The NICE project: Narrative, Immersive, Constructionist/Collaborative Environments for Learning in Virtual Reality

Abstract

: This paper describes and discusses the NICE project, an immersive learning environment for children implemented in the CAVE and related multi-user virtual reality (VR) technologies. The NICE project provides an engaging setting where children construct and cultivate simple virtual ecosystems, collaborate via networks with other remotely-located children, and create stories from their interactions in the real and virtual world. The NICE project is an effort to build Narrative-based, Immersive, Constructionist/Collaborative Environments for children. Developed at the Interactive Computing Environments Laboratory (ICE) and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) of the University of Illinois at Chicago, NICE aims to create a virtual learning environment that is based on current educational theories of contructionism, narrative, and collaboration, while fostering creativity within a motivating and engaging context. NICE is an outgrowth of two previously designed systems, CALVIN a...