A model for collaboration in virtual worlds bringing together cultures in conflict

Abstract

This paper puts forward a pedagogical model and design for using virtual worlds to not just connect people from different cultures, but to be a center for collaboration. It demonstrates how virtual worlds have been incorporated in a nationwide project to connect between Moslem, Druze, Christian and Jewish children in Israel and follows the development of the pedagogical model through the stages of collaborative learning. The stages move from learning about one another and carrying out joint assignments through a social network to meeting in virtual worlds and designing the interior of a joint home and “living” there throughout the year.