Place Metaphors in Educational Collaborative Virtual Environments

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Place Metaphors in Educational Collaborative
Virtual Environments

• Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland
• Department of Computer and Information Science
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology
• ekaterip_at_idi.ntnu.no

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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

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Research questions

• What are the connections between place metaphors
  and underlying learning goals?
• What metaphors are most popular and why?
• How suitable are various metaphors for different
  educational purposes?

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Research method

• Extending characterization framework for place
  metaphors in educational CVEs
• Examination of a range of educational CVEs
  according to the framework
• place metaphors used vs underlying goals
• In-depth studies of selected environments/
  metaphors
• Refinement of the characterization framework

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Refining of existing characterization of
educational CVEs

• Learner, place, artifact
• Motivation for revision
• Dimensions are interconnected
• Both places and user representations can be
  considered as artifacts
• Need for a more uniform characterization
• Learner, place and artifact are characterized in
  terms of outlook, structure and role

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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

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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)

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Extended characterization (2)

• Resemblance 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, unvisible links etc)

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Extended characterization (3)

• Role
• Creator/originator of the place
• Purpose/goal of the place
• Design elements/facilities to meet the goal

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Ongoing and future work

• Creating a catalogue of a range 3D educational
  CVEs using the proposed framework
• In-depth studies
• Fall 2004, with IDI students exploration of
  potentialities and limitations of information
  space metaphor in 3D worlds as opposed to 2D
• Spring 2005 possibly cooperation with NTU,
  Singapore (virtual campus project)