DIP: Collaborative Research: Interactive Science Through Technology Enhanced Play (iSTEP)

iSTEP项目解决了一个基本的研究问题，通过为幼儿设计一种新的适合发展的学习技术，探索身体和体育活动在学习中的作用。人们越来越认识到身体在认知中的作用：人类，特别是幼儿，通过将复杂的概念与我们如何移动自己的身体联系起来来理解它们。在扩展这些想法时，iSTEP项目还旨在开发在不久的将来可用于真实的课堂的教学技巧和技术工具。iSTEP项目不是像当前许多技术进步所尝试的那样支持单个学生的学习，而是为整个教室的学生创造机会，让他们一起参与使用他们的身体来模拟科学现象。 例如，一个教室的学生可以用他们自己的身体来模拟物质的状态，如液体是如何由许多移动的粒子组成的，并在技术上增强这种活动，以提高学习。iSTEP项目建立在已经成功的STEP混合现实平台（IIS-1323767）的基础上，增加了新的交互形式-使用手势和物理道具来控制STEP计算机模拟。添加这些新的交互形式使我们能够研究它们在支持学习方面的作用。现有的开源STEP平台使用商业上可用的基于视觉的传感器来跟踪8 m x 8 m空间中最多12个儿童的运动。孩子们只是走进空间，被分配一个化身（即，他们变成了一个水粒子），当他们在房间里移动时，那个化身会跟着他们。然后，孩子们的化身沉浸在一个虚拟模拟中，该模拟被编程为模仿他们正在学习的科学概念。在这种情况下，水的物质状态（例如，固体、液体或气体）是由孩子们移动的速度和他们之间的相对距离决定的。这使学生能够通过他们的合作活动发现管理状态变化的规律。学生还可以使用PLAE界面（IIS-1522945）来注释模拟并创建同龄人活动的表示，帮助他们反思系统中固有的基本原则。 在iSTEP中，学生现在还可以通过手势、全身摆姿势以及操纵物理对象来控制模拟，而不是像以前那样与全身进行交互。此外，通过使用智能手表，该项目将探索向学生提供反馈的替代形式，因为他们可以感受到振动，听到声音，甚至看到简单的图像，这些图像旨在帮助他们探索模拟。在第一轮实验中，该项目将对比手势（和姿势）界面与使用物理道具的新界面，以了解每种界面对学生学习的贡献。在最后一年，这些将被整合，以更深入地了解如何最好地用于支持基于混合现实系统的学习环境的设计。

The iSTEP project addresses a basic research question by exploring the role of the body and physical activity in learning through the design of a new genre of developmentally appropriate learning technologies for young children. There is increasing recognition that the body plays a role in cognition: human beings, especially young children, understand complex concepts in part by relating them to how we move our own bodies. In extending these ideas, the iSTEP project also aims to develop teaching techniques and technological tools that can be used in real classrooms in the near future. Instead of supporting the learning of individual students as many current technological advances attempt to do, the iSTEP project creates opportunities for entire classrooms of students to engage together to model scientific phenomena using their bodies. For instance, a classroom of students can use their own bodies to model how a state of matter such as liquid is made up of many moving particles and technologically enhance this activity to improve learning. The iSTEP project builds upon the already successful STEP mixed reality platform (IIS-1323767) by adding new forms of interaction - the use of gestures and physical props to control the STEP computer simulation. Adding these new forms of interaction allows us to examine their role in supporting learning.The existing open source STEP platform uses commercially available vision-based sensors to track the motion of up to 12 children in an 8m x 8m space. The children simply walk into the space, are assigned an avatar (i.e., they become a water particle), and that avatar follows them as they move around the room. The children's avatars are then immersed in a virtual simulation that is programed to mimic the scientific concept they are learning. In this case, the state of matter of water (e.g., solid, liquid, or gas) is determined by how fast the children move and the relative distance between them. This allows the students to discover the laws that govern state changes through their collaborative activity. Students can also use the PLAE interface (IIS-1522945) to annotate the simulation and create representations of their peers' activity, helping them all to reflect on the underlying principles inherent in the system. In iSTEP, students will now also be able to control the simulation by gesturing, posing with their whole body, and by manipulating physical objects in addition to the previous model of interacting with their entire body. In addition, by using smart watches, the project will explore alternative forms of feedback to the students as they can feel vibrations, hear sounds, and even see simple images that are targeted to help them explore the simulation. In the first round of experiments this project will contrast the gesture (and pose) interface with a new interface that uses physical props to see how each contributes to student learning. In the final year, these will be integrated to develop deeper insights into how they can best be used to support the design of learning environments that build on mixed reality systems.