TOOLS FOR FIFTH-GENERATION EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS

EMERGING FIFTH-GENERATION EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENTS ARE INCREASING THE FLOW OF INFORMATION BETWEEN THE STUDENT AND THE INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY SYSTEM TO LEVELS NEVER BEFORE POSSIBLE. ONE GROUP OF FIFTH-GENERATION SYSTEMS, CONCEPTUALLY DESCENDED FROM GRAPHICS-BASED SIMULATORS, USES VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) TECHNOLOGY TO CAPTURE MOTOR RESPONSES AND ALTER A SIMULATED WORLD ACCORDINGLY. A SECOND GROUP, CONCEPTUALLY DESCENDED FROM EMBEDDED TRAINING SYSTEMS AND CALLED LITERAL REALITY (LR), IS THE FOCUS OF THIS WORK. IN LR APPLICATIONS, STUDENTS MOVE FREELY ABOUT IN A REAL-WORLD EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT, RECEIVING INSTRUCTIONS AND FEEDBACK IN PART FROM TOOLS DEVELOPED IN THIS EFFORT. THREE SUPPORTING DEVICES ARE BEING INVESTIGATED TO DETERMINE THEIR POTENTIAL VALUE AS TOOLS FOR LR AND VR SYSTEMS. SPECIFICALLY, THREE-DIMENSIONAL ANTHROPOMETRY SYSTEMS AND AN EXISTING CORDLESS AUDIO COMPUTER INTERFACE ARE BEING INVESTIGATED, ADAPTED, AND TESTED, FOR THEIR VALUE IN LR AND VR SYSTEMS. ALSO, A COMPUTER-CONTROLLED LASER POINTER IS BEING STUDIED FOR ITS VALUE AS A TOOL FOR LR SYSTEMS. A PROTOTYPE LR EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT IS BEING CREATED AND DEMONSTRATED.