Virtual reality -- simple and complex
Your computer is a great source of simulated
educational activities. Virtual Reality -- a term that implies all
things to all people -- is really another name for simulation. The
term virtual reality implies to many people a sophisticated setup
with goggles and helmets and special gloves and an enclosed cybernetic
environment. There are such situations. So much basic and easy to
use material is available for the computer that no one need be afraid
of virtual reality. There are three ways to use your computer for
simulation activities: |
1. Run a simulation program on your computer.
It's amazing how really simple, yet amazingly effective this can be.
There are so many computer simulation programs (kids will call them
games), that it's impossible to list them all. "Games" like
Flight Simulator (pictured to the right) are just one example of a
simulation. Flight simulation on the computer is so good that you
could actually learn the ground school portion of what is required
for a beginner's pilot's license on the computer. And you'd probably
be quite comfortable on your first flight as a student pilot. There
is quite a bit of educational shareware available as well.
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2. Use simulations on the World Wide Web
There are many amazing simulations usable by
teachers on the World Wide Web. A little searching and you may very
well find a simulation related to your teaching. Pictured above and
to the right are screen shots from the SMG2000 stock market simulation.
More information is available on their web site at
http://www.smg2000.org/
I'll add more listings for Web based simulations
in the near future. |
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3. Enhance simulations with computers
Many simulations you run can be enhanced with
computers. You can display images and pictures on a computer screen
to add reality to many simulations. The picture at the right shows
Flight Simulator running on a big screen TV inside University School's
flight simulator. You can see the yoke, but the obvious point is that
the computer adds realistic images. This is virtual reality. Simple,
yes. Virtual reality devices do not have to be complex. |
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