The virtual campus of the future: stimulating and simulating civic actions in a virtual world

This paper presents a pre-orientation program for incoming college students, Active Citizenship through Technology (ACT), that engaged students in civic dialogue early in their academic experience while fostering a long-term peer support network. It leveraged youth's interest in Internet technologies to engage them in civic discussions and activities. In this 3-day program, thirty-six participants used the Zora 3-D virtual environment to design and inhabit a Virtual Campus of the Future to express concerns and ideas about community issues that interested them. In addition, they participated in face-to-face activities to promote civic skills and learned about their college community. We describe the ACT pre-orientation program and provide results from two consecutive cohorts of participants. Participants reported experiencing new ideas about civic life and learning new skills during the program. At the end of their freshman year, program participants were more likely than control p...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: JCHE
• Authors: Marina Umaschi Bers, Clement Chau
• Keywords: JCHE 2010, Long-term Peer Support, Pre-orientation Program, Virtual Environments