Phase 1: Outside Lookin In

Learning about VR in an older adult classroom

• Phase 1: Outside looking in
• Phase 2: Inside looking out
• Phase 3: Designing a multi-modal classroom

To begin my research I decided to seek an audience that I could be confident had little experience with virtual environments like World of Warcraft or Second Life. After some debate I concluded that an older adult audience had the least chance of having any type of exposure to virtual environments. I have enjoyed working with this audience in the past and I had easy access to older adult classrooms. I created and proposed a course to the Mastick Senior Center, part of the Alameda Unified School District. The happily accepted my proposal and invited me to deliver my course at the senior center.

I discovered several importants things in the process of teaching this course:

• Older adults frequently have difficulty learning about computers
• Many older adults enjoy playing computer games like solitare and freecell
• Despite their age, older adults clearly understand the potential benefits of virtual environments

From these discoveries I have accomplished two of my original goals. First, I have confirmed the need to bring new thinking to computer interface design in an effort to ease the learning of complex systems. Next, I have affirmed my belief that even the most unlikely audiences can be motivated by their enjoyment of gaming and social interaction. These two key discoveries fuel my continued work on this project and significantly broaden the possible scope of work to be done.