The Laboratory of Virtual Reality Applications in Education ( Educational Approaches to virtual reality Technologies , EARTH lab) was established in the Pedagogical Department of Elementary Education of the University of Ioannina on December 15 , 2000 with Presidential Decree 330.
Its purpose is to promote of scientific research and development in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education.
The approach and staffing of the laboratory is interdisciplinary.
The Director of the Laboratory is Anastasios Mikropoulos, Professor of Information Technology in Education with an Emphasis on Virtual Realities in Teaching.
The objectives of the Laboratory of Virtual Reality Applications in Education are summarized as follows:
Basic and applied research in the scientific field of ICT in education
Basic and applied research in the field of virtual reality in education
Design, development and evaluation of educational and training software
Contribution to education and training
The mission of the workshop is summarized as follows:
A. Study of the integration of ICT in the educational process and in particular:
production of valid, reliable and objective scientific discourse in the field of ICT in education
theoretical and practical training of undergraduate and postgraduate students in the above field
scientific research and promotion of educational technology systems, as well as pedagogical and psychological theoretical approaches for their introduction into the educational process
design, development, dissemination and evaluation of educational material mainly in the form of educational software and especially using the technologies of Virtual Reality, Interactive Multimedia and Networks.
creation of specifications for educational systems of Virtual Reality at the level of hardware and software, as well as ergonomic studies regarding the above and more generally educational workshops based on psycho-pedagogical and technical proposals
study of all kinds of effects of Virtual Reality educational systems on students, both in terms of software and hardware
provision of services to third parties through face-to-face or remote communication.
B. Cooperation with domestic and foreign academic institutions, research centers and institutes that have related goals.
C. Organization of seminars, symposia, conferences, lectures, in general meetings and events with Greek and foreign experts as well as the realization of publications and editions.