Inter-cultural differences in response to a computer-based anti-bullying intervention

Background and purpose: Many holistic anti-bullying interventions have been attempted, with mixed success, while little work has been done to promote a 'self-help' approach to victimisation. The rise of the ICT curriculum and computer support in schools now allows for approaches that benefit from technology to be implemented. This study evaluates the cross-cultural effects of a computer-based anti-bullying intervention on primary school-aged children's knowledge about bullying and relevant coping strategies. Programme description: FearNot! is an interactive computer-based virtual learning environment designed for use as an anti-bullying intervention. It includes interactive virtual agents who assume the most common participant roles found in episodes of bullying. FearNot! was used by children over three consecutive weeks to allow its effectiveness to be evaluated in a longitudinal in situ programme. Sample: Two comparable samples were drawn from the UK and Germany. In the UK, 651 participants (aged 8-11) were recruited from primary schools in Hertfordshire, Coventry and Warwickshire, whereas the 535 German participants (aged 7-10) were sourced from Grundschulen in the Bayern and Hessen regions. Because of lack of parental consent, late joiners and absences/missing responses, data from 908 participants (UK 493; Germany 415) were analysed. Design and methods: A quasi-experimental, pre/post-tests control group design employed pre-published and bespoke questionnaires to collect data. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Results: UK students possessed higher coping strategy knowledge scores than German participants, but German children's scores improved over time and as a result of the FearNot! intervention. Conclusions: Overall, while not effective at increasing children's coping strategy knowledge in this study, the FearNot! intervention could prove a useful classroom tool to approach the issue of bullying as part of a wider initiative. Cultural differences at baseline and reactions to the intervention are discussed

E-Drama: Facilitating Online Role-play using an AI Actor and Emotionally Expressive Characters.

This paper describes a multi-user role-playing environment, e-drama, which enables groups of people to converse online, in scenario driven virtual environments. The starting point of this research – edrama – is a 2D graphical environment in which users are represented by static cartoon figures. An application has been developed to enable integration of the existing edrama tool with several new components to support avatars with emotionally expressive behaviours, rendered in a 3D environment. The functionality includes the extraction of affect from open-ended improvisational text. The results of the affective analysis are then used to: (a) control an automated improvisational AI actor – EMMA (emotion, metaphor and affect) that operates a bit-part character in the improvisation; (b) drive the animations of avatars using the Demeanour framework in the user interface so that they react bodily in ways that are consistent with the affect that they are expressing. Finally, we describe user trials that demonstrate that the changes made improve the quality of social interaction and users’ sense of presence. Moreover, our system has the potential to evolve normal classroom education for young people with or without learning disabilities by providing 24/7 efficient personalised social skill, language and career training via role-play and offering automatic monitoring

The Investigation of Helping Behavior in the Virtual World

In the recent wake of media reports of peer victimization and its deleterious effects, this study sought to create a personality profile of the individual who is able to resist social, personal and group pressures in order to help a victim of bullying behavior. This research is based on findings from a study by Dr. Elizabeth Midlarsky on rescuers and bystanders during the Holocaust (Midlarsky, Fagin-Jones and Nemeroff, 2006). The present study examined the differences in personality variables of individuals who were either rescuers or bystanders in a peer bullying situation that occurred in the virtual medium of Second Life. Additionally, due to the novel nature of this experimental medium, this study also examined the utility of Second Life as a mechanism for creating realistic psychological experiences. Independent variables included the following personality variables: locus of control, social responsibility, altruism, morality, autonomy, tolerance, risk taking, and empathy, and the participant's experience in the virtual medium was assessed by: realism of the scenario, realism of the world and immersion. The dependent variable was whether or not the participant intervened in the animated scenario by helping the victim. This study featured a unique experimental design that utilized a virtual experimental space to examine a psychological question. After completing pre-test test measures of personality factors, participants were given a cover story that asked them to explore a virtual university campus. Immediately following the participant's response, post-test questions assessed knowledge of the bystander effect, peer victimization experiences, and the experience of the participant in the virtual world. Debriefing sessions also ascertained personal reactions of each participant. Findings indicated that people reporting more immersion in the Second Life scenarios were more likely to intervene on behalf of the bullied person. In accordance with Midlarsky, Fagin-Jones and Nemeroff (2006), the rescuers in this study exhibited higher levels of empathy when compared to bystanders. However, no significant differences were found for other personality correlates of altruism. Instead, relationships were found among participants who intervened in the animated scenario and those who reported finding the virtual scenario a realistic representation of a peer victimization incident. Several important differences between the Midlarsky, Fagin-Jones and Nemeroff (2006) studies and this study account for the differential results. Most notable is that this study is a one-time reaction to an event in a virtual world which presented only a possible emotional risk to the rescuers and victims. On the other hand, Holocaust rescuers typically risked their lives continually, over an extended time period. While the personality profiles of the bystanders and rescuers in a realistic, traumatizing incident was not ascertained, the significant effect of empathy accords with the existing body of altruism research

The art of persuasion: a critical survey of British animated information films (1939 2009)

Comparatively little has been written about British animated public information film and this gap in knowledge led to research, which positioned my practice as an animator in the historical and theoretical contexts of British filmmaking. My research investigates how animation creates distinctive approaches to information narratives and contributes to persuasive information communication. The animated public information film is one of several categories of information film, which are identified in my Glossary of Terms. Volume 1 of the thesis contains theoretical and historical discussion and argument. Chapter 1 is an overview of my research which generated the first comprehensive filmography of animated British public information shorts, chronologically recorded and defined from 1939 2009. Chapter 2 uses my filmography to determine the core characteristics, role and function of animated information film in the interdisciplinary contemporary era. This in turn informs my own approach to making a contemporary information film, and I also draw on some informal primary research and my critique of the historical sources identified in Chapter 1. Chapter 3, on my practice (evidenced in Volume 2), identifies how a contemporary animation responds to my research questions: How is the art of persuasion manifested in British animated information films? and How can animation practice contribute to contemporary information films made for public distribution? I focus on the history of British animation information films to assess patterns and forms affiliated with information delivery. I examine media technology and methods of communications as they evolve in a cross-media era, consider how they facilitate the production of a contemporary information film, and evaluate how I developed Tell Someone to provide information on how children, aged seven to eleven, can remain safe while on the Internet. My research establishes that British animation has been instrumental in contributing to social awareness by delivering important information to British society for over seventy years. My practice reveals that animation can make a contemporary contribution to information films. It proves to be adaptable to rapidly changing technology and capable of updating knowledge to meet new social challenges posed both by online access to technology and the new multiple platforms available for the delivery of information in the digital era