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By their very nature, physical classrooms limit the external resources that are readily available to teachers and students. However, many educators desire to expand the student's learning environment to include outside resources (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009; NCSS, 2010; U.S. Dept. of Education, 2004). Much of this desire is due to the influence of constructivism; however, many teachers are without the knowledge and resources to implement a Constructivist Learning Environment (CLE) (Diem, 1999; Mason et al., 2000; Swan and Hofer, 2008). Therefore, how to create a suitable community-driven learning environment that allows classroom teachers to utilize resources outside their immediate location is a problem faced by many of today's educators. Past research has identified five key attributes any CLE must incorporate: embedded within realistic and authentic environments, allow for communication and collaboration among and between students, teachers and mentors, allow for multiple perspectives and views to be seen and shared, promote a student's self-awareness and self-reflection, and allow the learner to be autonomous (Jonassen, 1994; Driscoll, 2005). When considering this list against technological affordances, the one technology that appears capable of fulfilling these requirements is virtual worlds (Kemp and Haycock, 2008). Designed as a developmental research study, this research validates the use of virtual worlds as a development tool when building a CLE within the K-12 environment. / Ph. D.

Previous research has found that users' interactions with others in online environments are often guided by the same rules and stereotypes we apply in our everyday lives. However, fewer studies have used virtual worlds as an experimental setting for the systematic examination of how avatar appearance and offline identity affect the outcome of users' actual interactions. This online field experiment measured the effect of avatar attractiveness, avatar gender, purported user gender, and favor size on the rate at which users received help across 2,300 separate user interactions. In addition, the main study's avatar gender, purported user gender, and favor size manipulations were replicated with a human avatar condition with 761 participants to examine whether trends for these factors' effects were similar with human avatars. In the main study, attractive avatars generally received more help than less attractive avatars. However, purported female users were helped less frequently than purported male users when represented by avatars that were either male or less attractive. Trends in the human avatar condition were similar to those observed in the main study. Implications for avatar-mediated communication and the persistence of sex roles in virtual environments are discussed. / Master of Arts

This thesis explores economic aspects of virtual worlds by focusing on a specific massively multiplayer online role-playing game, RuneScape. In particular, it examines the similarities and differences between the virtual economics and real world economics, the economic understanding of RuneScape players and the possibility of using virtual worlds as a laboratory for testing economic behavior and theory. This thesis uses a versatile methodology that includes texts, direct observation, self-reports, and other reports to investigate the research questions. Virtual economics in general and RuneScape in specific are understudied so far and this study fills a gap in the literature. The unique contributions of this thesis are: a comprehensive survey that reveals player perceptions of economics, a new equation useful for modeling money supply, and a new use of faucet-drain economy in massively multiplayer online games. The results indicate that virtual economics of RuneScape partially reflects real world economics, player perceptions of virtual and real world economy are surprisingly complex, and virtual worlds can be used to study real world economics. Game developers, players, economists, educators, researchers, and individuals who are interested in massively multiplayer online games and economy in general can benefit from this study.

Thesis (LLD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Includes bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation analyses and investigates how virtual property functions inside virtual worlds. It also determines if, within that context, virtual property is similar to, or should be treated like real world property. The questions that are addressed include the following. What is the (real world) legal status of property in virtual worlds? Is it worthwhile to recognise and protect virtual property in real world law? Is it possible to recognise and protect virtual property in real world law, given the differences? Would recognition and protection of virtual property in real world law require or be restricted to instances where virtual property is or can be recognised as real rights? The dissertation finds that there is a definable concept of “virtual property” as it is encountered in virtual worlds and there is a great degree of similarity between the function of property in virtual and real world systems. There are also sufficient justifications (social, economic and normative) to recognise virtual property as property. Even though the function of property is similar in both systems, the similarities are undermined by the absence, complete or almost complete, of real rights in virtual worlds. This creates a problem since, in real world law, real rights enjoy stronger protection than weaker personal rights. The first reason for this absence of real rights stems from the unique (and mostly uncircumventable) nature of game-code that removes the necessity to make all rights in virtual worlds real rights. The second reason relates to the fact that most virtual world rights are completely derived from and regulated by contract. It is concluded that it is possible to recognise and protect virtual property by means of traditional private law property law (both Roman-Germanic and Anglo-American), constitutional property law, and criminal law. While criminal law will fill some gaps left by the absence of real rights, the rest that are left are contractual rights. In certain circumstances, these contractual rights may be strong enough and in other cases they may require support from special legislation that strengthens weak personal rights and makes them into stronger property-like rights. In constitutional cases, these rights derive support from constitutional property law. However, in other circumstances recognition and protection will probably require recognition of real rights. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif analiseer en ondersoek hoe virtuele eiendom in virtuele wêrelde werk. Dit gee ʼn oorsig oor die vraag of virtuele eiendom, in daardie konteks, vergelykbaar is met eiendom in die regte wêreld en dieselfde erkenning moet ontvang. Die volgende vrae word gestel en beantwoord. Wat is die (regte wêreld-) status van eiendom in ʼn virtuele wêreld? Is dit die moeite werd om virtuele eiendom in die regte wêreld-regstelsels te erken en te beskerm? Is dit moontlik om virtuele eiendom in die regte wêreld te erken en beskerm, gegewe die verskille? Sal erkenning en beskerming van virtuele eiendom in die regte wêreld-regstelsels vereis dat, of beperk word tot gevalle waar virtuele eiendom geïdentifiseer of erken word as saaklike regte? Die navorsing toon aan dat daar ʼn bepaalde konsep van virtuele eiendom is soos wat dit in virtuele wêrelde gevind word. Daar is ook ʼn merkbare ooreenkoms tussen die eiendomstelsels in die virtuele en regte wêrelde. Hierdie proefskrif bevind dat daar genoegsame regverdigingsgronde is (sosiaal, ekonomies, sowel as normatief) om regte wêreld-eiendomserkenning aan virtuele eiendom te verskaf. Alhoewel die funksie van eiendom dieselfde is in beide stelsels, word die ooreenkomste tussen hulle ondermyn deur die (algehele of amper algehele) tekort aan saaklike regte in die virtuele wêreld. Dit veroorsaak probleme, aangesien saaklike regte in die regte wêreld aansienlik sterker beskerming geniet as swakker persoonlike regte. Die redes vir hierdie tekort aan saaklike regte in ʼn virtuele wêreld is tweeledig. Eerstens veroorsaak die unieke aard van rekenaar-kode ʼn tekort aan saaklike regte binne die virtuele wêreld, aangesien die kode die bestaan van saaklike regte in meeste gevalle onnodig maak. Tweedens word meeste van die regte wat verkry word en bestaan in virtuele wêrelde geskep en gereguleer deur middel van kontrak. Daar word ook bevind dat dit moontlik is om aan virtuele eiendom erkenning en beskerming te gee deur middel van tradisionele privaatregtelike eiendom (beide Romeins-Germaans en Anglo-Amerikaans), konstitusionele eiendom en die strafreg. Strafreg kan egter slegs sekere gapings vul wat deur die tekort aan saaklike regte veroorsaak word. Die oorblywende regte sal egter persoonlike regte wees. In sekere omstandighede is dit moontlik dat hierdie persoonlike regte sterk genoeg sal wees, maar in ander gevalle sal dit nodig wees dat hul ondersteun word deur middel van die proklamasie van spesiale wetgewing wat swak persoonlike regte in die virtuele eiendom versterk tot eiendoms-agtige regte. In ander gevalle geniet hierdie regte beskerming deur die konstitusionele reg. In ander omstandighede sal dit egter verg dat erkenning en beskerming moet plaasvind deur die erkenning van saaklike regte in virtuele eiendom. / South African Research Chair in Property Law (sponsored by the Departement of Science and Technology (DST) / National Research Foundation (NRF) / University of Maastricht‟s Faculty of Law / Ius Commune Research School

This study investigates how the members of four different role-playing communities on the online platform Second Life perform social as well as dramatic roles within their community. The trajectories of power influencing these roles are my main focus. Theoretically I am relying primarily on performance studies scholar Richard Schechner, sociologist Erving Goffman, and post-structuralists Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Felìx Guattari. My methodological stance has its origin primarily within literature studies using text analysis as my preferred method, but I also draw on the (cyber)ethnographical works of primarily T.L. Taylor, Celia Pearce, and Mikael Jakobsson. In this dissertation my focus is the relationship of the role-player to their chosen role especially in terms of the boundary between being in character, and as such removed from ”reality,” and the popping out of character, which instead highlights the negotiations of the social, sometimes make-belief, roles. Destabilising and problematising the dichotomy between the notion of the online as virtual and the offline as real, as well as the idea that everything is ”real” regardless of context, my aim is to understand role-play in a digital realm in a new way, in which two modes of performance, dramatic and social, take place in a digital context online — or inworld as many SL residents call it.

<p><!--[if !mso]> <object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object><mce:style><! st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } --></p><p>Traditional education have for long been remaining without major changes made to the actual system. Up until very recently, there has been reluctance towards making fundamental and dramatic changes to the system, but as societies change and develop by mirroring on past experiences, new minds and new ways of thinking emerge suggesting changes and new developments. Consequently, new educational approaches such as e-learning and virtual learning have emerged.</p><p>Lately, technology has been transforming and developing than ever before and the demand for modifying accordingly to new technology has become a prerequisite for all industries and institutions. Already with e-learning, a derived concept is worthy of notice. Authenticity, meaning validity and accuracy, has been imposed as one major issue when it comes to e-learning, and also v-learning.</p><p>The main goal of this thesis is to present answers and suggestions to the following research questions:</p><p>Ø  What value does a virtual education method create for the students?</p><p>Ø  What implications are there for an education through Second Life and what is the significance of such an environment?</p><p>Ø  What are the main auxiliary instruments or tools that enhance authenticity and the achievement of high presence in a virtual environment?</p><p>This research adopted an inductive approach using a qualitative research. The characterizations of knowledge used were descriptive knowledge, normative knowledge, explanatory research and evaluating research for the respective research questions. As a result of collaborating with Kalmar University, Sweden’s first Second Life course <em>“Oral Production” </em>was observed and to intensify the results, an interview was held with the course’s lecturer. The results were thereon analyzed and scrutinized based on the Empirical Findings, Theoretical Framework – consisting of mainly pedagogical theories and of articles concerning virtual learning environments.</p><p>The conclusion of this research entails the answers for the research questions. An education via a virtual environment is a development of e-learning, which is an enhancement of a traditional physical education. All students are persuaded to be active and participate in learning, which also promotes interconnectedness between students and teacher. Students can do role-playing and do presentations without feeling embarrassed about their “real” identities being represented. Main auxiliary instruments include virtual presentation boards, audio to communicate with each other and the avatar to direct the speech. Additionally, to enhance high presence in a virtual environment, involving all students with creative exercises seems to be another means in achieving high presence in a virtual environment.</p><p> </p>

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-22T17:26:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 luc mertins.pdf: 2775714 bytes, checksum: 47026d2266864071d5f4551ef153a2fb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-03-25 / This paper presents a model for the extension of the real world through 3D Virtual Worlds system that ensures semantic integration and the ability to infer new information, using a common platform aggregating the Knowledge Base, reasoners for operate it open standards and interfaces for connections to the most diverse systems. It's motivation stems from the increasing use of 3D Virtual Worlds systems, 3D games that mix with the approach of social networks, and the lack of these systems in relation to the ability to semantically understand what happens to their avatars and users. This lack of semantics goes against the intended for the Internet evolution and considered beneficial by this author. This motivated this work to understand these technologies and build a prototype that adds to the 3D virtual world the ability to notify its users with information that is not manually provided to the Knowledge Base, but inferred from it, using data from the most elementary level / Este trabalho apresenta um modelo para a extensão do Mundo Real através de sistemas de Mundos Virtuais 3D que garante a integração semântica e a capacidade de inferir novas informações, utilizando-se de uma plataforma comum que agrega a Base de Conhecimento, raciocinadores capacitados a operá-la e interfaces de padrões abertos para conexões com os mais diversos sistemas. Sua motivação origina-se no uso crescente dos sistemas de Mundos Virtuais 3D, que mesclam jogos 3D com a abordagem das redes sociais, e na carência destes sistemas em relação à capacidade de compreender semanticamente o que ocorre com seus avatares e usuários. Esta ausência de capacidade semântica vai na contramão da evolução pretendida para a Internet e considerada benéfica por este autor, o quê motivou este trabalho a compreender estas tecnologias e construir um protótipo que agrega ao Mundo Virtual 3D a capacidade de notificar seus usuários com informações que não foram manualmente fornecidas a Base de Conhecimento, mas inferidas da mesma, através de dados de nível mais elementar