Institute of Communications Research (ICR) Events, College of Media

In this talk I will focus on the communicative act of explanations and how we can design immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to support diverse learners in constructing more robust and more powerful explanations of STEM concepts (e.g., the causes of seasons, exponential growth). Embodied perspectives on human cognition emphasize that movement and physical action are tightly intertwined with how we think and learn. Immersive technologies can guide movement and elicit actions that support understanding of complex ideas (e.g., moving one’s hands to enact the causal mechanisms of a scientific phenomenon). In other words, well-designed immersive technologies can aid STEM learning by scaffolding students’ multimodal explanations. I will describe multiple design-based research projects from the Embodied and Immersive Technologies (EmIT) lab where we have developed prototype learning technologies that aim to support students’ explanatory reasoning. I will discuss implications for the future of educational technology and the potential role for AI in facilitating embodied learning.

Read more about our speaker Dr. Robb Lindgren here: https://education.illinois.edu/profile/robb-lindgren

Please feel free to bring a brown bag lunch!