IED 2015 Immersive Education Initiative Paper Disruptive enabling technologies in the form of wearable sensors and ambient intelligent interface devices are set to totally transform immersive education practices. This presentation focuses on the latest developments in wearable lifestyle sensor technologies such as Neurosky's consumer brainwave and body sensing devices to describe how measuring and visualising physical and mental states can be used to deliver quantum changes in education practices. These devices and their associated applications that provide real time analysis of attention and emotional states provide new opportunities to provide more personalised and adaptive education experiences.

1. Submitted Manuscript: Confidential Template: 05 April 2012
Category: Presentation
Title: Disruptive Enabling Technologies and Immersive Education
Authors: D. Wortley
Affiliations:
1 GAETSS – Gamification and Enabling Technologies Strategic Solutions
*Correspondence to: david@gaetss.com
Abstract:
Disruptive enabling technologies in the form of wearable sensors and ambient intelligent
interface devices are set to totally transform immersive education practices. This presentation
focuses on the latest developments in wearable lifestyle sensor technologies such as Neurosky's
consumer brainwave and body sensing devices to describe how measuring and visualising
physical and mental states can be used to deliver quantum changes in education practices. These
devices and their associated applications that provide real time analysis of attention and
emotional states provide new opportunities to provide more personalised and adaptive education
experiences.
One Sentence Summary:
Wearable Sensors and Data Visualisation Technologies are creating new opportunities for
personalized Immersive Education
Main Text:
Introduction and Background
The concept of “immersion” in any activity is widely accepted as fundamentally important for
learning and developing. The immersive nature of games is one of the main reasons for their
popularity. Games provide a “flow” of conscious engagement in which players voluntarily invest
their time, attention and money to participate in activities which provide the physical and mental
challenges that form the basis of our development.
Over the past two decades, developments in video game technologies from arcade games to
highly realistic blockbuster console games have led to the concept of “serious games and
simulations” being increasingly widely accepted as an important media for corporate learning
and development. “Americas Army” was one of the first examples of the serious games genre
and was originally developed as a recruiting tool to stimulate young people’s desire to consider
the Military as a career option through the use of role playing games. Whilst it was regarded as a
big success in generating new recruit applications, it was also realized that these games had
potential for training recruits by immersing them in storylines and environments which allowed
them to develop the skills needed in real world situations with exposing the recruits to danger
and also reducing the cost of training.

2. The immersive nature and realism of these virtual world environments and storylines that players
could relate to were important factors in not only engaging players but also in the effectiveness
of the learning outcomes. The “Immersion” factor in these games is related to the extent to which
players are attracted to the scenarios and storylines and the nature of the challenges presented.
All of this, it is argued in this paper, has led to a concentration on making the sensory experience
as rich as possible rather than developing an understanding of the basic games psychologies and
mechanics that underlie the use immersion for education practices. This paper seeks to introduce
the concept of gamification and disruptive technologies as a potentially more effective and
targeted approach to Immersive Education.
Case Study on Gamification and Wearable Technologies for Personal Health Education
This paper explores the impact of disruptive technologies such as the internet of things, big data
and wearable technologies on immersive education and is based on a personal case study carried
out over the last 2 years by the author who has explored the potential of these technologies to
improve his personal health management.
Figure 1. Impact of Case Study on the Author’s Appearance
Figure 1. illustrates the impact of the project on the author’s change in appearance over the two
years of the project. The majority of the weight loss (21Kg) was achieved within 3 months of
starting the project in June 2013.
Health Education is a very good example of the importance of Immersion and can illustrate the
difference between Immersive Education for the acquisition of Knowledge and Immersive
Education to influence behaviours, understanding and actions.
At the start of this project, the author was obese and in a pre-diabetic condition but these
circumstances, although lifestyle related, did not present any serious medical problems or impact
on the author’s daily life. As a consequence, although aware of his obesity, the author was not
motivated to make any changes to his lifestyle or undertake education activities to improve his
knowledge or understanding of the potential long term consequences of his condition.

3. Without motivation for change or incentives to better understand and adopt best lifestyle
practices, the author was not engaged in developing personal healthcare management skills or
practices and would have been reliant on corrective medical interventions instead of preventative
interventions. The author would not have been immersed in the personal health education
initiatives available and increasingly promoted today because, although health knowledge was of
interest, it made no impact on the author’s daily life. The author was effectively a “spectator” of
his own health rather than an engaged practitioner.
It was combination of circumstances in June 2013 which led the author to explore the potential
of gamification and wearable technologies for personal health management. The primary factors
for triggering this activity were the discovery from a DNA analysis that the author has a 32%
probability of contracting Diabetes 2 and reading an article on the BBC website about wearable
technologies.
Measurement and Feedback
The case study involved wearing a fitness tracking bracelet which measures physical activity and
sleep, collects the data and displays the results within a free mobile application.
Figure 2. Example Wearable Fitness devices used by the Author
Figure 2 shows two of the devices used by the author during the case study. One of the devices,
the Jawbone UP device provided a smartphone application which not only shows trends in
physical activity and sleep patterns but also provides tools to calculate calorie consumption and
nutrition based on food and drink consumed. This requires the user to enter the food and drink
manually and, in some cases, to enter the nutrition data found on the food packaging.
The key factors for education and immersion in this project are automatic measurement and
feedback, coupled with good data visualization that assists understanding. The fact that the data
is personal and is displayed on demand in a format which helps the user to understand the impact
of their actions leads to immersive learning linked to behavioural change and putting into
practice the lesson learnt.
Immersion in the process of self-directed learning informed by automatic data collection and
analysis provided for better understanding of health management and, more importantly,
practical implementation of changes in lifestyle.

4. Conclusions - Immersion and Personalised, Self-Directed Education
Immersion in any activity by focusing attention and limiting distractions helps to facilitate
absorption of knowledge. Immersion can be influenced by motivating factors. These motivating
factors can either be extrinsic or intrinsic or a combination of both.
Extrinsic motivation can be provided by potential rewards e.g. money, qualifications, penalties
for failure whereas intrinsic motivation comes from the pleasure and satisfaction of the activity.
Games generally provide intrinsic motivation and more sustainable outcomes whereas extrinsic
motivation in education can support the acquisition of knowledge, it is less likely to be
sustainable and have an impact on behaviours and understanding.
The main conclusion drawn from this case study exercise is that disruptive technologies which
provide ambient and automatic personalized performance measurement and feedback coupled
with good data visualization and “Smart” coaching not only creates a far more immersive
experience but also goes beyond the acquisition of knowledge into greater levels of
understanding and behavioural change.
The use of wearable devices and Gamification strategies today is exemplified in the European
projects PEGASO (http://www.pegaso4f4.eu/) and DOREMI (http://www.doremi-fp7.eu/) where
Italian Serious Games specialists, Imaginary have developed applications which use games
combined with technology to capture lifestyle data and physical activity to personalize games
which immerse the users into activities designed to enhance their physical and cognitive
wellbeing of the users which range from teenagers (PEGASO) to the elderly (DOREMI).