Student-built virtual environments

Students in grades four through twelve from fourteen schools learned to bui ld their own immersive virtual environments (VEs). This required them to de cide on the theme of their VE, to determine what objects to place in it and what behaviors these objects would exhibit, to model their objects using C AD software, to specify the form and function of the VE for professional pr ogrammers to use as they assembled the VE, and to perform assigned tasks wh en they visited the VE. Although the level and nature of student activity v aried from school to school, the students were generally very successful. T he VEs they constructed revealed a great deal about how they constructed an understanding of the content their VE represented. Data from a questionnai re showed that they enjoyed building and visiting their VE, and that their enjoyment, ability to work in the VE, success, and their sense of presence were all interrelated. Data from a small subset of students showed that bui lding a VE improved low-ability students' (but not high-ability students') understanding of the VE's content. These findings were interpreted within a framework built from constructivist theories of learning and understanding .