When worlds converge:  The coming supernova of entertainment and education 

The boundaries between education and entertainment are starting to gradually come down.  Already different programs have been developed that combine elements of education and entertainment to form “edutainment.”  This change is being led by the Educational Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Melon University.  The ETC offers a two-year program that culminates in the master of entertainment technology (MET) degree, jointly conferred by Carnegie Mello’s College of Fine Arts and its School of Computer Science.

The ETC, formed in 1998, is built on three pillars; its academic degree program, industry research and development, and entrepreneurialism.  This graduate program has a multidisciplinary faculty from areas such as computer science, filmmaking, painting, and legal issues related to  digital and interactive media.  The ECT’s educational philosophy is “learning by doing,” and the program is characterized by project courses in lieu of traditional classes: 80 percent of student’s time is devoted to project work.  These projects courses emphasize making real things that work.  Below are a few examples of projects that have been completed by students of the program. 

Cretaceous Chaos:  The Dinosaur Time Machines 

In a partnership between the ETC and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, students created a partial-dome SkySkan Theatre. The theatre uses five digital projectors and a wraparound screen that envelops an audience of about 60 people with full-motion imagery surround sound.  The set provides an interactive dinosaur experience complete with a flying time machine in the form of a pterodactyl that transport participants back to the dinosaur age.  The participants are tracked by a real-time computer vision system and guided by a real-time synthetically generated narrator, while taking pictures of the dinosaurs that they encounter. 

HazMat FDNY (Fire Department of New York)  Simulation 

The virtual training program recently launched by the FDNY was also a ETC project.  The training program was originally sponsored by Microsoft and built by the ETC based on initial ideas developed by MIT.  HazMat trains firefighters in emergency first-response protocol and decision making.  The program simulates high-density areas such as subways and shopping malls, as well as smaller areas such as office buildings and storage facilities.  Six computer terminals are used in the training sessions- one each for the instructor and five firefighters.  The scenario simulator enables the instructor to choose the location, environment, number of victims, and even the type of container holding the hazardous material.  Additionally, instructor can intervene during the simulation to introduce more variables based on environmental conditions or  on how the victims are reacting.  Participants use realistic communication gear during the simulation. 

Alice 

Alice is an interactive 3-D graphics software program designed to provide the best possible first exposure to computer programming for learners ranging from middle-school students to college students.  The program addresses both the mechanical and sociological barriers that prevent many students from learning how to program a computer.  (NS, 8/05)

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