own virtual worlds by using 3D modeling software on desktop computers,
which they then experienced in an immersive environment. Similarly, a
projection-based display (a CAVE®) was used to display the results of
students’ model building activity in the Virtual Solar System (VSS) project,
an experimental undergraduate astronomy course in which students built
models of the solar system in order to learn about astronomical phenomena [].
In both cases, student activity involved mainly creating the virtual world
rather than interacting with one.
The NICE project was an early interactive virtual reality learning
environment that provided young children with a fantasy world in which they
could collaboratively cultivate a virtual garden []. In the study of children’s
behaviour in the NICE environment, interactivity, identified with control over
the environment, scored as the most significant motivational component of
the learning experience. Giving one child control meant that the child with
control tended to be more engaged with the educational content, resulting in a
tendency to learn more; however this “measurement” of learning emerged
from exploratory observation that looked at general aspects rather than formal
processes through which specific conclusions about learning could be drawn.
Lessons learned from the NICE project, helped to focus and form the design
of the Round Earth Project [] so that the learning domain was carefully
selected to focus on a problem proven to be difficult with children. The
Round Earth Project investigated how virtual reality could be used to help
teach young children that the Earth is spherical when their everyday
experiences tell them it is flat. VR was used as part of a larger strategy to
create an alternative cognitive starting point where this concept could be
established on its own before it was brought into contact with the learner’s
past experiences []. Further projects by the same group focused on
investigating the effectiveness of virtual environments as simulated data
collection environments for children engaged in inquiry-based science
learning activities.
A study that explored interactivity in the context of geometry teaching with
diagrammatic representations, focused on the comparison between different
graphical representations of the concept of stereographic projection and the