1. User Needs and Legally Ruled Collaboration in Peer-to-Peer Virtual World VirtualLife Intelligent educational systems and technoloy-enhanced learning (INTEL-EDU) September 7 th, 2009, Riga, Latvia Vytautas Čyras, Kristina Lapin Vilnius University, Lithuania

2. 2 Overview About ICT FP7 project VirtualLife objective novelty Learning needs of digital natives features of contemporary students learning motivation Learning support in virtual worlds synchronous communication in virtual world asynchronous communication in Web 2.0 tools

3. 3 ICT FP7 VirtualLife Objective to create a safe, democratitic and legally rules 3D collaborative environment Novelty Issues of security and trust In-world legal framework Supreme Constitution, a Constitution of Virtual Nation, a set of contracts Dispute resolution and voting mechanisms hybrid peer-to-peer infrastructure

4. Legal framework A “Supreme Constitution” Code of Conduct values that the user has to respect, e.g. avatars integrity, sanctity of property, reputation, etc. A part of EULA (End User License Agreement) A “Virtual Nation Constitution” authentication procedure to become a member of Nation copyright law (of the Nation) A set of different sample contracts sales contract teacher employement contract student contract 4

5. Virtual Worlds for education Sara de Freitas. Serious Virtual Worlds: scoping study. JISC, 2008. a review of the learning and training support glossary of terms list of virtual worlds more than 80 most popular: Second Life, Active world educational universe, etc. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/seriousvirtualworldsreport.aspx 5

6. 6 Digital natives Students of today active Web 2.0 participants easy create relationships in social networks like impressing peers with curious facts enjoy participating in on-line group activities function in “multitasking mode” new phenomenon: they share the knowledge with unknown people do not like memorizing information for later use but they are effective in searching

7. Virtual platform analysis Existing open source platforms Multiverse, OpenSim, Metaplace installed on service provider tutor do not has full controll on content on user’s Pc difficult to install and maintain creation of learning content time-consuming advanced scripting skills requred 7

8. Lessons for learning motivation Learning material static material searchable for learner’s queries in 2D environment interactive objects in 3D environment 8

9. Lessons for learning motivation Learning environment constantly gratifying encouraging social interaction 9

10. Sample scenarios Web 2.0 information as a content asynchronous communication Virtual University synchronous communication interaction as a content 10

11. Conclusions Legally ruled collaboration in a hybrid peer-to- peer virtual world is a realistic purpose Digital natives need a new learning environment with similar experiences to on-line games 3D virtual worlds add the value of interaction experience comparing with 2D applications Provides interaction and feedback

12. Thank you! Vytautas Čyras, Kristina Lapin Vilnius University vytautas.cyras@mif.vu.lt, kristina.lapin@mif.vu.lt www.ict-virtuallife.eu