Learning and building together in an immersive virtual world

This paper describes the design, evaluation, and lessons learned from a pro ject involving the implementation of an immersive virtual environment for c hildren called NICE (Narrative-based, Immersive, Constructionist/Collaborat ive Environments). The goal of the NICE project was to construct a testbed for the exploration of virtual reality as a learning medium within the cont ext of the primary educational reform themes of the past three decades. Wit h a focus on informal education and domains with social content, NICE embra ces the constructivist approach to learning, collaboration, and narrative d evelopment, and is designed to utilize the strengths of virtual reality: a combination of immersion, telepresence, immediate visual feedback, and inte ractivity. Based on our experiences with a broad range of users, the paper discusses both the successes and limitations of NICE and concludes with rec ommendations for research directions in the application of immersive VR tec hnologies to children's learning.