Students as Co-Creators of a Classroom in an Immersive Web Environment

Abstract

This paper reports on an intervention with thirty-seven students from two seventh-grade classes. The students, divided into eleven working groups, were involved in a design for the learning process. By imagining a classroom in an Immersive Web Environment (IWE), they had to think about how IWE could be developed to learn English vocabulary. To do this, they used scenery paper, markers and coloured pencils and voted on the room they wanted to be built. After this vote, they thought about how they could include their colleagues' ideas and they redesigned the room to be built, using Artificial Intelligence tools and paper and pencil. The results presented in this article refer to the data obtained by analysing the students' logbooks, used in the ideation (phase one) and construction/customisation (phase two) phases of IWE. In phase one, the students incorporated playful and interactive elements into their designs and that the IWE made references to games and films, and in phase two they showed enthusiasm, but also many difficulties in modelling the IWE. Before starting the intervention, a questionnaire survey was administered with the aim of characterising the students' experience of video games, 3D modelling and IWE.  The results showed that most of the students play video games, although they don't programme them. Most are familiar with 3D modelling of objects, although their experience is limited to a few classroom activities. They are not familiar with IWE platforms and their knowledge of Virtual Reality (VR) is associated with gaming experiences.