Joint Authorship

Taking Charge of Technology

LNT Perspectives. Rose, Osberg, & Hollander (1999)
Originally available online at http://www.edc.org/LNT/news/Issue9/field1.htm

In this article, the authors describe the Virtual Reality Roving Vehicle project, which brought state-of-the-art virtual reality equipment into public schools. Although virtual reality technology holds great promise for blending tactile, auditory, and visual experiences into learning, our experience suggests that simply making high levels of technology available for classroom use will not necessarily improve education. Instead, we believe that these new technologies must be designed from inception with educational purposes in mind in order for educators and students to realize their full potential. And we suggest that educators can shape these future technologies to produce tools that will be better suited for teaching and learning.

The Effect of Having Grade Seven Students Construct Virtual Environments on Their Comprehension of Science.

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, March 1997. Osberg, K., Rose, H., Winn, W., Hollander, A., Hoffman, H., and Char, P. (1997).(FH-jnt-97-01) [HTML]

This paper describes the application of constructivist learning principles as embodied in virtual environment development and experience. The authors describe the positive value of virtual environment creation on children's comprehension of wetlands biology content. Results of the study indicate that virtual environment design and development contributed to students' understanding by presenting content information in both visual and text-based forms, leading to the development of rich conceptual representations and experiences.

The Effect of Student Construction of Virtual Environments on the Performance of High- and Low-Ability Students.

Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, March 1997. Winn, W., Hoffman, H., Hollander, A., Osberg, K., and Rose, H., and Char, P. (1997). (FH-jnt-97-02) [HTML]

This paper describes the value of virtual environment construction as a learning tool. Factors compared include ability, gender, and affective characterstics of students who took part in the study. Results indicate that virtual environment creation is of most value to lower-ability boys, whereas high-ability students of both sexes tend to do well scholastically regardless of educational treatment. Further analysis yielded preliminary results indicating that high-spatial students enjoy virtual environments more than low-spatial students and have a stronger sense of "presence".

Taking Charge of Technology

By Howard Rose, M.Ed., Kimberley Osberg, Ph.D., and Ari Hollander, M.S.E. Imprint Interactive Technology LLC (former name of Firsthand Technology Inc.). Published in Leadership and the New Technologies Online Journal: Perspectives, Issue #9, May 1999.

Where do educational technologies come from? It is painfully obvious that educators and public school classrooms have not historically been the shapers of technology used for teaching and learning. Most of the technology we use in today's classroom has been conceived and shaped by the needs, values, skills, sense and attitudes of the military, scientific research and business automation. In this article, the authors describe the Virtual Reality Roving Vehicle project, which brought state-of-the-art virtual reality equipment into public schools. Although virtual reality technology holds great promise for blending tactile, auditory, and visual experiences into learning, our experience suggests that simply making high levels of technology available for classroom use will not necessarily improve education. Instead, we believe that these new technologies must be designed from inception with educational purposes in mind in order for educators and students to realize their full potential. And we suggest that educators can shape these future technologies to produce tools that will be better suited for teaching and learning.