Tübingen Center for Digital Education

Marc Halfmann

Virtual and mixed reality (VR/MR) are developing rapidly and opening up new possibilities for digital learning environments. Despite their long history, these technologies have only become established in education in recent years thanks to better hardware, lower costs, and new application scenarios. However, for schools and teachers to make meaningful use of this potential, they need didactically well-designed applications that actually support learning—not just impress with their technology.

This is where my work comes in: I investigate how VR/MR technologies can contribute to improving the quality of teaching and how immersive learning environments need to be designed to enable adaptive, action-oriented, and insightful learning experiences. The goal is to make VR/MR usable as an innovative tool for personalized learning, thereby opening up new avenues for knowledge transfer.

To exploit this potential, I develop evidence-based VR/MR applications and test them in authentic school contexts. In doing so, I combine technological expertise from over ten years of VR/MR development with practical perspectives from educational research. Through my work at TüCeDE and in the “Future Innovation Space” of the Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media, I work closely with teachers and students to understand needs, identify challenges, and jointly develop sustainable innovations.
If you are interested in harnessing immersive technologies for education and working together on future-oriented learning environments, I look forward to hearing from you!

 

 

Software Developer at TüCeDE and IWM
2011-2015
PhD in Cognitive Science

Dr. rer. nat. at the University of Tübingen, Department of Biology

2000–2010
Diploma

in Bioinformatics at the University of Tübingen

Publications

Publications

  • Ott F, Pohl L, Halfmann M, Hardieß G, Mallot HA: The perception of ego-motion change in environments with varying depth: Interaction of stereo and optic flow. Journal of Vision, 16(9):4, 1–15, doi:10.1167/16.9.4, 2016.

  • Halfmann M: Place Recognition and navigation in Virtual Enviroments. PhD-Dissertation der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät, LS für Kognitive Neurowissenschaft, Tübingen (2015), hdl.handle.net/10900/71808.

  • Hardiess G, Halfmann M, Mallot HA: Explicit place-labeling supports spatial knowledge in survey, but not in route navigation. KogWis12: S44, 2014.

  • Schick W, Halfmann M, Hardiess G, Mallot HA: Language cues in the formation of hierarchical representation of space. KogWis12: S63-64, 2014.

Conference contributions

  • Butz, M., Gerjets, P., Halfmann, M., Lachmair, M., Wortha, F., Lohmann, J., Humaidan, D., & Sadeghi, M. (2020, May). Knowledge Spaces in Virtual Reality. Intuitive Interfacing with a Multiperspective Hypermedia Environment. Virtual Symposium "What's Cognitive About Cognitive Interfaces?" at the conclusion of the Leibniz Science Campus Tübingen.Tübingen, Deutschland. [Talk]

  • Halfmann, M., Stenzhorn, H., Gerjets, P., Kohlbacher, O., & Oestermeier, U. (2018, November). User-driven development of an innovative software tool to support molecular tumor boards. Data Integration in the Life Sciences (DILS2018). Hannover. [Workshop Organisation]

  • Halfmann, M., Stenzhorn, H., Oestermeier, U., Gerjets, P., & Kohlbacher, O., (2018, September). User-driven development of an innovative software tool to support molecular tumor boards. 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemology e. V. (GMDS). Osnabrück. [Poster]

  • Scharinger, C., Halfmann, M., Lachmair, M., & Gerjets, P. (2018, June). Using the EEG and Virtual Reality to study the effect of immersion on cognitive processing and learning. 2nd Earli SIG 27 Conference & 6th Polish Eye Tracking Conference. Warsaw, Poland. [Talk]

Software development

  • Halfmann, M. (2022). 3D-pottwalzahn: Tablet application for an experimental exhibition. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Halfmann, M. (2022). VR experimental environment: Pompeii VR with eye tracking support. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2022). Experimental environment: IWM-Study PompeiiBA. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2022). Experimental environment: IWM-Study InfoAnordnung06. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2022). Experimental environment: IWM-Study Museum03. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2021). Experimental environment: IWM-Study InfoAnordnung04. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2021). Experimental environment: IWM-Study Pompeii01. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2021). Experimental environment: IWM-Study Museum01-02. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2021). Experimental environment: IWM-Study DigiMat01. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2020). Experimental environment: IWM-Study VRdance01. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2020). Experimental environment: IWM-Study Armchair01. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Klemke, A., & Halfmann, M. (2020). Experimental environment: IWM-Study VRfish01 - 02. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Halfmann, M. (2019). Virtual reality environment: rendering an architectural model of the redesign of the Obersalzberg documentation in VR. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Halfmann, M., Lachmair, M., & Mock, P. (2019). Experimental environment - knowledge spaces in virtual reality. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Halfmann, M. (2017). Multi-touch application: interactive tumor conference table for molecular tumor conferences. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Halfmann, M. (2017). Virtual reality environment: rendering a Stone Age cave scene for demonstration in VR. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Oestermeier, U., Kupke, S., Halfmann, M. (2017). IWMBrowser - A multiuser browser for tabletop applications. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.

  • Halfmann, M. (2016). Multi-touch application: interactive map of Germany of the Leibniz institutes. Tübingen: Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media.