Place Metaphors in Educational Collaborative Virtual Environments Ekaterina Prasolova-Førland Department of Computer and Information Science Norwegian University of Science and Technology

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

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

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

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

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

7 Extended characterization n 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”)

8 Extended characterization (2) n 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)

9 Extended characterization (3) n Role – Creator/originator of the place – Purpose/goal of the place – Design elements/facilities to meet the goal

10 Ongoing and future work n Creating a ”catalogue” of a range 3D educational CVEs using the proposed framework n 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)