	  who	  can	  ill	  afford	  the	  time	  to	  travel	  for	  meetings,	  is	  commercially	  desirable.	  The	  key	  challenge	  now	  for	  MiRTLE	  is	  to	  go	  beyond	  a	  prototype	  to	  become	  an	  established	  part	  of	  the	  teaching	  and	  other	  organisational	  infrastructures.	  This	  presents	  a	  number	  of	  technical,	  pedagogical	  and	  commercial	  challenges.	  	  The	  presentation	  accompanying	  this	  position	  paper	  will	  report	  on	  our	  efforts	  to	  implement	  and	  evaluate	  MiRTLE	  in	  higher	  education	  institutions	  and	  other	  organisations:	  o Strategies	  to	  secure	  buy-­‐in	  and	  organisational	  access	  and	  co-­‐operation	  	  o Overcoming	  technical	  implementation	  problems	  within	  existing	  institutional	  IT	  structures	  o Managing	  user	  concerns	  and	  expectations	  o Evaluating	  user	  experiences	  It	  will	  also	  describe	  our	  current	  technical	  research	  to	  streamline	  and	  improve	  the	  utility	  of	  MiRTLE,	  including:	  o Implementing	  MiRTLE	  on	  different	  virtual	  world	  platforms	  o Streamlining	  the	  installation	  and	  setup	  phases	  o Creating	  more	  portable	  versions	  of	  MiRTLE	  which	  can	  be	  shared	  across	  teaching	  rooms	  o The	  capture	  and	  streaming	  of	  live	  MiRTLE	  classes	  to	  a	  wider	  audience	  From	  a	  pedagogical	  perspective	  we	  want	  to	  go	  beyond	  the	  use	  of	  MiRTLE	  for	  the	  simple	  delivery	  of	  lectures,	  and	  explore	  other	  pedagogies	  that	  can	  further	  exploit	  the	  affordances	  of	  the	  mixed-­‐reality	  environment.	  This	  includes:	  o Creating	  more	  reference	  sites	  for	  different	  educational	  uses	  o Linking	  MiRTLE	  installations	  to	  explore	  richer	  collaboration	  and	  co-­‐creation	  scenarios	  o Integrating	  MiRTLE	  into	  our	  research	  testbed	  –	  the	  iClassroom	  We	  also	  show	  how	  we	  are	  incorporating	  some	  of	  these	  ideas	  into	  our	  future	  research	  work	  on	  mixed-­‐reality	  and	  smart	  classroom	  environments	  	  References	  [1]	  Gardner	  M,	  Gánem-­‐Gutiérrez	  A,	  Scott	  J,	  Horan	  B	  and	  Callaghan	  V	  (2010).	  "Immersive	  Education	  Spaces	  using	  Project	  Wonderland:	  from	  Pedagogy	  through	  to	  Practice"	  in	  "Multi-­‐User	  Virtual	  Environments	  for	  the	  Classroom:	  Practical	  Approaches	  to	  Teaching	  in	  Virtual	  Worlds",	  edited	  by	  Giovanni	  Vincenti	  &	  James	  Braman.	  Published	  by	  IGI	  Global.	  [2]	  Gardner	  M,	  Scott	  J	  &	  Horan	  B	  (2008).	  ‘Reflections	  on	  the	  use	  of	  Project	  Wonderland	  as	  a	  mixed-­‐reality	  environment	  for	  teaching	  and	  learning’.	  ReLIVE	  08	  conference,	  Open	  University,	  UK.	  [3]	  Gardner	  M	  &	  Scott	  J	  (2008).	  ‘MiRTLE:	  Mixed	  Reality	  Teaching	  and	  Learning	  Environment’.	  September/October	  2008	  issue	  of	  EDUCAUSE	  Review	  [4]Callaghan	  V,	  Gardner	  M,	  Scott	  J,	  Shen	  L,	  Shen	  R,	  Wang	  M,	  Horan	  B	  (2008).	  "A	  Mixed	  Reality	  Teaching	  and	  Learning	  Environment".	  International	  Conference	  on	  Hybrid	  Learning	  2008	  (ICHL	  2008)	  [5]	  Davies	  M,	  Callaghan	  V	  and	  Gardner	  M	  (2008).	  “Towards	  a	  Mixed	  Reality	  Intelligent	  Campus”.	  International	  conference	  on	  Intelligent	  Environments	  (IE	  08),	  Seattle.	  [6]	  Sheaffer,	  W	  (2011).	  “Implementing	  Mixed	  Immersive	  Reality	  Teaching	  and	  Learning:	  Lessons	  Learned”,	  iCampus	  workshop,	  International	  conference	  on	  Intelligent	  Environments	  (IE	  11),	  Nottingham,	  UK.	  [7]	  Palazzo,	  W,	  Edaferierhi,	  G,	  Wolfe,	  S,	  Sylvestre,	  D	  &	  Simondet,	  S	  (2011).	  “Implementing	  a	  mixed	  immersive	  reality	  teaching	  and	  learning	  facility	  in	  K-­‐12	  education	  –	  the	  Minneapolis	  experience”.	  Immersive	  Education	  Summit,	  Boston,	  2011.	  

MiRTLE (Mixed-Reality Teaching and Learning Environment): from prototype to production and implementation

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