Directora de la Escuela Politécnica Superior de la Universidad Carlos III, Madrid
Session language: spanish with english subtitles
There are a plethora of scenarios in which immersive technologies (VR/AR/XR) provide unique affordances to learn, train or understand better, but this requires a careful design to meet the learning or training goals pursued. Novelty is not enough to guarantee technology acceptance, as it fades when the honey-moon effect of interacting with new technologies declines. What is required is to support a sustained interest in their use by providing affordable and useful experiences. In this talk, I will review some examples of affordable immersive technologies in education that exploit the interaction affordances of these immersive environments to support the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills. All the examples are based on the work done at the Interactive Systems Research Group that has been doing research in these areas for more than two decades.
Prof. Dr. Paloma Díaz is Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. With a Degree and PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, she has been involved in interdisciplinary research in the Interactive Systems research group (DEI LAB) that she has led since 1997 that is focused on designing digital solutions for different domains such as crisis informatics, e-learning, health, industry, or cultural heritage. She has led international, national, and regional projects and published over 250 articles in journals, conferences, and books. She has been a visiting scholar at the Information Sciences and Technology College of PSU for two academic years, at the MAGIC LAB at British Columbia University, and at the Visualization Institute of Stuttgart University. She is a senior member of IEEE and ACM, a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Education Society, and IEEE HKN Professional member. She was Deputy Director for the National IST Basic Research Program of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and Vicerrector of Colmenarejo Campus at UC3M. She is currently the Dean of the UC3M Engineering School, and Director of the UC3M-Telefonica Chair on Women and Technology.