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Educational Opportunities for Immersive Virtual Reality

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Second Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

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Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of immersive virtual environments (IVE) in education with an emphasis on immersive virtual reality (IVR). A companion chapter in this volume focuses on a second type of IVE called augmented reality (AR). First, definitions are provided, focusing on concepts such as immersion, fidelity, presence, and simulations. Second, a review of research is presented for IVR that highlights the current and potential impact in PreK-12, higher education, and professional development settings. Findings suggest the use of IVR can lead to increased engagement. However, the synthesis also points to a relative dearth of published research for PreK-12 implementation. The chapter ends with a call for future research looking at key areas like special needs, potential negative long-term effects, training for teachers and students, and exploration of key concepts like embodied cognition, computational thinking, self-tracking, spatial reasoning, and situational/individual interests within IVE.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. RCET, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Richard E. Ferdig

  2. Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Enrico Gandolfi & Zachary Immel

Authors
  1. Richard E. Ferdig
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  2. Enrico Gandolfi
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  3. Zachary Immel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard E. Ferdig .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Joke Voogt

  2. University of North Texas , Denton, Texas, USA

    Gerald Knezek

  3. University of North Texas , Denton, Texas, USA

    Rhonda Christensen

  4. University of Otago , Dunedin, New Zealand

    Kwok-Wing Lai

Section Editor information

  1. Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    David Gibson

  2. Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Hiroaki Ogata

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Ferdig, R.E., Gandolfi, E., Immel, Z. (2018). Educational Opportunities for Immersive Virtual Reality. In: Voogt, J., Knezek, G., Christensen, R., Lai, KW. (eds) Second Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education . Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53803-7_66-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53803-7_66-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53803-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53803-7

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