Examining young learners' activity within interactive virtual environments

This research sets out to explore children's interaction in immersive Virtual Environments (VEs), focusing on the role and the effect of interactivity on learning and conceptual change. The intention is to examine how interaction and conceptual learning are related in the context of virtual environments developed primarily for informal educational settings. In order to study this, a set of exploratory studies was carried out with children aged 7-12. The children were asked to complete tasks, such as the assembly of ancient columns from parts, which were designed to promote constructivist learning. Their interaction in the VE was analyzed using an Activity Theory framework [3]. The result of this analysis has informed the design of the main studies, which is currently underway.