2025 IEEE VR KELVAR Workshop: K-12+ Embodied Learning through Virtual and Augmented Reality (10th Annual Workshop)

Organized in conjunction with the IEEE Virtual Reality 2025

DESCRIPTION

K-12+ (K-12 and higher ed) education is currently undergoing a technological revolution creating opportunities for Virtual-, Augmented-, and Mixed-Reality based learning (hereafter referred to as XR [extended reality] technologies. Technology integration will continue to increase as mobile devices penetrate all socioeconomic strata, and as XR technologies become affordable to schools, vocational education providers, universities, and informal educational settings. These technologies have the potential to facilitate effective learning by: developing the ability to engage students of all ages with interactive 3D simulations of real-life and artificial phenomena; presenting information that is spatially – and temporally – integrated with real objects; leveraging whole-body motions to depict and reinforce learning content.  However, there are many questions about the integration of such experiences into the classroom, such as: What curriculum topics might be addressed through XR technologies?; What socio-cultural, psychological and physiological mechanisms underlie embodied cognition?; How can we design experiences that are appropriate for the different stages of human development?; How will pedagogical approaches be influenced by such technologies?

In this workshop we aim to bring together educators, developers and researchers who are interested in creating and deploying XR technologies for the educational contexts of the future. The workshop will enable participants to discuss and engage with different approaches for designing and integrating XR technologies with a specific focus on the challenges and potential for embodied learning in the classroom for K-12, vocational and higher education.

INTENDED AUDIENCE

We expect the audience will be attendees to the IEEE Virtual Reality conference, specifically those interested in educational technology:

• Academic researchers in augmented / virtual / mixed reality

• Learning psychologists

• Industry organizations for children’s education

• Teachers and educational researchers

• Informal education technology designers

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

The KELVAR Workshop is scheduled for Saturday, March 8, 08:30am to 12:30pm (Timezone: Saint-Malo France UTC+1) at the Conference Venue Palais du Grand Large, Level 3 Room Lamennais 3.

Below is the breakdown of the detailed schedule for the presentations:

• 8:30 – Welcome and intro (Steve Cutchin)

• 8:40 – Celebrating 10 years of the KELVAR Workshop (Erica Southgate)

• 8.50 – Papers (10 min presentation, 5 min questions and answers)

  • A SWOT Analysis of Virtual Reality for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in K-12 Education by Ali Adjorlu

  • Weaving Opportunities for Reflection into a Virtual Reality Learning Game by Maria Roussou, Andreas Paterakis, and Dimitris Christopoulos.

  • ABA-VR: A Virtual Reality Demo for Training Applied Behaviour Analysis Practitioners to Support Autistic Children by Scott Naylor and Ali Adjorlu.

• 9:35 - Panel discussion: The Future of XR in Education.

  • Panellists TBA. Facilitator Erica Southgate

• 10:15 – Catered Break (30 minutes)

• 10:45 Papers (10 min presentation, 5 min questions and answers)

  • A Methodological Coding Framework to Understand School Student 360-Degree Virtual World Content Creation by Erica Southgate, Toni Maddock, Ella Camporeale, Sean Groth, and Dara Tafazoli.

  • A Problem-Driven Approach to XR in Education: Teaching Non-Euclidean Geometries Through Virtual Reality by Maé Mavromatis, Ronan Gaugne, Rémi Coulon and Valérie Gouranton.

  • Mixed Reality as a Tool to Enhance Mathematics Education in Elementary School by Wallesa Dayana Martinek Queiroz dos Santos, Adriano Peretti, Claudio Roberto Marquetto Mauricio, Fabiana Frata Furlan Peres, Foz do Iguacu, João Marcelo Xavier Natario Teixeira and Manoela Milena Oliveira da Silva

  • VR Bus Training for Autistic Children: Building Independence in Public Transit by Freya Gade, Nickolai Frederik Schouborg Jensen, and Ali Adjorlu.

• 11.40-12.30 Group discussion and wrap-up 

KEYNOTE: To be updated

SUBMISSION TOPICS

We welcome preliminary research results and thought-provoking position papers and demos on topics related to XR learning for K-12+:

• VR, AR & MR Technologies and Applications for formal and informal education sites (e.g.: classrooms, libraries, museums, afterschool programs)

• Theories and Applications of Embodied Cognition and Learning

• Curriculum-based Educational Applications

• Student-Teacher Relationships and Pedagogical Implications

• Classroom Integration of Technology

• Teacher and Student Content Authoring Tools

ORGANIZERS

Erica Southgate, University of Newcastle, Australia (erica.southgate@newcastle.edu.au)

Manoela Milena Oliveira da Silva, Voxar Labs/Federal University of Pernambuco, UFPE (mmos@cin.ufpe.br)

Steven Cutchin, Boise State University, USA (stevencutchin@boisestate.edu)

Jerry Alan Fails, Boise State University, USA (jerryfails@boisestate.edu)

Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway (ekaterip@ntnu.no)

Warren Fearn, York St John University, UK (w.fearn@yorksj.ac.uk)

DEADLINES AND SUBMISSION FORMAT

• • Full submission deadline: January 2, 2025 January 6, 2025 (7pm AEST)

  • Notification of acceptance: January 9, 2025

  • Camera ready paper deadline: January 16, 2025 January 27, 2025 (7pm AEST)

The organizing committee will select submissions based on the quality and contribution of the work relating to embodied learning in education. We seek contributions in the following formats:

1. Empirical Papers: Early Research and Work In Progress (4-6 pages) - Empirical results and contributions to the field.

2. Position Papers (3-4 pages) - Interesting and possibly controversial points of view, and approaches to foster a discussion at the event.

3. Demo Papers (2-4 pages) - VR demos that could potentially have an educational application. If you have submitted a demo to IEEE VR, please submit a short description of your demo and include a description of potential educational applications for your demo.  Videos of the demonstration are required. Demos are expected to be demonstrated at the workshop.

Papers must be written in English, have author identifiers removed (blinded) for review. All paper submissions must be formatted using the IEEE Computer Society VGTC conference format (https://tc.computer.org/vgtc/publications/conference/). Papers cannot exceed 7 pages including references. Accepted papers will have to be formatted by the authors according to the relevant camera-ready guidelines.

Submission of papers will be through – https://new.precisionconference.com/.

Please e-mail any questions to Erica Southgate at erica.southgate@newcastle.edu.au 

VISIBILITY OF SUBMISSIONS

All workshop papers will be published in the IEEE Digital Library and shared on the workshop website.

We may follow with an opportunity to contribute to a special issue in Frontiers in Virtual Reality.

Looking for previous workshop years ? 

• Link: KELVAR 2024

• Link: KELVAR 2023

• Link: KELVAR 2022

• Link: KELVAR 2021

• Link: KELVAR 2020

• Link: KELVAR 2019 - 2019 Workshop Takeaway Discussion Notes

• Link: KELVAR 2018 - 2018 Workshop Takeaway Discussion Notes

• Link: KELVAR 2017  - 2017 Workshop Takeaway Discussion Notes

• Link: KELVAR 2016