Design, Development and Evaluation of a Virtual Environment with children for Moral, Social & Emotional Leaning

Virtual environments have the potential to be an important teaching tool for emotionally-sensitive issues capable of producing a sense of presence, perspective-taking and introspection in users in a risk-free, rapid feedback experience. In designing such experiences, it is essential that users are regularly engaged in a collaborative design process. However, engaging in design, development and evaluation can in itself provide a learning experience. Here, we present our approach to engaging children in the design, development and evaluation of a virtual learning environment, specifically a Serious Game, focused on inculcating empathy, ethical reasoning and reflection for coping with bullying. We demonstrate that children’s involvement not only contributed to an improved virtual environment, but significantly, engaging in the design process provided children with a novel and effective learning opportunity. Through using innovative child-centered participatory design practices, this research provides perceptive insights into how engaging children in design can be employed as a learning experience for emotionally-sensitive learning as well as an approach to gathering user design input. The material outlined in this article is directly linked to virtual worlds for positive change— meeting the needs of children, empowering them to be consulted and take responsibility for issues that affect them at school

When will Immersive Virtual Reality have its day? Challenges to IVR adoption in the home as exposed in studies with teenagers, parents and experts

In response to the pandemic, many countries have had multiple lockdowns punctuated by partial freedoms limiting physically being together. In 2020-21, during the COVID-19 pandemic parents were stressed and exhausted by the challenges of work, home schooling and barriers to typical childcare arrangements. Children were missing one another, their social lives and the variety of experiences that the world beyond the home brings. Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) offers tried and tested ways to enable children to maintain beyond-household family activities and dynamics. However, it is not viewed as a solution. Instead, as demonstrated through a multiple method study involving a Rapid Evidence Assessment; workshops with 91 teenagers; interviews with 15 experts; a Delphi study with 21 experts; 402 parent questionnaires pre-pandemic; 232 parent questionnaires during the pandemic; and longitudinal interviews with 13 parents during the first UK lockdown in 2020, IVR is not viewed as having value in the home beyond gaming. Results highlight limited consideration of IVR as a way to enhance family life or the home, with a lack of evidence and direction from current research, innovation and policy. The paper empirically demonstrates that experts, teenagers and parents have limited expectations for VR. Further, with parental resistance to adoption and a lack of ideas or innovations in how Immersive Virtual Reality could be used, the likelihood of VR-headset adoption remains low as does its potential as a means of educating, entertaining and socially engaging children and teenagers

Co-design with Children: Using Participatory Design for Design Thinking and Social and Emotional Learning

This paper discusses leveraging design thinking techniques for involving children in serious game design in Japanese elementary schools. Our action research project approach accomplished two different goals: (1) to inculcate design thinking in pupils, and (2) to sensitize children on bullying victimization. Our approach uses a range of participatory design methods to distill design ideas from children and to support their design thinking aiming to boost children’s creative confidence and develop social and emotional skills. Key findings from our project are: (1) children made valuable design contributions including realistic bullying scenarios, language content, user interface design, storyline progression, character profiles, coping strategies etc., and (2) participatory design and design thinking stimulated ethical reasoning, reflection and empathy in children on bullying victimization. Our approach is unique in the current design thinking landscape, because it moves from designing “thing” (object) to designing “think” (bullying sensitization). Future research should focus on highlighting ways how participatory design and design thinking enrich and complement each other. The significance of our paper stems from the simple standpoint that those participating in a design should gain from participating in the design process. Takeaways for practitioners are: (1) building relationships with stakeholders, especially children (2) empathy and user research techniques, (2) translating field data into usable insights, (3) idea-generation and rapid concept development, (4) product co-prototyping, (5) user engagement and co-creation, (6) multiple perspectives on effective communication

A Benchmarking Framework for eTourism Capability of Destinations´ Industries

Purpose –The impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in tourism has been suggested through extensive research. Previous work has urged the development of wide-angle studies to enable benchmarking of destinations and their industries. However, relevant research is limited. Macro-level studies in the area tend to focus on a single aspect of technology to evaluate adoption, are not sector specific nor take into consideration the different levels of contribution that systems may bring to performance. This paper provides a framework for benchmarking the eTourism Capability of a destination´s tourism industry, understanding the eTourism Capability of a destination´s industry as the contribution that the ICT uptake of that industry makes to its own performance. Design/methodology/approach – A review of the literature on Tourism, eTourism, Benchmarking and Technology Adoption provided the baseline for developing this benchmarking tool. Findings – The literature supported the selection of key tourism industry sectors, i.e. accommodation establishments, visitor attractions and food and beverage; the most suitable methodology, i.e. intermediary performance measures; and the business characteristics that need being taken into consideration when assessing ICT adoption by tourism businesses, e.g. size, type of establishment and area of location. Research Limitations/Implications – the framework has not been tested yet. It is based upon a review of the literature and needs to be validated through primary research. The framework was developed based on the context of Scotland. Further work should be done to adjust the framework to other destinations worldwide. Practical Implications – The framework enables destinations to benchmark the eTourism Capability of their industries

Attitudes Towards EU Integration and Euro Adoption in the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT. Our paper focuses on eliciting people’s attitudes towards EU integration and the adoption of Euro currency in the Czech Republic. Although EU Accession was widely supported and accepted by the Czech citizens prior to 2004, more than 10 years into the EU membership the attitudes to integration have changed considerably. The recent world’s economic and financial crisis, the crisis of the Eurozone and the issues with the Greek membership in the Eurozone (the possibility of the “Grexit”) have undermined the Euro optimism in many EU Member States that joined the EU during the so-called Eastern Enlargement in 2004. We use the example of the Czech Republic and the representative survey data collected by the Czech Institute of Sociology in 2012-2014 to estimate and describe the attitudes towards the EU integration and Euro adoption. Our results might shed some light on the reasons of Euro pessimism and scepticism and find links with the current economic and political situation