Touchable Universe: Demonstrating the Potential of Haptic Technology

触觉是一项新兴的技术，使人们能够感受到数字信息。当与2D和3D视听接口相结合时，它为教育提供了巨大的潜力。例如，它让学生体验在虚拟患者的嘴里钻孔的感觉，或者比较地球和木卫二上推雪球上山的感觉，或者感受声波撞击耳膜的感觉。触觉使虚拟世界变得可触摸。在第一阶段，我们论证了可行性。我们与教师、教育设计师和学生合作，定义了生动学习体验的一般可用性要求，这些要求与国家课程直接相关，并特别关注“难以教授”的主题。然后，教育和商业合作伙伴，包括教师和一家国际分销商，根据包括成本、可用性、教育价值和市场吸引力在内的矩阵对生成的应用程序进行评估。结果是非常积极的，导致许多潜在合作伙伴表达了兴趣。随着我们进入第二阶段，我们建议证明该方法的有效性，并开发一条可扩展和可信的进入市场的途径。为此，我们很高兴能与领先的考试委员会OCR(牛津、剑桥和RSA)合作，设计、试验和评估围绕难教的必修课或学生经常考试不及格的必修课构建的新型触觉学习包。最初的套装将专注于解剖、耳朵对声波的反应方式，以及3D打印/编码。如果我们能证明触觉可以直接提高特定考试题的表现，那么我们就可以走向商业化，推出在160个国家销售产品的考试板。当然，学习不仅仅是考试。为了支持学生完成同样重要的探索和创造力任务，我们将推出一个以触觉为主题的联合品牌网站(OCR每月点击量为100万次)。该网站将促进触觉不同方面的知识交流，包括编码、3D打印和物联网。它还将允许学校下载我们屡获殊荣的触觉软件，并链接到BBC的Microbit和Make It数字化活动。通过鼓励学校广泛采用触觉，我们将支持学习包的销售途径，并提高我们对教育技术市场的了解，以期创造出价格合理、可交换和针对特定主题的新一代控制设备。总而言之，这些成果还将提高人们对科学、技术和设计的兴趣--在我们的经济中，这三个部门对员工的需求远远超过了供应。“对学生来说，学习和记忆东西的最好方法之一就是亲身体验，这让他们能够做到这一点。”…。。坦率地说，我认为整个方案对学校来说将变得无价，我只是认为这真的很令人兴奋，我真的很兴奋！

Haptics is an emerging technology that enables people to feel digital information. When combined with 2D and 3D audio-visual interfaces, it offers enormous potential for education. For instance, it allows students to experience the feeling of drilling in a virtual patient’s mouth, or compare pushing snowballs uphill on Earth and Europa, or feel soundwaves hitting an ear drum. Haptics makes the virtual universe touchable. In phase one, we demonstrated feasibility. Working with teachers, education designers and students, we defined the general usability requirements for vivid learning experiences that linked directly to the national curriculum, with a particular focus on ‘hard to teach’ topics. The resultant apps were then evaluated by educational and business partners, including teachers and an international distributor, against a matrix including cost, usability, educational value and market appeal. The results were outstandingly positive and resulted in many expressions of interest from potential partners. As we move into phase two, we propose to prove the efficacy of the approach and develop a scalable and credible route to market. To that end, we are delighted to be partnering with a leading exam board – OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and the RSA) – to design, pilot and evaluate new types of haptic learning packs built around compulsory subjects that are hard to teach, or where students frequently fall short in exams. The initial packs will focus on dissection, the way in which ears respond to sound waves, and 3D printing/coding. If we can prove that haptics can directly improve performance in particular exam questions, we can then move towards commercialisation with an exam board that sells products in 160 countries. Of course, learning is not just about exams. To support students in the equally important tasks of exploration and creativity, we will launch a haptics-themed co-branded website (OCR receive 1m hits a month). The site will promote knowledge exchange on different aspects of haptics, including coding, 3D printing and the internet of things. It will also allow schools to download our award-winning haptics software, and link into the BBC’s Microbit and Make It Digital campaigns. By encouraging widespread adoption of haptics in schools we will support the sales path for the learning packs and improve our understanding of the ed-tech market with a view to creating a new generation of affordable, swappable and topic-specific control devices. Taken together, these deliverables will also drive up interest in science, technology and design – three sectors of our economy where demand for employees far outstrips supply. ‘One of the best ways for pupils to learn something, and remember something, is to experience it and this allows them to do that. ….. I honestly think that the whole package will become invaluable to schools and I just think it is really exciting, I really do!’ – Alix Morris, phase one evaluator and teacher.