3-D Graphical Hypermedia Meets Interactive E-Books: A New Paradigm for Experiential Learning

In this exploratory paper, we propose to develop a new paradigm for teaching virtual dissections–a task prevalent in public schools– 3-D interactive electronic books that blend the state-of-the-art techniques in computer graphics with 3-D hypermedia. Students will learn experientially in this highly innovative environment by employing two powerful modes of interactive inquiry, exploration and guided inquiry. This development effort is designed to greatly improve the quality of the learner's experience while engaging in the virtual dissection tasks so prevalent in middle school classes in the United States. Our electronic books, enriched with high-fidelity 3-D video, annotations, and illustrations, will allow students to witness and explore a real dissection procedure as if they were there. In this paper, we articulate the technical and pedagogical challenges and present some preliminary results for content creation and visualization.