Wednesday, 3 August
8:30 - 10:00 am
- Educators Program - Forum: Learning Environments
Wednesday, 3 August
8:30 - 10 am
Room 502B
- Educators Program - Flash: Animation in the Third Dimension
Forum: Learning Environments
How to conceptualize and build a variety of interactive 3D solutions. This presentation provides computer graphics designers with tools to create interactive learning systems within a three-dimensional Flash world. The presentation provides tips for conceptualizing solutions, visualizing data, and developing practical interactive applications. Flash examples consist of both practical and experimental applications. To further enhance the creative process, complete working models are deconstructed for each particular interactive system. Examples demonstrate a broad range of Flash applications, from web sites to CD-ROM delivery.
The main feature that sets this presentation apart is application of real and simulated 3D space in a traditional 2D environment.
Chris Jackson
Rochester Institute of Technology
cbjpgd (at) rit.edu
Jim Ver Hague
Rochester Institute of Technology
Wednesday, 3 August
8:30 - 10 am
Room 502B
- Educators Program - Creating Virtual Environments in a Multidisciplinary Classroom
Paper
This paper reports on an interdisciplinary course, Computing and Art, taught at Sabanci Üniversitesi, Istanbul, for the first time in the fall of 2004. The two faculty members teaching the course, and the students, are 50 percent from the visual communication design department and 50 percent from the computer science department. Two-student teams, one from each department, create interactive 3D virtual environments. The challenge is to develop real-time graphics software and well-designed virtual spaces and/or interfaces, but the primary mission is to create meaningful content that can be implemented in a non-linear spatial structure, with non-linear narrative. This requires content development, scenario and dialogue writing, as well as research on relevant social, historic, audio, or scientific data, when and as needed.
Selim Balcisoy
Sabanci Üniversitesi
balcisoy (at) sabanciuniv.edu
Elif Ayiter
Sabanci Üniversitesi
Wednesday, 3 August
8:30 - 10 am
Room 502B
- Educators Program - Inquiry-Based Honors Physics Labs
Paper
This paper describes a new set of laboratories for the Honors Freshman Physics class at the University of Minnesota. The new labs are much more free-form than conventional ones; students are given a topic (such as "do an experiment about air resistance") and allowed to design, analyze, and simulate their own experiments. After analyzing their experiments, they present their results to the rest of the class. The new labs are much more like working in a real research environment, and they lead to a much deeper and more flexible understanding of the topic. The labs are running smoothly after one semester, and our students seem quite happy with them, though we do not have any hard assessment results so far.
Peter Border
University of Minnesota
Wednesday, 3 August
8:30 - 10 am
Room 502B
- Educators Program - 3D Environments as Social Learning Tools: The VIRTU@LIS Experience
Paper
New forms of dialogue and new mechanisms for introducing scientific issues to non-scientific audiences require radical design of interfaces between scientific processes and audiences. The VIRTU@LIS project has explored the use of "convivial interfaces" in games. These tools stimulate self-reflection, discussion, and possible negotiation to enhance relationships with the rest of the community that promote awareness and responsibility among citizens and grounds for personal decision-making power and social learning. These types of tools can be used individually or in a context of debate about empowerment and lifestyles strategies. They can also be used in educational contexts, to raise issues and deploy discussion. In this paper, VGAS (which relates lifestyles to climate change) and Fishu@lis (which relates personal consumption to sustainable fisheries) are presented as examples of such tools.
Tiago de Sousa Pedrosa
European Commission Directorate-General Joint Research Centre