Cross posted: https://unclesam.sites.grinnell.edu/uncategorized/instructional-goal-and-supporting-contexts After carefully thinking about what we would like to do with the Uncle Sam Plantation simulation, the types of open educational resources that we would like to develop, and the manner in which these resources could potentially be used in a class, the dev team has come up with the following instructional goal…Read more Instructional goal and supporting contexts
virtual reality
Defining instructional goals in virtual reality
Cross posted: http://unclesam.sites.grinnell.edu/uncategorized/defining-instructional-goals-in-virtual-reality The Uncle Sam plantation project is beginning to gear up and, with the return of Sam Nakahira from archival research in the Louisiana State University special collections, we are presented with a mountain of archival material that needs to be assembled into a virtual reality experience. What does a receipt for $12 issued…Read more Defining instructional goals in virtual reality
Summer Faculty Workshop Report: Stories for the Eye and Mind
Executive Summary The summer faculty workshop, Stories for the Eye and Mind: Immersive Environments for Teaching and Learning, was held in the Digital Liberal Arts Lab (DLAB) on Grinnell College 26-29 June 2017. Workshop participants included David Neville (GCIEL project lead and workshop facilitator), Damian Kelty-Stephen (Assistant Professor of Psychology and workshop co-facilitator), Charles Cunningham…Read more Summer Faculty Workshop Report: Stories for the Eye and Mind
The spatial humanities, proper scale, and making reference images in 3ds Max
In preparing for my upcoming faculty summer workshop on immersive environments, I have become more interested in ways that technology enhances the examination of how space – understood to be a certain point situated at the intersection of the physical world (geography) and time (history) – is constructed. Specifically, how technology can reveal sociopolitical forces…Read more The spatial humanities, proper scale, and making reference images in 3ds Max
GCIEL activity, community, and HASTAC 2017
Since October I have been working hard to establish an immersive environments lab at Grinnell College and have been making some significant headway toward getting this project off the ground. With the launch last week of the Grinnell College Immersive Experiences Lab (GCIEL) website and the delivery of some VR-capable desktops and associated hardware, it…Read more GCIEL activity, community, and HASTAC 2017
Stories for the eye and mind: Immersive environments for teaching, learning, and research
Summer 2016 Faculty Workshop Title Stories for the Eye and Mind: Immersive Environments for Teaching, Learning, and Research Time 26-29 June, 9 AM to 12 PM; Optional lab 2 to 5 PM Description The liberal arts have rich stories to tell and immersive environments can be a powerful way of transmitting and experiencing these stories. In…Read more Stories for the eye and mind: Immersive environments for teaching, learning, and research
Innovation Fund proposal for an immersive environments lab
The Grinnell College Innovation Fund is an internal grant program for fostering and supporting innovative approaches to teaching and research at the institution. Given the growing interest around virtual reality and yet unrealized opportunities provided by other immersive technologies (e.g., 3D digital game-based learning and visualizations), I thought an immersive environments lab would be an especially…Read more Innovation Fund proposal for an immersive environments lab
Opening remarks: Immersive Environments Colloquium at Vanderbilt University (9-10 December 2016)
Below are my opening remarks and charge for the Immersive Environments Colloquium at Vanderbilt University. Although the remarks include comments that I have already made on this blog, I thought it would still be useful to publish them here since, I think, they succinctly summarize how video games and digital game-based learning can benefit the humanities, specifically…Read more Opening remarks: Immersive Environments Colloquium at Vanderbilt University (9-10 December 2016)
The long arc back into 3D digital game-based learning
While I was enrolled in the Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Program at Utah State University (2004-2007), I became very interested in the use of digital game-based learning, immersive virtual environments, and instructional simulations as a way to teach humanities topics. At the time this interest fortuitously aligned with the emergence of the “digital humanities”…Read more The long arc back into 3D digital game-based learning
Toward a pedagogy of presence: Research summaries and new project workflow
It's been a while since I last posted and a lot has happened between then and now. Most important is a new work assignment that will be exploring the use of virtual reality environments for instructional purposes at the university- and college-level. I have my own personal project that aligns with this assignment, which I will be blogging…Read more Toward a pedagogy of presence: Research summaries and new project workflow
New Workflow with Alt-D
I have been making progress on the medieval city wall that will surround the fictional town of Bad Oberdinkelheim, which will help to keep player-learners in a controlled space while simultaneously granting them an unfettered sense of agency. While creating the wall I have stumbled across another type of workflow. Whereas before I created the…Read more New Workflow with Alt-D
Bad Oberdinkelheim Gets a Wall
The last game I created was done under time pressure: It took me roughly 1.5 years to learn 3D modeling and texturing in Blender, game programming in Unity, and get the instructional materials created in time to teach the the topic of German waste management and recycling systems within the context of two-way prepositions. Oh,…Read more Bad Oberdinkelheim Gets a Wall
Article Published in ReCALL
It's been a long haul, but finally -- after several years of design, development, assessment, and evaluation -- the experiment results have been published in the ReCALL Journal: If you are interested and want to read more, you can download a PDF of the paper. Basically, as described in the abstract, the article reports on…Read more Article Published in ReCALL
The Essential Experience
The experiment I ran on the last game prototype demonstrated that some type of substantial learning did take place through the experiences that students had while playing the game. Developing the game, however, also revealed some problems in the workflow. As I am currently a one-person show, getting a firm grasp on the modeling and…Read more The Essential Experience
Fun with Error Messages
I have a few projects on the plate this summer: (1) getting my tenure portfolio together, which needs to be submitted on 15 September; (2) creating more grammar videos for the Elon German Studies YouTube channel, which now how 304 subscribers and has been viewed over 15,000 times in about 5 months; (3) work with…Read more Fun with Error Messages
Summer Plans: Getting Back to Basics
Spring break is upon us, which means that the semester will be coming to an end rather quickly. It also means that I will need to think of something to do during the summer. I will be working with an undergraduate student on her SURE project, but I also need to think of something for…Read more Summer Plans: Getting Back to Basics
Going Medieval, Minding the Store
Part of the joy of working at a smaller liberal arts college is the constant variation of tasks that one must do to move a program forward. The variety ensures that one does not bore quickly. On the other hand, part of the frustration of working at a smaller liberal arts college is the constant variation…Read more Going Medieval, Minding the Store
Game world, real world, classroom
After wrestling with the experiment data and the whole writing process, I finally was able to get an article out the door to ReCALL Journal. I will hear back from them in March (or before then) with reviewer comments. In the meanwhile, I'm trying to think of next steps for how to grow the project.…Read more Game world, real world, classroom
Activity Systems and Cognitive Maps
I have been working on a write-up of the data yielded by the research study at the end of Spring Semester 2012. Although I am not sure if this blog really gets the kind of traffic that I was originally hoping it would, I thought I would just throw some of the data out there…Read more Activity Systems and Cognitive Maps
David Neville, PhD, MS 