We present a probabilistic model to monitor a user’s emotions and engagement during the interaction with educational games. We illustrate how our probabilistic model assesses affect by integrating evidence on both possible causes of the user’s emotional arousal (i.e., the state of the interaction) and its effects (i.e., bodily expressions that are known to be influenced by emotional reactions). The probabilistic model relies on a Dynamic Decision Network to leverage any indirect evidence on the user’s emotional state, in order to estimate this state and any other related variable in the model. This is crucial in a modeling task in which the available evidence usually varies with the user and with each particular interaction. The probabilistic model we present is to be used by decision theoretic pedagogical agents to generate interventions aimed at achieving the best tradeoff between a user’s learning and engagement during the interaction with educational games. 2 1.

This paper describes the design, evaluation, and lessons learned from a project involving the implementation of an immersive virtual environment for children called NICE (Narrative-based, Immersive, Constructionist/Collaborative Environments). The goal of the NICE project was to construct a testbed for the exploration of virtual reality as a learning medium within the context of the primary educational reform themes of the past three decades. With a focus on informal education and domains with social content, NICE embraces the constructivist approach to learning, collaboration, and narrative development, and is designed to utilize the strengths of virtual reality: a combination of immersion, telepresence, immediate visual feedback, and interactivity. Based on our experiences with a broad range of users, the paper discusses both the successes and limitations of NICE and concludes with recommendations for research directions in the application of immersive VR technologies to children's learning. 1

Exemplary pedagogy in science education should develop learners ' abilities to intuitively understand how the natural world functions before inculcating the formal representations and reasoning skills that scientists use. In other words, fostering in students the capability to qualitatively predict the behavior of the objects in the universe is initially more important than teaching them to manipulate quantitative formulas. Through using multisensory immersion in virtual realities customized for education, we believe that complex, abstract material now considered too difficult for many students—and taught even to advanced learners only at the college level—could be mastered by most students in middle school and high school. The virtual reality interface has the potential to

Improvisational actors create engaging vignettes in real time, without detailed planning, and often working within constraints provided by the audience. We are exploring the possibility of creating intelligent computer agents that can be embodied as animated characters, can perform in a manner loosely resembling that of human improvisors, and can tailor their performances to abstract directions offered by users or other system components. We describe implemented systems in two paradigms. Improv Puppets improvise under players' directions in real time. Improv Actors improvise under scenarios provided in advance. We discuss potential applications related to entertainment, the arts, and children's learning toys. 1. Directed Improvisation Improvisational actors create their performances in real time, without detailed planning, and often working within constraints provided by the audience. Because improvisational performances are spontaneous, they do not reach for the artistic heights of ...

We present a directed improvisation paradigm, in which computer characters improvise a joint course of behavior that follows users' directions, but also engages and entertains users with the novelty, life-like qualities, and performance properties of their improvisations. We present requirements for improvisational characters that differ from the usual requirements for conventional computer agents and present an architecture that is designed to meet the new requirements. Two implemented characters exploit some of these architectural features to meet simple versions of the requirements. Finally, we illustrate the utility of improvisational characters for a variety of applications related to the arts and entertainment, including a suite of interaction modes in our testbed environment, a Virtual Theater for Children. 1. Introduction To improvise is to perform a new work in real time, without detailed preparation and by making use of the resources at hand. When improvisation is constrain...

Interactive immersive entertainment, or videogame playing, has emerged as a major entertainment and educational medium. As research and development initiatives proliferate, educational researchers might benefit by developing more grounded theories about them. This article argues for framing game play as a designed experience. Players ’ understandings are developed through cycles of performance within the gameworlds, which instantiate particular theories of the world (ideological worlds). Players develop new identities both through game play and through the gaming communities in which these identities are enacted. Thus research that examines game-based learning needs to account for both kinds of interactions within the gameworld and in broader social contexts. Examples from curriculum developed for Civilization III and Supercharged! show how games can communicate powerful ideas and open new identity trajectories for learners.

Aimed largely at children today, persuasion is already part of many technologies, but many more are on the way for everyone else.

Abstract. Ubiquitous computing technologies create new opportunities for preventive healthcare researchers to deploy behavior modification strategies outside of clinical settings. In this paper, we describe how strategies for motivating behavior change might be embedded within usage patterns of a typical electronic device. This interaction model differs substantially from prior approaches to behavioral modification such as CD-ROMs: sensor-enabled technology can drive interventions that are timelier, tailored, subtle, and even fun. To explore these ideas, we developed a prototype system named ViTo. On one level, ViTo functions as a universal remote control for a home entertainment system. The interface of this device, however, is designed in such a way that it may unobtrusively promote a reduction in the user’s television viewing while encouraging an increase in the frequency and quantity of non-sedentary activities. The design of ViTo demonstrates how a variety of behavioral science strategies for motivating behavior change can be carefully woven into the operation of a common consumer electronic device. Results of an exploratory evaluation of a single participant using the system in an instrumented home facility are presented. 1

Cooperative behavior of students playing an educational computer game was investigated. The combination of gender and whether one or two computers were present significantly affected the level of achievement as measured by the number of puzzles completed in the game. Female/Female pairs playing on two computers, on average, completed less puzzles than any other pairs in any other condition. Differences were also observed for gender pairs sharing control of the mouse while playing on a single computer. Male/Male pairs had a higher number and percentage of refusals to give up control of the mouse. KEYWORDS Human-computer interaction, Computer-supported cooperative work, Computer-supported cooperative learning, Collaboration, Education, Gender, Games. INTRODUCTION This paper examines computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) issues in an educational domain. Computersupported cooperative learning (CSCL) is a new branch of research combining research from CSCW and education. We are interes...

Building upon research on motivation theory, we provide insights on how video games can be framed as expert tools that naturally reconcile learning and fun, a worthy goal since students are forced to where players volunteer, namely learning. Our main contribution is to suggest best practices rooted in psychology and motivation theory that we believe should be used when designing educational games.