Virtual Reality Loses A Hero

Dr. Randy Pausch, a talented, generous, and inspiring researcher and educator, passed away on Friday, July 25. The field lost a true hero whose contributions to virtual reality will live on in his imaginative projects, including computer programming teaching tool ALICE. You can read my tribute to him here.

More Information:
PC World
Wall Street Journal (written by Jeffrey Zaslow, co-author of "The Last Lecture," the novel form of Dr. Pausch's lecture)

VR + Students with Special Needs

The journal Topics in Language Disorders has a review by Sue Cobb of projects that utilize virtual reality to teach students with special needs. One of the most promising aspects of VR education is its capacity to teach skills that can be transferred to real-world situations. In the late 90s, researchers from the University of Nottingham and VIRART (Brown, Kerr, and Wilson, 1997) designed and tested virtual ski, driving, home, and supermarket environments. Since then, a variety of others have followed suit, examining the impact of virtual reality settings on everything from social skills to language learning to daily life skills. Cobb summarizes the results; while many studies found that students learned within the setting, and others found evidence that the skills were transferred, the studies have not followed students or interventions for long enough time periods to fully conceive the generalization ability of such programs. The article is a terrific summary of the progress that has been made thus far as well as future areas to examine more.

• Cobb, Sue V.G. Topics in Language Disorders. Virtual Reality: Exploring New Dimensions for Conversation, Language, and Learning. 27(3):211-225, July/September 2007.

VR in the News

This summer has been full of exciting new developments and reports from the intersection of virtual reality and therapy.

Stuff.co.nz has an article following the rehabilitation of three patients at a Ryde, Australia hospital. It provides examples of how the Nintendo Wii offers an engaging and challenging platform for physical and emotional progress after debilitating injuries or illnesses. One of the patients, trained as a physiotherapist, designed a glove that allows less mobile people to access the handheld Wii remote.