Work in progress - learning via gaming: An immersive environment for teaching kids handwriting

Immersive learning using computer animation and simulation is an attractive concept. Use of immersive technology to deliver flying lessons to NASA astronauts is well known. While the efficacy of immersive environments for education and training is well established, their accessibility to elementary and middle schools students is negligible. Until recently, hardware costs and long development-times were two major factors impeding creation of such environments for younger students. Computing technology, specifically human machine interface development, has come a long way in the last decade. The authors are making use of this emerging technology to develop an immersive gaming environment to teach handwriting to elementary school children using a tablet PC delivery system.