title: Integrating Virtual Worlds with Tangible User Interfaces for Teaching Mathematics: A Pilot Study.
abstract: This article presents a pilot study of the use of two new tangible interfaces and virtual worlds for teaching geometry in a secondary school. The first tangible device allows the user to control a virtual object in six degrees of freedom. The second tangible device is used to modify virtual objects, changing attributes such as position, size, rotation and color. A pilot study on using these devices was carried out at the "Florida Secundaria" high school. A virtual world was built where students used the tangible interfaces to manipulate geometrical figures in order to learn different geometrical concepts. The pilot experiment results suggest that the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds allowed a more meaningful learning (concepts learnt were more durable).
authors: Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE, Sangolquí 171-5-231B, Ecuador. rgguerrero@espe.edu.ec.
authors: Graciela
authors: G
authors: Guerrero
authors: Departamento de Ingeniería Informática, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 28049, Spain. cesar.ayala@estudiante.uam.es.
authors: Andrés
authors: A
authors: Ayala
authors: Departamento de Ingeniería Informática, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 28049, Spain. juan.mateu@estudiante.uam.es.
authors: Juan
authors: J
authors: Mateu
authors: Departamento de ciencias, Florida Secundaria High School, Catarroja 46470, Spain. lcasades@florida-uni.es.
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Casades
authors: Departamento de Ingeniería Informática, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid 28049, Spain. xavier.alaman@uam.es.
authors: Xavier
authors: X
authors: Alamán
keywords: e-learning; mixed reality; tangible user interfaces; virtual worlds