Tesis y Tesistas 2020 - Postgrado - Fac. de Informática - UNLP

MAESTRÍA
TECNOLOGÍA INFORMÁTICA
APLICADA EN EDUCACIÓN
Mg. Yesica Soledad
Chirinos Delfino
e-mail
yesich_86@hotmail.com
Advisor
Dra. Cecilia Sanz
Scientist Consultant
Lic. Sebastián Dapoto
Thesis defense date
December 28, 2020
SEDICI
http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/111879
Virtual Reality as a mediator
of learning. Development
of a mobile Virtual Reality
application oriented to children
Keywords: Virtual Reality; Immersion; Education; Learning; HMD (Head Mounted Display); HuVi; Cultural Heritage
Motivation
Research to date has shown that VR applications are
effective at multiple levels of education and training, with
a high degree of student acceptance. An important feature
of VR applications is the user interaction with the virtual
world. This interaction encourages active engagement,
which is desirable for learning. The intrinsic properties and
cognitive mechanism of VR allow students to consciously
focus on what they are experiencing and participate in
more meaningful learning. VR applications can allow
students to explore and learn at their own pace and repeat
the experiences as many times as they wish. This appeals
to both students and educators, who are able to teach
different skills.
Of the educational technologies currently in use, VR is
considered one of the most promising due to its ability to
“immerse” students in the environment they are studying.
The added value of VR is to engage the student in learning
contexts that are difficult to understand due to their
abstraction, difficulty or even because they are dangerous.
In accordance with the above, and the interest in seeking
alternative mechanisms in the teaching and learning
processes, the motivation for this thesis arises from research
on these issues and the development of a VR educational
mobile application, based on various experiences obtained
from previous research and thorough analysis of different
VR applications. Based on these motivations, the objectives
of this thesis are proposed.
Objectives/Aims
The general aim of this work is to research and analyze
Virtual Reality (VR) and its application in educational
environments, as a mediating “technology” in the teaching
and learning processes.
The specific aims are as follows:
1. Study the concept of Virtual Reality and its foundations.
2. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of its use.
3. To study the learning theories on which the bases of its
implementation in the educational and training context are
foundations.
4. To identify pedagogical practices, particularly related
to experience, that justify the use of VR in teaching and
learning processes.
5. To study and analyze different applications of VR and its
application in the educational context.
6. To develop an educational VR application, based on the
guidelines of the theoretical analysis carried out and using
free distribution tools that allow the development of VR
applications oriented towards educational purposes.
7. Develop a case study with the application developed in
the previous item:
• Define the objectives and context of the case study.
• Validate the hypothesis resulting from the theoretical
research.
8. To perform the analysis of the results obtained from the
experience. To propose new lines of research.
Thesis contributions
Based on the theoretical study, and on the reasons that
gave origin to the thesis, HuVi (Huellas Virtuales) was
developed, a VR mobile game, with the goal of presenting
the cultural heritage of Argentina, to children of vulnerable
contexts. HuVi was developed with an interdisciplinary
team, within the context of an extension project of the
University of Economic Sciences, more specifically related
to the Tourism degree.
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