Partners from the University of Central Florida (UCF) College of ...

Virtual Classrooms: STAR Simulator

New Learning Technology SALT® 2007

Virtual Classrooms: STAR Simulator Building Virtual Environments for Teacher Training in Effective Classroom Management. Dr. Lisa Dieker2, Michael Hynes2, Christopher Stapleton1, 4, 5, Dr. Charles Hughes3,4,5 1) Simiosys, LLC (www.simiosys.com), 2) UCF College of Education (www.education.ucf.edu) \, 3) UCF School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (www.cecs.ucf.edu), 4) UCF Institute for Simulation and Training (www.ist.ucf.edu), 5) UCF Media Convergence Laboratory (www.mcl.ucf.edu).

Abstract The focus of this project is to create research in teacher education that positively impacts teacher recruitment, preparation and retention in urban environments. The novel approach we are using to attack this problem is that of capturing, analyzing, synthesizing and simulating human interactions in Mixed Reality (part real, part synthetic) environments, thereby creating training/screening settings that are realistic and yet do not put actual children at risk. Our approach is based on the proven Haberman methods for screening teachers for urban schools and is currently being prototyped as part of a Department of Education Small Business Innovative Research Grant. Keywords Education, Simulation, Teacher Preparation Teacher Shortages The need to recruit, prepare and retain our teaching force in today’s urban schools is critical as we face unprecedented shortages of teachers. Although teacher preparation programs and alternative certification programs exist, most teacher education programs rely upon traditional methods of preparing teachers to work in today’s classrooms. These methods include courses, field experiences and some type of culminating student teaching. Despite the creative ways in which colleges of education and school districts are working together to build these experiences, most beginning teachers still feel inadequately prepared to manage a classroom. This lack of preparation permeates especially in the voices of beginning teachers in urban settings. Therefore, the University of Central Florida (UCF) and Simiosys are looking for alternative methods to assist teacher preparation with a specific focus on urban classrooms. In partnership with the Haberman Education Foundation (HEF), a virtual classroom environment is being created in an attempt to recruit teachers into critical shortage areas, to provide a consistent and innovative tool for preparation and to allow ongoing learning that maintains and updates these teachers’ skills, thereby helping them to stay satisfied and productive in their current positions. The initial prototype focuses on behavior management in urban settings as this is the number one area of concern for teachers. In Florida, critical teacher shortage areas identified for 2004-2005 included middle and high school level mathematics, middle and high school level science, and exceptional student education. These shortages are based on the number and percentages of vacancies in each teaching discipline; the number and percentage of positions filled by teachers not certified in the appropriate field; and the projected annual supply of graduates of state approved Florida teacher education programs for each discipline. Math, science and exceptional student education have all



been listed in some form as critical teacher shortage areas since 1984. These needs mirror the critical shortages across the United States. The goal of our work is to impact teacher recruitment, preparation and retention in urban settings by attracting people into the profession who may not realize their skill in education while allowing potential recruits, as well as pre-service and in-service teachers to hone their skills using virtual children. Using a virtual environment at all levels provides a more consistent environment to measure success and simultaneously is a more ethical approach to learning the craft of teaching. Therefore, the core principle underlying our work is that teachers need to be recruited who are open to the diversity of today’s classroom, who are prepared in this type of environment, and who can be provided with tools to increase their retention in inclusive urban settings. Retention Unfortunately, one result of current high demands being placed on educators is teachers leaving the profession (Critical Teacher Shortage Areas, 2003). Armed with relevant preparation, teachers may feel more equipped and willing to stay in the classroom for a longer period of time (Whitworth, 2000), especially if the right prospective teachers are selected and provided strong pre-service training. Consistent with this belief, many researchers report that quality teachers with more preparation have a greater chance of survival in the classroom (Blair, 2003). Current teacher education courses and programs have been found to not adequately challenge teacher candidates’ prior belief systems (Torok & Aguilar, 2000) and many pre-service teachers are considered by their employers to be ill-prepared to work in diverse classrooms (Riley, 1998). Developing effective educators is a priority at the University of Central Florida for insuring that future generations of teachers are prepared to impact students to learn successfully in their classrooms. Along with educator recruitment and preparation one of our major goals is to help school districts reduce teacher attrition. Development of the Virtual Classroom At UCF faculty members in the College of Education, along with researchers from the Media Convergence Laboratory (MCL) at IST, approached the HEF to determine if virtual environments could be used to effectively implement the concepts of Dr. Martin Haberman’s interview (2006) to select teachers for urban classrooms. This discussion quickly led to a strong and ongoing partnership with a small business partner Simiosys to determine possibilities for innovative recruitment, preparation and retention models for urban settings. This multidisciplinary journey led to the creation of a model that emerged from education, simulation technology, computer science, business and industry partnering to create new tools that positively impact teacher education The need for new approaches to teacher preparation, as represented by these immersive environments is critical due to the growing disparity in cultural and ethnic backgrounds between the students who attend public schools in the United States and their teachers, the United States faces a critical task in unprecedented shortages of effective and equitable educators for our diverse school-aged learners (Leavell, Cowart & Wilhelm, 1999; Zeichner, 2003). Many urban school districts-those with high rates of poverty and, all too often, large minority populationssuffer most from shortages of qualified teachers (Darling-Hammond & Green, 1990; Ingersoll, 2001; Riley, 1998; Zeichner, 2003). Using funding from a Small Business Innovative Research grant, we have already developed



a prototype of this classroom. This prototype provides a scalable classroom simulation experience that, during pilot testing, has already provided compelling, realistic and meaningful experiences for teachers. Our initial objective was to create a realistic urban middle school environment, populate the environment with believable virtual entities, provide a rich exchange between the live and virtual participants in a scenario, and collect objective data for analysis of meaningful performance outcomes. All components of the virtual environments used in this project are based on advanced simulation technologies and sound computer science research developed to support training for military and corporate America. UCF has a long-standing record as a leader in simulation and computer science. This project combines the strength of a small business partner, Simiosys, with the expertise in education and simulation at UCF with and the work of the distinguished professor Dr. Martin Haberman through analready established collaborative partnership with his Foundation. Blending UCF’s and Simiosys’ expertise in creating simulated environments with the body of research that has emerged from Dr. Haberman’s lifetime of work will provide urban schools and universities with tools to screen, prepare, and retrain a new teaching force that can potentially transform our urban schools. Many scholars, researchers, and practicing educators, who have been immersed in Dr. Haberman’s work and have embedded it in school district practice, have improved student achievement and teacher retention. (Citing one example from Buffalo NY Public Schools, using the Haberman Interview, “Thirty – six of the forty English teachers hired or 90% are still working in the district after two years and are beginning their third year”) At the core of this project are the lessons learned from research about teaching in urban schools and the application of this knowledge to practice within realistic simulated scenarios. Immersive experiences to help impact beginning teachers in urban settings is needed since two factors are identified as obstacles that hinder pre-service teachers from considering teaching in racially diverse inner-city urban schools: misconceptions and the feelings of unpreparedness (Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Leavell et al., 1999; Melnick & Zeichner, 1998; Pattnaik, 1997; Sleeter, 2001; Villegas & Lucas, 2001; Weisman & Garza, 2002;). Teacher candidates, for the most part, come to teacher education with limited direct interracial and intercultural experiences and with erroneous assumptions about diverse youngsters (Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Sletter, 2003 Tatto, 1996; Weisman & Garza, 2002). A synthesis of research on pre-service teachers’ multicultural beliefs reveals that a majority of pre-service teachers hold somewhat negative beliefs about diversity before they enter teacher education programs (Scott, 1995). Furthermore, they are usually not aware of their own biases about race, cultural diversity or disability in education (Gay & Kirkland, 2003). Also, those pre-service teachers with misconceptions about minority groups and diverse youngsters usually have lower expectations for the success of these students (Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Paccione, 2000; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996). Consequently, they generally avoid teaching in urban schools and other schools serving the poor and minorities where the need is the greatest and the work is the most demanding (Darling-Hammond & Green, 1990; Torok & Aguilar, 2000; Weisman & Garza, 2002; Zeichner & Hoeft, 1996). The need for teachers to implement instructional practices that work (i.e., evidence-based practices) is crucial to the educational success of students, particularly those students in urban schools. Recent federal legislation (No Child Left Behind) requires that evidence-based practices be used to promote standards-based student learning outcomes. In this age of standards-based curricula and highstakes testing, student success depends upon teachers providing instruction that promotes academic and social success based on varied learning needs. At the core of this issue for



beginning teachers is the challenge of positively managing student behaviors. For this reason, we began with a “behavioral virtual environment” that provides novice and practicing teachers the opportunity to “manage” classroom behavior where failure does not impact the learning of real students. The ultimate goal of our work is to increase student-learning outcomes and to increase the retention of teachers in urban settings (especially in the highest shortage areas – special education, science and math). Our approach is to provide ongoing and multiple field experiences that are consistent and can measure the impact of subject actions on student learning. Environments that can deliver such consistent experiences provide a grounded method to measure teacher readiness and teacher mastery of critical components of the craft. The use of advanced technologies will provide uniformity as well as increase the use of validated methods to improve teacher preparation and learning experiences. These same tools can be used to recruit out-of-field teachers in critical shortage areas such as math, science or special education who want to enter teaching creating a dual purpose for these immersive environments. We envision using these environments to recruit teachers in shortage areas to work in urban environments. Providing a screening tool to teachers in other majors at the university level might allow students to see their strengths in working in an urban classroom and provides an innovative and untapped approach to teacher recruitment in critical shortage areas. Virtual Classroom Simulation Application The Virtual Classroom provides four areas of viability, as a research tool, a recruitment tool, a training tool and a database of research and simulation scenarios focused on the issues confronting teachers in inclusive urban settings. The first application of the product is as a research tool to model, evaluate and validate evolving and emerging theories in educational research. Targeted to universities and research laboratories, a large body of data from empirical studies and research can be collected for aggregate views of classroom dynamics. The second application is a tool for educators, not traditionally trained, from disciplines such as math and science to experience teaching so that they can consider the potential connections and impact they might make as teacher education candidates. This tool could be used to recruit as well as screen potential applicants targeting those from disciplines with rich mathematics and science backgrounds (e.g., engineering, computer science). The third and primary application is a scalable delivery system for training content to render immersive simulated STAR classroom training experiences. The inaugural content piece focused on classroom management in an inclusive urban middle school environment. Subsequent modules will cover other varied environments and skills. The fourth application of this product will be as an on-line digital library of research data and simulation scenarios. This will be available for third party creation and dissemination of traditional and novel classroom training and evaluation. STAR Simulator: A First Prototype The STAR Simulator (Figure 1) is designed to create a realistic virtual classroom populated with simulated students for practicing and pre-service teachers to hone their skills in classroom management. The simulation utilizes the methods of the Haberman Educational Foundation’s STAR Teacher assessment. The simulation is intended to extend school districts’ ability to not only identify and select the best teachers, but also recruit and train candidates from non-



traditional recruitment pools, a population that tends to be more successful within the urban educational environment. The goal of the proposed STAR Simulator is to realistically simulate an urban classroom of diverse virtual students in order to provide the physical, emotional and social interaction teachers face in practice in urban school districts. The intended result would be for the STAR Simulator to create a more empowering learning environment by instilling the methods of STAR teachers that are designed to improve “the ideology and best practice of effective teachers of diverse children and youth in poverty.” The implemented product system is intended to scale to a broad selection of platforms to increase its accessibility to teachers, administrators and researchers with the most need. The solution must adapt for teachers to practice their techniques on-line at home; for students preparing for pre-service careers in virtual classrooms; and for researchers validating new theories in more immersive and dynamic installations within laboratory facilities.

Figure 1: Concept Visualization for Virtual Classroom providing realistic immersion, alternative displays, afteraction-review, performance tracking, virtual puppetry, ©2006 Simiosys™

In subsequent subject testing of pre-service and experienced teachers, we evaluated two evolutions of the simulator. The first version was a mock-up using live people, called interactors, role-playing the students with a pre-set program of responses and limited spontaneous improvisation. The interactions of the teacher would either agitate the student and escalate misbehaviors, or engage the student and put the class at ease and on task by de-escalating misbehaviors. The interactors evolved their characters to the point that our guiding mentors, Martin Haberman and Delia Stafford, felt each actor portrayed his or her character and understood the character’s motivation better than the actual student could do. It is their evolved behaviors that we motivated the animated behaviors of our digital characters. In the second version, we replaced the interactors with digital characters having appropriate clothing, skin coloring, hair style and body shape (Figure 2). These characters were given a range of facial expressions, including smile, frown, blink and talk. When the teacher-subject addressed the entire class, the behaviors of the digital characters were software controlled. Whenever the



teacher addressed an individual student in one-on-one conversation, a single interactor, hidden from view, controlled the pose and voice of the corresponding digital character (Figure 2). This process of pupeteering (Figure 4) provided natural interaction with a single student, while the other digital characters were controlled by artificial intelligence-based software that raised or lowered their agitation based on how well the teacher was managing the class.

Figure 2: Virtual students, Frances, Vince, Monique, Maria and Marcus. ©2006 Simiosys™

Presently, we have just four layers of behaviors for those virtual students who are not being directly addressed by the teacher. These are essentially on-task, off-task, fidgety and disruptive. An inter-actor controls the virtual character of the student being directed. An AI module controls the raising and lowering of states of the non-addressed characters through time-based state transitions; we also provide a means through which the Trainer acts as a fitness for the AI module, raising or lowering group or individual states of agitation. STAR Simulator: The Goal The need we have established for a classroom simulator is to expand the applicability of the proven success of the Haberman Educational Foundation’s (HEF) STAR Teacher method. The STAR method looks at 14 mid-range functions, the exercise of which is common to effective teachers in urban classes. Seven of these mid-range functions are assessed with HEF STAR interview. This is critical for administrators in filling open positions. Additionally, there is a need to help teachers in current positions, especially unsuccessful teachers in failing schools, to gain awareness, training and practice in these effective functions. The simulation is seen as a tool to not only assess the functions not included in the interview, but also prepare teachers in all the functions prior to teaching in realistic scenarios that do not use real students for practice. These mid-range functions include the following: Not Assessed by the STAR Interview: 1. Emotional/Physical Stamina 2. Organizational Ability 3. The Nature of Planning 4. Coaching (You and Me against the material) 5. Commitment to Students with Special Needs. 6. Interaction with Parents and Community 7. Creating Student Ownership Assessed by the STAR Interview 8. Persistence 9. Protecting Students’ Learning



10. Putting Theory into Practice 11. Approach to At-Risk Students 12. Professional vs. Personal Orientation 13. Burnout: The Care and Feeding of the Bureaucracy 14. Fallibility

Figure 3: Teachers interacting with the virtual classroom a) from the front of the class, b) close proximity with a student and c) in a more intimate face-to-face conversation. ©2006 Simiosys™

Our prototype used virtual and puppeteered characters, our long-range goals are to provide multiple levels of realism, ranging across the many variations of Mixed Reality (Hughes et al., 2005). To accomplish this, we will use an infrastructure that we have developed over the last four years to support the creation and delivery of experiences for such diverse applications as education, entertainment, free-choice learning, rehabilitation and training (Hughes, Stapleton & O’Connor, 2006) and a set of Interplay conventions (Story, Play & Game Mechanics) that have evolved in parallel with this effort (Stapleton & Hughes, 2006). One important aspect of our system is that one can script an experience once, but then deliver it in many ways from a desktop presentation, to a large screen display (Figure 3), to an immersive augmented reality. This allows us to address the needs of teachers in high-end university laboratories, at regional centers, at their schools and in their homes. The degree of immersion will vary, but the validity of the experience will not. Moreover, each such experience will include the ability to do after-action review in which users may review their experiences with a trainer or in private. Data from these experiences will, with the subject’s permission, become part of an increasing body of knowledge available to researchers. Current Findings and Future Research Overall our initial hypotheses that emerged from this stage related to the virtual classroom and beginning correlation with the Haberman Star Interview are as follows: Does the classroom provide realistic experiences with virtual students? At this point, the answer is yes. Many teachers suggested ways to enhance the experience but overall they did indicate that it was a realistic and compelling experience. The data from teachers who rated as star teachers was a critical component of this phase of the study. The teachers who were rated as star teachers had suggestions for enhancing the classroom but did see realism in what was presented. The realism was rated higher in the “emotional atmosphere” and “social interaction” than the physical representation or animation.



Figure 4: STAR Simulator Virtual Puppetry and operation ©2006 Simiosys™

Teachers with urban experience felt that the classroom provided a realistic environment more so than did experienced educators without urban experience. The data revealed that many of the non-urban experienced educators thought the virtual students were too extreme suggesting they underestimated the challenge that is actually faced in the urban classroom. This rating provides evidence that we have reflected the true nature of the classroom at least in the 5 students we have created at this time. We will continue to tweak the characters based upon feedback provided from the subjects, focusing specifically on suggestions from those with urban experiences.



Subject Response with Simulation Rating 5.0 4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0

Physical Social interaction Representation

Emotional Atmosphere

Overall Representation

Projection Screen Interface 4.0

Teacher w/Urban Experience

4.4

4.4

4.3

4.2

Teacher Without Urban Experience

3.7

3.8

4.2

3.9

3.9

Pre-Service Teacher w/ urban Experience

4.00

4.50

4.25

3.75

4.50

Pre-Service Teacher Without urban Experience

3.86

3.93

4.29

3.79

4.00

Experience Qualities

Figure 5: Teacher response to the simulation in comparison to an urban classroom. Ratings were marked 1 to 5 (5 being the highest) as to the physical, social, emotional and overall representation.

Does the classroom experience correlate with star teacher behavior? We found that teachers who rated high on the star interview fell into one of two categories: a. Easily mastered the environment and were able to get students to start the selected task. b. If inexperienced (which is the purpose of the environment) teachers, they were able to talk about areas they would want to change in the future. What characteristics did star teachers see needed to be enhanced in the classroom? Teachers talked about many variables but some themes that emerged reflected the following areas: a. A need for more students to be present in the virtual environment b. Clearer directionality as to where sound originated in the classroom c. In some cases a quicker response to cues that should work with virtual students d. An enhanced ability to grasp material or to view student work e. A need for students present in the environment that were compliant f. The desire that some students get up from their desks or move about the room or even possibly leave the room in future work Should the environment be used for training or hiring? Although the educational experts involved in interviews that followed each subject’s experience rated the system lower for use in hiring than in training, both avenues will need to be explored in Phase II. Subjects will need to have repeated experiences in the environment related to training and then to see how these repeated experiences translate into practice. As for the use of the environment for hiring purposes, this information could be interesting but it could be a risky way to use the tool without further assessment. Thus, we need to better understand how a baseline reading (especially for an inexperienced teacher) might be used to



help us understand how quickly they can learn effective management techniques. A strong characteristic of STAR teachers is that they are lifelong learners and problem-solvers. Therefore, one exposure in the environment may not tell us enough about their ability to learn to manage behaviors for hiring purpose, but for the next phase we will want to consider how repeated exposures affect their learning along with how they talk about their experience in the after action review. An openness to learn new material, quickly grasping students’ needs and being reflective of their work, is expected from a novice STAR teacher. We definitely saw a quicker mastery of the virtual classroom from STAR teachers with experience during this cycle of our work. Are the virtual students represented appropriately? An interesting finding that leads to further questions is that two characters who are very verbal in the virtual environment, Monique and Francis, were rated differently by STAR versus non-star teachers. The interesting part of the ratings of characters is that STAR teachers saw “all students as equal in their ratings for realism whereas non-stars highly rated all characters with more “in your face” behaviors as providing more realism in urban classrooms. Given the large differential in the ratings (3.79 by Star Teachers and 4.675 by non-star teachers) for the student with the most challenging behavior in the environment, what does this say about non-star teachers? These higher ratings are interesting and could show cultural expectations or even perhaps biases towards learners in urban settings. Star teachers saw all characters as equal in their representation. Again no validated outcomes can be ascertained from our work to this point, but these variations in ratings do lead us to consider looking for subject bias that could be helpful in both the training and hiring process.

Character Evaluation 6.0

5.0

4.0

3.0

2.0

1.0

0.0

Marie

Marcus

Vince

Frances

Monique

Teacher w/Urban Experience

4.2

4.7

4.2

4.5

4.3

Teacher Without Urban Experience

4.0

4.0

3.8

3.6

4.2

Pre-Service Teacher w/ urban Experience

4.25

4.25

4.25

4.00

4.00

Pre-Service Teacher Without urban Experience

4.43

4.86

4.43

4.00

4.86

Characters

Figure 6: Teacher response to the virtual students in comparison to an urban classroom. Ratings were marked 1 to 5 (5 being the highest) as to being a reasonable representation.



Questions answered were as follows: 1. Teachers did find that the environment provided a realistic setting. 2. We were able to puppeteer the environment to enhance the learning experience. 3. Beginning teachers did recognize the value in experiencing this type of environment to help them better understand the principles of behavior management. 4. Star teachers were able to either perform successfully in the environment or could clearly articulate changes they would make (for those lacking experience) the next time they entered the environment. 5. At this time the environment appears to add more aspects of how to train teachers to manage behavior than for hiring purposes. Future Research questions The end result of our work to this point demonstrates that we can create a virtual environment that engages teachers as if they were working with real students. We begin to see correlations between the performance of teachers in the classroom and their score on the Star Teacher Interview. We plan to continue our work to answer these and many other unknown questions yet to emerge as we build upon our current success and continue to address our identified challenges. 1. Do non-star teachers have preconceived notions about certain types of students that might emerge from their first experience in the environment? 2. Do teachers who are potential stars and who are inexperienced show characteristics during their first experience that would indicate their star potential? 3. How could realism be increased beyond the current environment to reflect the comments of Star teachers? 4. How many experiences would be needed in the virtual environment for Star teachers to learn to manage the classroom? 5. How does management of the virtual classroom translate to management in the real environment? 6. How do teachers who have star potential but are not at a star level compare in their development in the virtual environment to those whose scores indicate no potential for urban teaching? Conclusion The greatest need for a simulator that represents an urban classroom of virtual students is to help real students in real classrooms. In a simulated experience, a pre-service teacher is able to do what they wouldn’t, couldn’t or shouldn’t do in real life to obtain compelling, trial-and-error examples of why and how key methods work. A simulator can not only enhance students’ learning experience by providing teachers with methods of creating effective learning landscapes; it also protects the students from being the victim of the inexperience of a teacher who is not able to obtain realistic practice prior to on-the-job training. Traditional teacher preparation and curriculum is of little use, if the teacher is unable to effectively engage the students and manage the classroom. This does not equate to “controlling” the class through direct instruction, but by “engaging” the class with individualized student-centered instruction. The testing of the preliminary prototype proved to be compelling and emotionally gripping in presenting the subject teachers with the stresses of teaching in an urban setting. Curiously, it was



simultaneously considered “fun” by most of the participants, and they sought to return to the simulator to be challenged again and to understand how to test their approach. Whether with experienced or inexperienced teachers with urban familiarity or not, they all rated the experience high. This aspect helps prompt the desire for teachers to question their own methods and discuss options and alternative with others. It becomes a process of discovery where mistakes are as valuable as successes. However, there is a tremendous relief that no students are harmed in their training. As a simulated experience, the tracking technology and explicit procedural scripting of the experience is able to provide a powerful tool to track and measure performance so to better help understand, create and test bold new methods to k-12 instruction. Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Eileen Smith, MCL’s Director of Experiential Learning, who kept everyone on task; Daniel Mapes whose creativity and software skills made our dreams come to fruition; Jeff Wirth, Director of UCF’s Interactive Performance Laboratory, whose wonderful Interactors, Ken Ingraham, Katie McLemore, Claire Balgemann, Dawn Borglund and Morgan Russell, brought this virtual experience to life; and Christine Oligvie, Sara Aronin and Kirk Henry, whose passions for teaching motivated us all.



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About the Authors Christopher Stapleton ([email protected]) is the founding director of the UCF Media Convergence Laboratory and the President of Simiosys, LLC. In addition he is an affiliate professor at the UCF Institute for Simulation and Training. He has over twenty-five years designing and producing experiential entertainment for Universal, Disney, Nickelodeon, Paramount and Broadway. Dr. Lisa Dieker ([email protected]) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Child, Family and Community Sciences and Director of the Lockheed Martin Mathematics and Science Academy at UCF. Dr. Dieker’s research focuses on collaboration particularly in urban schools and she has coordinated this collaborative project between UCF and the Haberman Education Foundation. Dr. Charles E. Hughes ([email protected]) is Director and Chief Scientist of the Media Convergence Laboratory, and Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and in the School of Film and Digital Media. His research is in mixed and virtual reality, computer graphics, distributed systems and models of computation. Dr. Michael Hynes ([email protected]) is the founding director of the Lockheed Martin/UCF Academy for Mathematics and Science. This program prepares teachers of mathematics and science from elementary and middle schools for teacher leadership roles.