**4.3 Challenging and engaging the learners: Why it needs not only be conveying of facts but also fun to learn about?**

Especially younger generations, the population that is already engaging or will soon engage in spatial interventions related to 'inhabiting' needs, has been brought up not as followers of the media only (passive receivers) but learned to engage in the process of active participation (also as contributors) through the widespread availability of ICT solutions (mainly, but not solely, internet). Students enter higher education with greater ICT abilities than their lecturers (Eklund et al., 2003 as cited in Mason & Rennie, 2006). The wide range of complex computer based games (i.e. Sim City, The Sims and Civilization to mention just a few which are directly relating to 'inhabiting' issues) and pervasive digital environments (i.e. Second Life) in combination with development of graphic capabilities of computers and availability of networking within them raised the bar of standards which are tacitly expected from educational software to succeed. As we will later see in the presented case, the more complex and challenging the task is, the more it attracts the learners and holds their attention in trying to achieve the optimum results. Merely translating traditional teaching tools and media into digital form thus not satisfies the usual learner, who is very aware what the present state ICT is capable of and resents to be vowed by 'digitality' only. E-learning about architecture profits greatly from use of ICT firstly because of complex sets of parameters (multiple cause and effect combinations) in architectural and urban settings that can be modelled into the educational software, computed and presented in real-time (Verovsek et al., 2011). For example: by tweaking of the different initial variables of the given urban setting, such as: pedestrian reserved spaces, greenery elements, elements for sojourning (benches, tables, chairs, etc), public transport opportunities, etc the future trends, perennial problems, conflicts and solutions can be tried out by the users themselves, gaining

1. *The elements* represent the 'building blocks' that previous studies about interfaces (i.e. Shneiderman, 1998) in general or presentation techniques (i.e. Uccelli et al., 1999); Mullins et al., 2002, etc.) have already looked into: system/interaction management elements (menus, entering fields, slides, buttons, indicators, etc) and visual formulation elements (presentations, icons, windows, descriptions, addresses), as well as content

2. *The characteristics* that can influence effectiveness of interfaces have been isolated and

 *ways of navigation* – how the user 'moves' through the system (discrete or continuous movement). According to Manovich (2001) the navigation within the system is not

 *ways of content presentation/narration* – how the content is transmitted (on demand, automatically, combination of narration and presentation techniques used, etc), some referred to by Mayer (2005) within his principles for fostering visuospatial thinking in

*ways of interaction with elements* – how the user interacts with the systems (manipulation

 *system openness rate* – how the user can modify the system (openness of systems to modifications, possibility that users add own content or modify the existing one) *rate and manner of user immersion* in the system and its environment (Sherman & Craig,

**4.3 Challenging and engaging the learners: Why it needs not only be conveying of** 

Especially younger generations, the population that is already engaging or will soon engage in spatial interventions related to 'inhabiting' needs, has been brought up not as followers of the media only (passive receivers) but learned to engage in the process of active participation (also as contributors) through the widespread availability of ICT solutions (mainly, but not solely, internet). Students enter higher education with greater ICT abilities than their lecturers (Eklund et al., 2003 as cited in Mason & Rennie, 2006). The wide range of complex computer based games (i.e. Sim City, The Sims and Civilization to mention just a few which are directly relating to 'inhabiting' issues) and pervasive digital environments (i.e. Second Life) in combination with development of graphic capabilities of computers and availability of networking within them raised the bar of standards which are tacitly expected from educational software to succeed. As we will later see in the presented case, the more complex and challenging the task is, the more it attracts the learners and holds their attention in trying to achieve the optimum results. Merely translating traditional teaching tools and media into digital form thus not satisfies the usual learner, who is very aware what the present state ICT is capable of and resents to be vowed by 'digitality' only. E-learning about architecture profits greatly from use of ICT firstly because of complex sets of parameters (multiple cause and effect combinations) in architectural and urban settings that can be modelled into the educational software, computed and presented in real-time (Verovsek et al., 2011). For example: by tweaking of the different initial variables of the given urban setting, such as: pedestrian reserved spaces, greenery elements, elements for sojourning (benches, tables, chairs, etc), public transport opportunities, etc the future trends, perennial problems, conflicts and solutions can be tried out by the users themselves, gaining

of objects/contents, reversibility of actions, visual feedback of actions, etc),

formatted as multimedia itself.

neutral but already sets and influences a narrative,

are the following:

multimedia learning

**facts but also fun to learn about?** 

2003)

much more complex insight into the relationship than possible through traditional means of teaching. Knowledge gained in such a constructivist manner has also a much more durable lifespan than factual learning (Dondi et al., 2004; Prensky, 2001). For the educational software to be successful it also needs to be visually challenging and up to the standards of entertainment, social and other commonly used applications.
