Storyboard for
3D interface
SL Masters
2005
Viewpoint:
Jump to a Certain Point TOC
Educational Overview Reasons for grant,
and description of
larger future project
that this is part of.
Programmer's Viewpoint Sketch of
programmer's work.
Researcher's Viewpoint Relationship to
LearnLab’s work.
ACTUAL Current Create 3D Authoring
PROJECT Interface !
Table of contents
Choose one:
• Creating what?
• Why 3D?
• Lesson Environments: One Two Three
• Appearance to authors and teachers
• Behind the scenes
• Relation to Research / Software at LearnLab
• Research Areas
Note to speaker
A Standardized Interface
between
Math Problems and Existing 3D Software
An Interface between Math
Problems and Existing 3D Software
This is an interface between existing 3D programs
and textbook/online instructional materials. The
following section shows examples created with
existing software.
Educational materials can be created, which will
supplement the standard 2D and words with 3D
virtual environments.
This can be used as a graphical extension of the
textbook, a weekly excursion from classroom
work, or a creative tool for individual teachers.
Why 3D?
Reasons
You may say, why add 3D
graphics or interaction
to what are already
good instructional
materials? Here are
some reasons: Flat?
1. Realism connects the
lesson or
better to everyday Realistic? (National Park Service)
reality, which is, of
course, in 3D.
Reason: Architectural and Scientific
Visualization
2. Spatial skills learned while navigating through these
worlds will improve math and scientific skills, such as
Visualization, necessary for designing architecture or
understanding chemistry.
Link to
architectural
walk-through.
AutoCAD drawing,
SL Masters
Chem3D drawing,
SL Masters
Reasons: Complexity, Beauty, and
Movement through Space
3. The intricacy, beauty, and
movement through space may
fascinate learners:
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/animate/A55.gif
from USGS
Reasons: Visual to standard
notation & Conceptual expression
4. Visual learners can be drawn toward
standard notation. This includes students with
learning disabilities, autism, or even regular
students with a preference for visual/spatial
expressions.
5. Certain concepts are best expressed in 3D
like tectonics or chemistry:
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/oilgas/CH4_3.MPG from USGS
Impossible Models
6. Variables or angles
can be manipulated
interactively. This is
similar to moving
physical objects, but
with more possibilities:
overcoming gravity,
expense, and hazards,
or collapsing time. TEAPOT, OpenGl Template, by SLMasters
Lesson Examples:
Environments
and
Problems
ENVIRONMENTS Navigation/
Example #1: Orienteering Orienteering
2004 Salomon/
Moosejaw
Adventure Rage
LINKS:
•Reading Topographic
Maps, based on US Army Trees
training manuals
http://www.map-reading.com/
•International Orienteering
http://www.orienteering.org/
•This green map is from
US orienteering http://www.infiterrasports.com/pics/2004rage/index.htm
http://www.us.orienteering.org/
Orienteering defined
• “Participants are given a map, usually of an area with
which they are unfamiliar, and a compass. They attempt
to visit, in sequence, control points that are indicated on
the map.”
• Map “detail is focussed towards what needs to be
perceived at eye level, at a run; it must also convey any
obstacles clearly.”
• “Controls are usually based around a visible feature,
and explained on the map or on a special control
description sheet. They are marked on the course by
white and orange (or red) flags. A competitor marks their
visit in some way”
From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orienteering
Traditional Sample Map
for Children
Click to go to site.
Project layout, young student’s
view of planning map (my project)
When Done, Drive Through
• The student clicks
when done with
constructing the
route. Then the 3D
drive through begins.
Immediate Feedback
The student knows immediately whether
he/she succeeded or not! Either they:
– reach the goal,
• with rewards (which may be visual, aural, or
by gaining virtual objects they will need later ),
or...
– they fail and are sent back to the
beginning, to plan the route again.
• Hints will be offered.
Environments .
Example #2: Going
above the Mountain
Or How Do Things
Look from Space?
Use text or diagrams...
hints
Text:
Diagrams:
...or animations (created with the locally developed
Eventscope software)
Starting with three mountains,
marked with colored rings, the
animation swoops forward and
up – to show the overhead
view.
Depending upon their
prediction of what will
happen, the students sees
different results.
Environment #2 – ELEM level
If you start on the ground in Florida, facing
North, and go into space, what’s the
shortest way to reach the West Coast?
A. Go straight ahead
B. Turn left
C. Turn right
D. Turn completely around.
Answer: The shortest way would be to turn left
Environment #2, P
8th GR level P
h
•Using a NASA educational resource d
(Space Mathematics, Problem 6, p. 60):
r A
A spacecraft is at P, at an
altitude h above Earth’s surface, D
r
as pictured...The Distance to
the horizon is d, and r is the
radius of the Earth. Answer:
•Describe d in terms of r and h. Using Pythagorean:
2
d= 2rh + h
3D environment: Getting there
Columbia shuttle, 1981
Now, the VE part of the example begins.
After choosing an
answer, clicking “Done”
drops the student into a
3D world. It can be a
combination of 3D and
real photos as
“billboards” but the
person should be able
to move around in this
world, approaching the
shuttle, where other NASA image
controls will enable lift- http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/lores/S81-36664.jpg
off.
Medium view
The student press the “lift-off” button, and gets to see the
results of his previous answers.
Right - sees images from space, such as this one and the
next page
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/lores/STS066-208-025.jpg
Wrong – the student sees the engine die and reads
comments as to why his choice is wrong. He or she is
sent back to try again (Same question or with different
“parameters” – such as ELEM going to London– or the
8th GR might receive a different problem, if repeatedly
wrong.) The student is offered “Hints” as suggestions on
how to solve the problem.
Children with the right answer will continue to fly,
seeing the Himalaya Mountains from space, NASA
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/images/ESC/small/ISS008/ISS008-E-6647.JPG
Environments
Example #3:
Find this Viewpoint
Find this Viewpoint
from Where You are Now
• The student is given a Starting Point and
directions on how to find buried or otherwise
hard-to-see Treasure hidden at the End Point.
• The Directions may be given in multiple forms:
– Map
– Street Directions (like MapQuest)
– Math Problem suitable for their level:
• ELEM: 60 degrees North, 10 miles
• 8th GR: Intersection of two equations
• First the student Draws in 2D (next slide)
• Then there is a Virtual Drive-Thru of this.
Superimposed on a map or landscape,
the student is given tools to draw (ruler
and compass) from the Start.
When Done!
• When finished, the student clicks “Done”
and is transported into a 3D world (virtual
environment) for a fly-through or drive-thru
of the path they have recently drawn!
• Only while in this virtual world can the
student see the otherwise invisible
landmark.
Relation to Textbook
How does this relate to regular textbooks?
• STANDARDIZED METHODS, allow for
automatic and/or independently creative
inclusion of 3D examples.
– Authoring Interface
– Invisible Tags
• Match examples with existing written
lessons, such as from NASA, or the Dept.
of Education. Match it up with Discovering
Geometry and other textbooks.
Appearance
to authors and teachers
Appearance
to authors and teachers
• A textbook author or a teacher decides to
add a connection to the 3D environment.
• They can create it simultaneously while
writing a math/science problem or by
selecting the appropriate problem later.
• A GUI opens, allowing them to insert or
edit a 3D connection to the textbook or
instructional materials.
2344234;lk
llkjjkl;asdfj
math
problem
goes here.
Graphical Interface (GUI) for
TEACHER / AUTHOR
When a spot in the text is selected for a 3D
example, the GUI begins a series of
questions:
1. Title of problem? A-1 #7
Equation(s)? y=x+3 Done
Points? (-10, 13)
Origin and Direction
Goes to Certain
Point
2. Where is the Origin?
Type in or choose point.
Turns in Given
Direction
0, 10, 300 y z Click Done
x
[default is (0, 0, 0)]
Direction?
Facing East – 0 degrees
Default
• Start at Origin, facing “East”
E
Images to Use:
1. Each Virtual ENVIRONMENT can have images
that are linked to certain problem categories,
with a mouse, for instance...
Images: Problem Types:
road
Count
ducks Liquid
tanks Path
buckets
These can be automatically constrained
beforehand by the computer / author
or may be individually MATCHED.
Behind the Scenes
After the example is entered by
the author or teacher...
When the creator clicks on Done, invisible
tags are placed in the digital textbook.
Click Done
This places INVISIBLE tags
that will pull the 3D example
out of the digital text, similar
to HTML, XML, or
S.K. Chang’s Growing Book.
The student would see the white square.
Problem A8 #11
Some of the hidden automatic levels For the equation:
(markup) behind this might include
these tags in order to 3y + 5x = 8
generate a 3D graphic.
Problem A8 #11
Is the point (10, 8)
a solution?
graph
For the equation:
3y + 5x = 8
is this point
[Note: the author wants
the student to see only
(10, 8)
the x, y values in these
2D, traditional graphs,
a solution ?
but the 3D graphic will
represent this by
adding a zero, such as
(10, 8, 0) creating a
billboard ]
1. This Project Complements
Existing Research/Software
and
2. Research Interests
This Interface would
Complement Existing Software
• This project should complement existing ITS’s
and cognitive tutoring software (such as the Cognitive Tutor)
adding more capabilities, but running on the
same foundation of guiding the student through
an ideal pathway which is adaptive to their
scoring patterns.
• LearnLab’s Finite State Authoring Software
should speed up and help organize development
work on this interface.
Research Work
• The development of this software should
contribute to educational research, letting
the development of 3-dimensional
instructional materials be studied in an
orderly fashion, since
– The project will enable graphics/animation to
be EASILY added to these already successful
tutoring systems, and
– every keystroke by the student can be logged
Educational
Research Areas
• Discover optimum methods for producing
adaptive interactive, instructional materials
for:
– Different learning modalities
– Disabled students, especially those with learning
disabilities
• Experiment with the optimum combination
/order for illustrating problems in text/ graphics
Educational Research
Areas (cont.)
• Find ways to Increase visualization and spatial
skills interactively, for the purpose of increasing
math and science capabilities (already shown to be
related in the literature) and testing for optimum
performance.
Consultants
.Some relevant researchers willing to advise me,
matched with some of their specific areas of
expertise, include:
Dr. S.K. Chang – adaptive educational materials,
using XML-like tags; multisensory fusion; visual
languages
Dr. Peter Brusilovsky – adaptive hypermedia and
interactive educational resources
Dr. Shari Trewin – on-the-fly, adaptive web pages
Dr. Anthony Debons – organization and overview
Note to Speaker:
Run through this presentation once ahead
of time, so that the pictures and web
pages will load faster for the
presentation.