Flickr photo by Hideki Saito

Seriously, although haptics aren't commonly found in training today, they soon may be.

Haptics involves transmitting information through the sense of touch or force feedback. Haptic devices and interfaces are generally used with 3-D virtual environments to give a sense of realism to the action taking place within the virtual world.

Haptic devices come in many forms, including pens, gloves, joysticks/joypads, and force-feedback mice. Technology has advanced to the point that the sense of touch and force can be experienced in real time over a network.

Touch is one of the most important sensations for growth and learning, especially when training motor skills and physical relationships. Haptic devices can also be used to provide feedback from hands-on models or simulators (such as flight simulators) and to try out procedures at a nanotechnology level, such as docking two molecules to see if they fit together.

Haptics may sound exotic, but they are being used today in many different learning applications. And, as more hardware and software vendors integrate haptics into their solutions, you may soon find applications for haptics within your organization.

Haptics are just one of dozens of new technologies being adopted for learning. To help you make sense of the fast-changing world of learning technology, we've published three reports:

Visit our Web site to:

• Find out more about the Emerging E-Learning Reports
• Download a free chapter: "Haptics" from Emerging E-Learning Technologies
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