Theory Guided Development of Interactive Learning Environments for Imparting Remote Sensing Knowledge

Teachers of geography at university level often meet difficulties when it comes to conveying principles of remote sensing to students. Generally, there is no previous knowledge to build up on and due to its interdisciplinary nature and the strong influences of physics, maths and informatics, students may be discouraged and lose interest in a scientific and industrial branch that is of ever growing importance. Computer supported interactive lessons can provide an alternative and may be the key to overcome those starting difficulties. During the course of this PhD - work different interactive learning environments are to be developed and investigated regarding their effectiveness to convey differently characterised learning topics.

Regarding interactive media remote sensing in German universities is mostly unexplored territory. Its richness of different topics to teach as well as the absence of previous knowledge among its students could make remote sensing a good proving ground for measuring the effectiveness of different kinds of interactive media.

Simulated microworlds present the top level of interactivity. The learner is confronted with a working model of the principle to be taught. He can freely change the parameters of this model to get results that are not necessarily right or wrong but results helping him to construct a model on his own. A mental model that is directly derived from the interactive model he is working with. Although there are examples for interactive learning environments in remote sensing in Germany none of them provide such a level of interactivity.

At present the technological possibilities to construct interactive lessons range from simple control navigation to complex 3d simulation. Not a lot is known about how those technologies influence the knowledge construction of the user. For a better understanding of those influences this work will concentrate on the issue of 3d and 2d display technologies to find out whether one of those technologies has advantages in imparting remote sensing knowledge of abstract or concrete nature. A general footprint of how this is to be achieved as well as first proceedings in the development of the interactive media itself will be presented.