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Place Metaphors in Educational CVEs

Place Metaphors in Educational CVEs. Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland Department of Computer and Information Science Norwegian University of Science and Technology ekaterip@idi.ntnu.no. Motivation. A wide range of 3D educational environments

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Place Metaphors in Educational CVEs

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  1. Place Metaphors in Educational CVEs Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland Department of Computer and Information Science Norwegian University of Science and Technology ekaterip@idi.ntnu.no

  2. Motivation • A wide range of 3D educational environments • Great diversity in place metaphors used: from replicas of real universities to other planets or abstract constructions

  3. CVEs and learning communities • Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) can support learning communities by • Supporting community building • Supporting communication • Supporting information sharing • Providing alternative space structure

  4. Characterization of CVEs • Inspired by Activity theory • Activities areperformed by learners • Activities are mediated by artifacts • Learners and artifacts are contained in places

  5. Place • Outlook • how a place ”looks like”, • e.g. a campus, a village or a palace • Structure • mutual relations between different parts of the environment, e.g. mutual position of rooms and buildings and teleportation links between places • visualizes social structures and power relations • Role • places serving specific purposes • meeting and working place, information space etc

  6. Artifact • Outlook • the way it looks like • e.g. a table, a flower, a link to a document, a sign • Structure • “visible” connections between parts • “invisible” links such as teleportation and functional links • Role • decorative, link to resources, symbolic etc • correspondent functionality

  7. Learner • Outlook • choice of avatar (child, tutor, alien etc) • body language (waving, dancing) • Structure • learner’s place in the social structure/network • connections between nick, created artifacts and traces left • Role • teacher, student, moderator, depending on context • supported by corresponding functionalities

  8. Existing classification of place metaphors in educational CVEs • Resemblance of physical place: • Buildings and campuses • Frontiers • Virtual places for specific purposes: • Meeting places • Information spaces • Virtual stages • Demonstrations and exhibitions • Workplaces

  9. Extended characterization Resemblance of physical place, outlook • Resembling concrete, real places (e.g. university) • Only ”looking” real (e.g. virtual houses without direct counterpart in real world) • Abstract (abstract constructions, defying physical laws etc) • Frontiers (extending virtual “land”)

  10. Extended characterizationResemblance of physical place, structure • Rigid/free • Structure generation method (e.g. automatic, by agents, manually by users etc) • Defining factors (e.g. social structure, structure of the course) • Structure components (e.g. “visible” walls, bridges and roads, “invisible” links etc)

  11. Extended characterizationRole • Creator/originator of the place • Teacher, students or agents • Purpose/goal of the place • Socializing vs. working • Demonstration of art vs. scientific concepts • Roleplaying vs. stage design • Presenting course materials vs. student projects • Design elements/facilities to meet the goal • Appropriate outlook/structure elements for the goal • Templates/tools for storing/retrieving multimedia elements • Visualizations, simulations, interactive elements etc

  12. Viras • A 3D world for supporting social awareness in a learning community • Based on Archipelago metaphor • Islands connected by bridges • Provides an informal atmosphere • Allows flexible place structuring • Recreates the way communities and groups are created • Learners create/modify places and artifacts, expressing their personality and activities

  13. Ongoing and future work • Using the characterization as a framework for examination of the place metaphors used in educational CVEs • Identifying connection between the metaphor features, the underlying goals and success factors • Refining the characterization framework • In-depth case studies • Exploration of potentialities and limitations of information space metaphor in 3D world vs. 2D • Other metaphors, e.g. “real-place resemblance” metaphor

  14. Construction of common information space in 3D vs. 2D • Constructing FAQ in CSCW course in Course Forum and Active Worlds • Advantages & disadvantages • How the effectiveness and user-friendliness of 3D CVE can be improved

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