Jason Leigh and UIC are cited in the article "Best of Both Worlds" by author Rama Ramaswami in the September 2009 issue of Campus Technology magazine. The article addresses "immersive education," a term that advocates students learn best by doing. According to the article, "immersive environments -- which utilize technologies like simulations, virtual reality, augmented reality, Second Life, and the like -- have long held sway in the gaming world, where advances in digital, information, and online technologies have helped to create mind boggling artificial spaces that absorb users into an alternative or amplified reality. Immersive education employs the same technologies, but unlike gaming, immersive education doesn't isolate students in an imaginary world, but rather uses the technologies to bridge the conceptual with the concrete-- giving students a virtual laboratory, if you will, in which to work out real-world problems." The UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) is one of several research institutions noted for applying advanced technologies to education. Leigh explains that EVL's "cyber-commons classroom...embraces the skills students already know and gives them an environment that dramatically enhances the way they learn, with technology they can't afford at home."

Link to the article at Campus Technology.