Virtual Cultural Identities

Virtual environments and the Internet provide an important medium for interactive collaborative learning. Immersive Virtual Environments appear able to support intuitive interaction techniques and metaphors. Our Identity Authoring Approach is aimed at our multicultural global society, and allows for multiple identities / persona to be created and used as interaction metaphors by users. The approach can be used to generate virtual environments in which the interaction is both intuitive and adaptable to the cultural background of the user, taking into account issues such as gendered and age-based identities. The approach is exemplified by focusing on interaction in virtual learning environments that engage and facilitate the introduction and experience of different cultures, by different users