Dede's Research Featured in Science Magazine

Professor Chris Dede was recently featured in a Science magazine article and podcast discussing immersive interfaces like River City and the Harvard Augmented Reality Project (HARP).

The article, which Dede says is "about a set of opportunities that a particular type of interface represents and the opportunities [it presents]," explores his research on the intersection of education and virtual worlds through projects like River City and HARP.

"We have a capability... to have identity kind of shift from being in the real world to being in the virtual world," he says. "What we are finding is that, yes, it does have special capabilities for education."

As technological capacity grows, Dede remains hopeful that schools will embrace these new technologies in the classroom. He is eager to begin new research that will go beyond River City. For example, in the upcoming year Dede will build a virtual ecosystem built upon River City.

Perhaps most importantly, Dede will tackle the biggest issue to date: virtual assessment. "If schools do start to use things like virtual worlds and if they teach things that are not on the test, then how do we measure it?" he asks. "We can't assume that schools or parents will trust us...so we have to have something that shows learning will take place."