A Serious View on Cultural Diversity Opportunities of Virtual Environments to teach Cultural Awareness and Art History Josef Froschauer Electronic Commerce Group VSEM – The Virtual 3D Social Experience Museum

What I did so far… 2 REEL   Summer 2008 As a part of my diploma thesis January 2009 – April 2010 Operngasse 20B Since May 2010

A Research Exhibition & Experience Landsacpe 3 Josef Froschauer, Ingo Seidel, Markus Gärtner, Helmut Berger, and Dieter Merkl. New Directions in Science Communication: A Virtual Research & Experience Landscape. In Proceedings of the World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare & Higher Education (E-LEARN 2009), Vancouver, BC Canada, October  Virtual Island in Second Life  Tool for Science Communication  Exhibits and explains prototypically implemented applications of the Itchy Feet project

A 3D e-Tourism Environment 4  Game-like e-Business application that enables interaction between participants including trading of tourism products.  Design of 3D Virtual Environment (Torque Game Engine)  Some additional content...

5 Serious Games... A mental contest, played with a computer in accordance with specific rules, that uses entertainment to further government or corporate training, education, health, public policy, and strategic communication objectives. „ “

ICURA 6 Immersive Cultural Training  Serious Game that is targeted at understanding contemporary Japanese culture and etiquette.  3D adventure game that teaches cultural awareness in a safe environment  Learner plays an active role in the learning process (Constructivist learning theory)

In-game Movie 7

Evaluation of ICURA How much information does the game communicate?  Comparison of pre- and post-test results Associations with the term „Serious Game“ Does ICURA spark the interest in Japanese culture?  Questionnaires 8 5 Steps: pre-questionnaire, pre-test, playing ICURA, post-test, post questionnaire.

Results  20 participants, 16 male, 4 female  Average age: 29, heavy computer users, but only 3.15 hours a week playing computer games.  9 people have never heard the term Serious Game before, the rest associates it with learning and education.  ICURA is „Fun to play“ (4.2 out of 5)  Did spark interest in the Japanese culture (3.55 out of 5) 9

10 You are going to talk to a senior person named Shotaro and you want to show high respect for him. Which salutation is the best to choose in this situation? o Shotaro-san o Shotaro-sensei o Chan-Shotaro o Chin-Shotaro o Cho-Shotaro

11

12

13

14