Author: Karsten Senkbeil

“EUROCALL” is Europe’s largest conference for Computer-Assisted Language Learning. It took place in August 2022 in Reykjavik (online). Joining forces with Breffni O’Rourke and Gillian Martin from Trinity College Dublin, Karsten contributed research results on multilingual interactions in Social Virtual Reality between students from Dublin and from Hildesheim in the ‘Hildesheim Tandem Garden’.

The presentation was entitled “SpEakWise VR: Exploring the use of Social Virtual Reality in telecollaborative language learning”, and it touched on the didactic concepts behind the ‘Tandem Garden’, observations on how language learners in SVR employ all skills and tools at their disposal – various languages, their own and their avatars’ bodies, VR objects, gaming skills etc – , and how they ‘code-switch’ between English and German whenever necessary.

The presentation was recorded and is available at request. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested.

HumaniVR will organize and fund an edited volume called

“Virtual Reality in den Geisteswissenschaften – Konzepte, Methoden und interkulturelle Anwendungen [Virtual Reality in the Humanities – Concepts, Methods, and Intercultural Applications]”, edited by Karsten Senkbeil and Timo Ahlers.

The volume is scheduled to appear in 2023 with the publisher Peter Lang Verlag (Berlin, ISSN: 1868-372X) as part of the series “Hildesheim Studies in Intercultural Communication“.

We have just published the Call for Chapter Proposals via LinguistList (and other outlets). If you are interested in contributing, feel free to contact us.

The new degree program “Interkulturelle Sprachwissenschaft” at the University of Hildesheim is now up and running, and will continue to grow. Karsten and Nicola of HumaniVR are involved as both lecturers and researchers. We answered a few questions on where our research and our intercultural and linguistic seminars intersect, for this news item that the university just published.

We really had a blast at the “Midsummer’s Night” festival in Hildesheim!

It was great to work with students, colleagues, their friends and families — including plenty of kids, who REALLY seem to enjoy VR 😀 — and show them how we use VR and AR to teach and learn in exciting ways.

Thank you to the whole team for making this possible (consisting of “HumaniVR” and “Digital C@mpus Learning” members): Andreas, Anne, Birgit, Karsten, Leonard, Markus, Mathis, Melike, Merle, Nicola, Olivia, Salla-Noora, Sanne.

The “Mittsommernacht” festival at Campus Domäne in Hildesheim is a fantastic event with music, art, exhibitions, and of course food and drink.

This year, on June 18 2022, “HumaniVR” and its sibling project “Digital C@mpus Le@rning” join the festival to offer visitors glimpses into our current work with Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

Both children and adults are invited to try out the “Hildesheim Tandem Garden”, to test their language skills in exciting multilingual games, to explore the virtual chemistry laboratory and solve a tricky situation with “dangerous” chemicals, and several other activities.

Here’s to hoping for fair weather. We are looking forward to a fun experience with students, friends and families.

Location: Campus Domäne Marienburg, Hildesheim
Time: Saturday 18 June 2022, 16:30 – 21:30 h

Within HumaniVR and in its neighbourhood, several young scholars are currently developing and executing highly innovative and interesting research projects in the Humanities using VR apps and hardware. This blog has had the opportunity to interview some of them about their aims and goals, and their personal take on the impacts of VR. Today: Sara Hartmann, theater pedagogue at the University of Hildesheim. [In German].

HumaniVR: Hallo Sara, vielen Dank, dass du dir die Zeit für ein Interview mit uns genommen hast. Wie heißt dein Forschungsprojekt?

Sara Hartmann: Mein Forschungsprojekt trägt den Arbeitstitel „Virtual-Reality-Nutzung in der Theaterpädagogik“

HumaniVR: Kannst du das Projekt bitte in einigen Sätzen beschreiben?

Sara: Das Projekt erforscht Möglichkeiten, wie VR-Technologie in theaterpädagogischen Übungen und Prozessen ohne Programmierkenntnisse eingesetzt werden kann. Hierzu greift es auf die Nutzung von bestehenden Spielen und Anwendungen (beispielsweise „Open Brush“) zurück. Es soll erforscht werden, wie theatrale Verhältnisse von Körper und Raum durch den Einsatz von VR erfahrbar gemacht werden können und wie ein performatives Zusammenspiel von VR-Nutzenden und Nicht-Nutzenden funktionieren kann.

HumaniVR: Was ist dein Erkenntnisinteresse?

Sara: Ich möchte Methoden für eine Theaterpädagogik entwickeln, die VR-Technologie zur besonderen Körper- und Raumerfahrung einsetzt. Hierbei frage ich auch, ob und wie bekannte theaterpädagogische Übungen mithilfe von Virtual Reality Technologie erweitert werden können.

HumaniVR: Was ist deine persönliche Motivation für dieses Projekt gewesen?

Sara: Seit ich die VR-Performance „Raumlauf 1“ (Trailer: https://vimeo.com/516160705) entwickelt habe, sehe ich große Potenziale für den Einsatz von Virtual Reality in der Theaterpädagogik. Leider hat die Erarbeitung anderthalb Jahre in Anspruch genommen und ich musste einige Zeit in das Erlernen von Programmierkenntnissen investieren. Da dies in theaterpädagogischen Prozessen meist nicht umsetzbar ist, suche ich nach Möglichkeiten auch zeit- und kostengünstig mit dieser Technologie zu arbeiten. Hierdurch soll das Medium VR von verschiedensten Gruppen auch ohne Programmierung theatral erforschbar und nutzbar werden.

HumaniVR: Welche Rolle spielen bei deiner Forschung die Eigenheiten/Charakteristika der VR in Abgrenzung zu anderen möglichen Medien oder Technologien?

Sara: VR ist ein Medium, das zwei der Grundprinzipien des Theaters – Körper und Raum – in besonderer Weise erfahrbar und verhandelbar macht. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Medien der Rezeption oder Interaktion legt es den Fokus auf die eigene Präsenz und Bewegung im virtuellen Raum. Gleichzeitig ergeben sich Positionen und Haltungen im physischen Raum, die – meist unbewusst – besondere Körperlichkeiten hervorbringen, die theatral eingesetzt werden können.

HumaniVR: Herzlichen Dank für deine Antworten und weiterhin Gutes Gelingen!

Within HumaniVR and in its neighbourhood, several young scholars are currently developing and executing highly innovative and interesting research projects using VR apps and hardware. This blog has had the opportunity to interview some of them about their aims and goals, and their personal take on the impacts of VR. We begin with an interview of an ‘old acquaintance’ of HumaniVR, Mathis Göcht.

HumaniVR: Hi Mathis. You have just started to work on your thesis project. What’s its name?

Mathis Göcht: The title of my research project is “Communicative Action in Virtual Reality – Experiments in unusual Perceptual Spaces”.

HumaniVR: Can you describe it for us in a few sentences.

Mathis: The main part of my research will be the development of a VR environment in which specific aspects of the virtual world are manipulated in comparison to the perceptual space that we are used to in our usual environment. The test subjects, therefore, will not to be able to make use of the standard spatial reference systems deriving from their embodied presence in the real world. In the virtual environment, they will be challenged to solve a puzzle in teams of two, in which mutual communicative spatial coordination and the establishment of common ground will take a crucial part. The data will be recorded before being linguistically analyzed using transcripts of the teams’ spoken language.

HumaniVR: What would you like to find out with this experiment?

Mathis: My research interest is related to concepts in cognitive linguistics. I want to address the influence of the immediate environment and the egocentric perception of oneself in a specific environment, concerning the communication about space, for example the use of deictic language. Furthermore, I want to find out how people create a successful and potentially new communication system if they are embodied in different perceptual spaces, and how common ground can be created in these interactions.

HumaniVR: What has been your personal motivation behind this research project?

Mathis: My motivation derives from my general interest in emerging technologies such as VR. After gaining my first experience in VR-based research in my bachelor’s thesis, I continued to pursue this interest, working for HumaniVR.
Since I’m interested in the emergence of language systems and common ground, as well as the influence of bodily perception on linguistic reference systems, I’ve decided to turn this into a research project for my master’s thesis, taking advantage of the opportunities Virtual Reality environments provide.

HumaniVR: Which role does VR play as a medium and technology? Which characteristics of VR do you find particularly important in contrast to other technologies?

Mathis: In contrast to a common misconception, VR can not only be used as a simulation of the real world but extend certain aspects of physical reality. This enables researchers to manipulate features of the environment that are otherwise difficult or impossible to influence in regular lab conditions. By providing users with a sense of presence — the feeling of being physically embedded in the virtual world — VR extends the possibilities of other digitally mediated communication technologies, which can only be perceived through a screen and, thus, lack a sense of embodiment.

HumaniVR: Thank you, Mathis, for this interview.

Here are further original voices from students of Gymnasium Athenaeum describing their own current VR studies.

I am writing my seminar paper about the so-called “Museum of Other Realities”, a museum in Virtual Reality with many art projects by various artists. The special thing is that you can actually ‘enter’ many artworks, some are also interactive. I would like to find out if users understand this as a ‘full-blown museum’, so: if experiencing art can be completely transferred into the digital, virtual world.
Visiting the MOR can be overwhelming at first. You need some time to orient yourself. This is a very special feeling, and a very cool experience. Particularly for people who are not interested in art and in museums, it is an interesting advantage that you can enter the MOR from home, sitting on your bed. You don’t have to actively travel there or something.

– Leon

My topic is called „Language competence under stress”, that means: how does our language use change – particularly when we use the foreign language English – under time pressure? My test subjects, pupils and young grown-ups from Germany, will play a cooperative puzzle game in Virtual Reality, using English.
I myself have felt much more influenced and stressed while playing in VR, compared to games on a screen. You put yourself under more pressure, to actually achieve the goals in the game, and to not ‘die’. I’m asking myself if you can still fully use your language competence in such a realistic situation in VR.”

– Eileen

At the “Gymnasium Athenaeum” in Stade, pupils preparing for their Abitur are currently participating in the seminar “Language, Learning, and Technology”, using Virtual Reality equipment provided by HumaniVR.

They explore how VR technology helps them and their peers learn and explore the (virtual) world. In line with the school curriculum, they execute their own small research projects and formulate their findings in the form of a ‘seminar paper’ – similar to those they will encounter at the university in the not too distant future.

This cooperation between HumaniVR, the University of Hildesheim, and Gymnasium Athenaeum combines three pedagogic and didactic angles:

• It fosters critical media competencies: VR technology is undoubtedly fascinating for young people. But does it help us learn, work, socialize, etc beyond the initial “Wow!”-effect? What about long-term motivation? This seminar invites students to think beyond the user perspective, by putting them into the researcher position themselves.

• Pupils reflect on their own learning process by helping others learn. The “Learning-by-Teaching” paradigm is a well-established pedagogical concept: by putting students into the situation of having to design and test small learning modules for their peers or younger kids in their school – here: with VR – they are invited to see education (including their own) from a meta-perspective.
  
  
• They take first steps into empiricism: questions about the interaction of humans with technology are complicated, so thorough empirical work is necessary. Designing a systematic, methodological research project (though small it may be) and then write it up cogently are skills any future university student will need.
  

But enough theory 🙂

Here is a small glimpse at what students themselves have to say about their interests, their projects, and their experiences with VR at school.

The topic of my seminar paper will by “Emotional-Affective Learning with Virtual Reality”. I’d like to see if learning content with an emotional VR experience is more memorable in comparison to common methods of learning, such as in class, reading texts, and so on.
I’ll do that using the VR app “The Anne Frank House VR”, a virtual version of the house, in which Anne Frank hid during the Second World War.
I would like to find out if the affectedness, and the general emotions concerning the topic ‘Anne Frank’ are strengthened by using VR. I already have read studies saying that knowledge and facts that we experience in connection with strong emotions are stored in our long term memory much longer.
– Lena

My project is called „Cooperative problem-solving in Virtual Reality”. This is about the VR app “Keep talking and nobody explodes”, a cooperative game, in which one partner has the manual to defuse a bomb, and the other one is wearing the VR goggles, sees the bomb and needs to defuse it properly. I would like to examine which aspects have an influence on cooperative problem-solving: their age? How well people know each other? If they have prior experience in VR? Who exactly is most successful in solving such problems in VR?
I also find the plans of Mark Zuckerberg and Meta very interesting, particularly that people will meet directly in VR in the future, to – for example – do sports and fitness together with friends. I think this should be very motivating.
– Leon

The „Museum Schwedenspeicher“ in my hometown Stade offers a Virtual-Reality-based ‘stroll’ through Stade in the year 1620.
I want to research in how far this type of getting to know history is motivating for users and helps them learn information. I will work with groups of test subjects: one of the groups will have the virtual experience, the control group will receive the same information as a text. Then I will see in how far the medium influences the learning progress. I also have interviewed the museum’s pedagogue Mrs. Etzold. She explained to me the concept of the virtual tour, and how it is connected to the ‘real’ city tour outside.
– Alexandra

The University of Hildesheim has a long-standing cooperation with Trinity College Dublin: “SpEakWise”, a blended-learning project, in which students from Germany and Ireland develop language skills and intercultural competence together in a joint computer-mediated seminar, already since 2007.

Now, “SpEakWise” has partnered with HumaniVR, updating its established tandem approach with the newest technology: “SpEakWise VR”.

So on January 25th 2022, the first cohort of “SpEakWise VR”-students met in the virtual environment “Hildesheim Tandem Garden” (which has been developed by Karsten and Mathis), using their foreign language skills (English and German respectively), testing their cooperative problem-solving competencies, and having an overall fun time together in Virtual Reality.

At Trinity College Dublin, Dr Gillian Martin and Dr Breffni O’Rourke deserve thanks for making this happen. Karsten’s trip to Trinity College was a great success thanks to them — and in particular thanks to the students at Trinity and in Hildesheim, who really rose to the occasion and made their collaborative VR ‘adventure’ memorable and exciting.

In line with HumaniVR’s agenda of developing new methodologies for VR research, for teaching, and learning in VR across languages and cultures, Karsten, Mathis, Nicola and Nora collected large amounts of data and feedback from the students both in Hildesheim and Dublin. It is going to be analyzed very soon – stay tuned for what we’ll find out!