Avatars in the Classroom: Using Creative Role-Play for Language Instruction and Social Experimentation

Princeton has been investigating valid uses of virtual reality in the classroom. The success of social science experiments relies upon enlisting a wide community of volunteers. Investigators struggle to obtain subjects beyond their local peer group because of time and budget limitations. For example, a faculty member in the Japanese language department found that getting her students together to speak Japanese was not difficult. However, getting them to understand the many nuances of communication in Japan that depend upon age, social status, and situations was not so easy. This session provides an overview of the classroom interactions and experiments involving using virtual reality to enlist volunteers for social science experiments.