In summary, the examples presented above reinforce our view that some
decisions were made intuitively, supported by the visual cues provided by the
environment (the shape of each area and the surrounding space), and the
feedback mechanisms programmed into the system. These cues and feedback
aided some children at solving the learning problems, suggesting that their
intuitive action may be closely linked to the form of the representation of the
problems and, consequently, the value of VR over formal, abstract instruction
as a way of supporting learning.
Discussion
During the first sets of studies (the exploratory studies concerning column
construction and the pilot studies with the Virtual Playground), a number of
methodological and practical issues emerged related to the challenges of
designing and evaluating technology for and with children. For the main
studies, the focus was to capture behavioral and conceptual change, which can
lead to indications of learning triggered by interactive activity in the virtual
environment. To identify this change a number of measures were taken.
Different conditions resulted in a between-groups design, attempting to cover
the different combinations of activity, interactivity and immersion. Then,
multiple different methods of testing were designed, ranging from the
quantifiable pre- and post- questionnaires to the more qualitative observations
and interviews. This was to ensure that the data collected would result in a
wealth of information, which we could meaningfully combine and analyze.
The quantitative analysis did not provide evidence that interaction has any
effect on children’s ability to learn fractions. On the other hand, the
qualitative analysis seemed to be more appropriate at describing the richness
of interaction between the multiple factors that came into play in this study.
The use of an analytical framework such as Activity Theory provided the lens
through which we were able to identify the critical incidents and internal
contradictions - conflicts that required further attention as possible indications
of conceptual change. Hence, some generalizations emerged from the analysis
of the different cases, especially when examining each child’s activity and
reaction to individual problems. Within each case, we identified the
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