Avatar@school

This activity aims to establish virtual role plays in which pupils, teachers and others try out strategies for conflict resolution by means of the peer mediation approach.

Subject: Language, ICT, Psychology

Age Group: 11-17

Level – ICT expertise of the teacher: Intermediate

Duration of the project: 6 – 10 hours

Introduction

In the last years, mass media has increasingly started to discuss the phenomenon of ‘bullying’ among young people. By means of virtual scenarios, set in the world of role-plays, an open software platform called Avatar@school aims to help teachers prevent violence and bullying among young people through the use of peer-mediation. Specific platforms that can be used for this activity:

- OpenSimulator

- Moodle

- TwinSpace

Pedagogical Objectives

The overall goal of the project is to use virtual role-play to find a new way for conflict resolutions between young students with a playful and cooperative approach.

The aVataR@School project aims to establish virtual role plays in which pupils, teachers and others try out strategies for conflict resolution by means of a peer mediation approach.

Each virtual role-play will take place in a popular 3D online digital world: OpenSimulator. For each of the role plays, a scenario will be worked out to represent a typical conflict in school (e.g., social exclusion, bullying or violence). In each scenario, players will try to find common solutions in a cooperative and collaborative way.

The game can be played simultaneously from different countries. Cooperation among different schools from a number of countries is recommended for conducting such virtual role play.

Process 1.

Starting Activities

Planning the activity

Before getting started, please note that the role plays are moderated by experts from the aVataR@school project. Pupils of the participating schools play the roles of bullies, victims, bystanders, teachers and mediators. Apart from detailed instructions on how to access and use the virtual environment created in the aVataR@school project, each school will be provided with role-play scenarios and role instructions for each of the pupils participating in the role play.

The expected time involvement for participating schools will be around 6-8 hours (2-3 hours for the virtual role play itself and around 4-5 hours of preparation and organisation).

Languages available to play are English, Italian, German, Spanish and Romanian.

Joining the game

*The project team chooses a suitable scenario for the role-play from the ones listed on the project website here: http://www.avataratschool.eu/node/9.

*The teachers then assign the roles of the chosen scenario to the students. The number of roles varies from 4 to 5 different ones.

* The teachers then need to contact Avatar@school and let them know the time-span in which they wish to play and the chosen scenario at the following email address: playwithus@avataratschool.eu.

Upon receipt of the email, usernames and passwords are issued for each selected player. After logging in, the students receive all the information about the avatar (i.e., the characters they will be playing) as well as how to play the game.

2. Consolidation

The scenario: features and content

Information for students:

- Not all information about character is public. As a character you will know some confidential information.

- You should play within this framework: keeping in mind all the information you receive, especially the confidential details, and embody your character as best you can, like an actor does.

- The story told in the scenario has no given end; it’s up to you, the players, to decide. By playing, you can shape a different ending for each session.

Playing the game

- When playing the game, remember to embody your avatar and his/her personality as best you can.

- During the scenario, any of the characters is at liberty to invite the peer mediator to intervene in the conflict. If the peer mediator has not been called upon during the session, all players are invited to take part in a mediation session at the end.

*For the game rules please refer to www.avataratschool.eu.

Evaluation

Conclusion

The final stage of this activity is an ideal starting point for further discussion in the TwinSpace and/or TwinBlog on the most effective ways to resolve conflicts that may arise in school between pupils.

Outcomes

At the end of each role play the moderator will fill in feedback forms. All the forms collected from different schools in different countries associated to specific scenarios, will be used for the overall evaluation of the project.

Follow up

In the last phase of the project, the aVataR@school platform will remain available online for participating schools to add new scenarios.

As follow up of the virtual-reality platform session, a round table with a pre-defined set of questions is set up in order to let the participant express freely about their impressions of the game and the platform used.

Links

Project website: http://www.avatratschool.eu

Virtual reality platform: www.opensimultator.org

The creators of Avatar@school:

CINECA (http://www.cineca.it), Coordinator - Italy

Actionwork (http://www.actionwork.com) - United Kingdom

Associazione Equilibrio (http://www.ass-equilibrio.it) - Italy

Sant Pere de Ribes Municipality Mediation Centre (http://www.santperederibes.cat) - Spain

Project Wolf (http://www.suejennings.com/wolf.html) - Romania

Zentrum für empirische pädagogische Forschung der Universität Koblenz-Landau (http://www.zepf.uni-landau.de) - Germany