Abstract
This chapter addresses the questions of why, when, and how to use virtual reality to support learning processes for human beings. It focuses therefore on what can and cannot be done in a real environment versus what can and cannot be done in a virtual environment, as well as on how using virtual reality can make some types of learning easier as long as certain conditions are fulfilled. These conditions include the shifting of some inner beliefs and the choice of an accurate paradigm. The paradigm of enaction will be presented as an example of an accurate paradigm for virtual reality. Some conceptual keys and landmarks for design will be proposed in the context of the Trinologic metamodel developed by the author. Such metamodels should facilitate the connection between human actions, learning, and the characteristics of the outer world, whether this world is real or virtual.
TopIssues Around Vr As A Medium
How to built an efficient and supportive VEL is a question that has not yet been fully answered. This chapter will consider any situation that involves learning processes. It will focus on how to create a more varied and easier learning experience for the learner by means of virtual reality. Hands-on learning can already be provided in VEs and it might also be possible to teach abstract content hands-on in a VE. Attention will be given to differentiating what can and cannot be done in a real environment versus what can and cannot be done in a VE.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Virtual: That which has the characteristics of virtualization . Remark: When qualifying reality, which is already a virtualized approach to the outer world, this term indicates a reflective movement that objectifies elements of reality that already exist somewhere in the human mind.
Learning: Linking present experiences to past and future through a reflective movement (cf. Virtualization) .
Trinologic: A metamodel that postulates the simultaneous existence of three different space-times in human beings and in their perception of the outer world. It is organized around actualization , virtualization and potentialization .
Reality: How the outer world exists in the human mind. A production of the mind that exists independently of an actual experience of acting in the world. It is therefore a part of virtualization.
Virtual Reality: An ensemble of program and devices interposed between an actual person and the Real in which they exist. When used, Virtual Reality is actualized by computer calculation and provides the user with a perceptual experience, here and now, of something that is not actual but virtualized.
Actualization: What exists and occurs here and now.
Real: All that exists, independently of whether or not it can be perceived or known by human beings. The Real supports actualization. It is the place where living and acting take place. The Real exists here and now, in the sphere of actualization .
Cognition: The experience of living mirroring itself in past and future (cf. Virtualization) .
Potentialization: All that exists and occurs in a circular space-time and of which the objective is the perpetuation of the existence of an organization.
Virtualization: What exists and occurs anywhere (nearby or far away) and at any time (in the past or in the future) except for here and now. That includes learning and cognition .