虚拟海盗起航与GG电子官方软件下载研究伙伴关系的帮助

海盗船和虚拟现实似乎是天壤之别, but a recent partnership between students and faculty at GG电子官方软件下载 and Grinnell College is bringing the two together. 的 虚拟维京长船项目 将维京船只带到虚拟海洋, For创造性和强大的教育体验绘制课程.

的 虚拟维京长船项目 is a research initiative funded by a Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment For the Humanities. 的 project is led by David Neville and Timothy Arner from Grinnell along with Austin Mason, assistant director For digital humanities in the Humanities Center and lecturer in history at GG电子官方软件下载.

的 project uses 3D models and virtual reality (VR) to explore the cultural and social significance of longships in the Viking Age. 的 ultimate goal is an immersive and educational VR experience where a person can put on a headset and set sail. 该计划将包括信息简介, 视频, and mini-games to teach players about the physical and cultural aspects of longships.

四个GG电子官方软件下载学生，莉莉·哈斯24岁, 麦迪·史密斯，24岁, 杰克·奥乔安徒生，24岁, and Kritika 潘迪特, 26岁—spent the summer as student research partners with Mason, learning the technical skills necessary to begin developing and troubleshooting the virtual reality features. 学生们学会了使用VR和3D建模软件, 头脑风暴新功能和改进, 研究维京人的日常生活, 仪式, 和文化.

“这个暑期项目对学生来说是一次奇妙的学习经历,史密斯说。, 他是艺术史专业的学生，也是该项目的3D艺术家. “We are practicing the skills we need to achieve the ultimate goals of the project by working on smaller, 有相关VR经验，熟练使用相关软件.”

这个学习过程带来了挑战和回报.

“的 first project I assembled and ran that was not explicitly part of a tutorial was really exciting,哈斯说, 计算机科学专业的学生，也是该项目的软件开发人员.

的 summer work included a game that educates users about the contents of a Viking’s sea chest and a game that teaches users how to row a longship.

“的 user will learn how oars are placed through oar holes in the ship and then follow instructions that will teach them how to row and give feedback on their timing,哈斯解释道。. 

除了沉浸在维京船只的数字细节中, 学生们去穆尔黑德进行了For期四天的旅行, 去明尼苏达州看 Hjemkomst这艘船仿造了9世纪挪威戈克斯塔德的葬船.

的Hjemkomst, 在挪威语中是“回家”的意思, 它首先在苏必利尔湖进行了测试，然后于1982年航行到挪威. 学生们有机会采访了几位最初的剧组成员, 包括马克·希尔德, 大副, 和保罗·黑塞, 导航器. 

“We took hours of footage during which they talked about their experiences on the Hjemkomst and showed us around the ship itself,史密斯说。. 

学生们还登上了这艘船——这是一次难得的经历, 因For即使有船员监督也很危险. 潘迪特, the programmer For the project, described it as a thrilling and inspiring experience. 

“Hearing the crew members’ real-life experiences enriched the trip and added significant value to our project,潘伟迪说. She later integrated interview clips from the trip into the rowing mini-game that the students developed.

以及开发一种长船的虚拟现实模拟, the project aims to test out curriculum outlined in the Digital Humanities Advancement Grant and chart a pathway For other schools to develop similar educational tools. 

“的 project was designed to test how we can do virtual reality development on campus with undergraduate researchers,梅森说。. 

Mason expects that virtual reality will evolve to play a larger role in educational settings and historical research. 目前, it is best suited For what Mason calls “low-hanging fruit”—gaming and technical training For high-stakes tasks such as surgery, 而不是文化或日常生活的方方面面. But just as history evolved to focus less on big events and more on marginalized voices, Mason sees virtual reality eventually encompassing more voices and “diversifying the number of options available For people to experience.” 

虚拟维京长船项目与几家博物馆建立了合作关系, 从美国到欧洲. 的 museums—including the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead and the Viking Museum Haithabu in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany—are interested in using virtual reality to enhance exhibits and give visitors an experience of artifacts that can’t be engaged with physically. 

这个项目不仅对大学和博物馆有价值, 也For那些帮助建造它的学生们. 除了获得新的技术和专业技能, the students enjoyed the collaborative and team-oriented nature of the project. 

“What’s great about our team is that the students and professors collaborate on all aspects of the project, 自由地提供反馈和建议，以改进最终产品,史密斯说。.

“我学到了在工作中融入幽默和乐趣的重要性, 让这个过程变得愉快而不那么累. I distinctly remember laughing out loud with my coworkers during a humorous stack overflow thread argument over code. 的se connections and experiences have profoundly impacted my work and learning,” said 潘迪特. “个人, 我已经深深地爱上了这个项目, and I am genuinely excited about its ongoing development and the potential impact it may have in the future.” 

学生们将在整个学年中继续完成这个项目, now equipped with the skills and experiences to build an immersive world of Viking culture. Haas has found excitement in each milestone of the project and is gladly anticipating the final product.

“的 part of the project I am most looking Forward to is when we have one single app that launches the experiences we have been working on,”她说。. “That is the point at which we could generally hand a headset with the app loaded on it to someone and they could figure out how to use it with minimal assistance. To me, this would be the point that I feel we really have something to show For our work.”