Pervasive media and messaging services for immersive learning experiences

Abstract

The public availability of virtual worlds, as for instance Second Life or the OpenSimulator, has introduced a new type of online learning, called “virtual learning”. Virtual learning is used to simulate face-to-face learning, to create new and innovative learning material and to interconnect distant learners. Unfortunately, the virtual environment is mostly exclusive and connections to other learning environments are rare stand-alone solutions with a lack of universal methologies. This paper depicts the benefit of “Immersive Learning” in the context of a systematic and flexible fusion of virtual learning and computer-aided face-to-face learning. This fusion leads to ad hoc learning scenarios, that are independent from time and location. They adapt to learners and environments with a seamless and transparent transition between both worlds. The fusion will be demonstrated and verified by an exemplary prototype implementation.