Share Paper: Challenges and Strategies in Designing Trans-National Learning Team Projects in Virtual Worlds

  1. Paul Resta, The University of Texas at Austin, United States
  2. Mri Shonfeld, Kibbutzim College, Israel
Tuesday, March 18 10:15-10:45 AM Grand Ballroom 1

Abstract: This presentation describes a case study of the ways that virtual worlds can facilitate trans-national and cross-cultural collaboration in higher education and the benefits, issues, and challenges in designing and implementing cross-national collaborative learning activities in virtual worlds. The case involves graduate students in Israel and the United States working together in virtual teams in Virtual worlds (VW) such as Second Life (SL) and Whyville to design a learning activity that uses the affordances of a 3D virtual environment. The goal of this collaborative learning activity was to enable the students to understand the learning strategies as well as the ...