UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE

    COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM


		presents

  `Virtual Bullying': Virtual Environments
	 as an Educational Tool

		speaker:

	     Sarah Woods
      Computer Science & Psychology
	   VICTEC Project
      University of Hertfordshire


	12 February 2003 (Wednesday)

	  Lecture Theatre E351
	    Hatfield Campus
		3 - 4 pm


 Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.


	Everyone is Welcome to Attend
	    [Space Permitting]


Abstract:

VICTEC (Virtual Information Communication Technology with Empathic
Characters) is a European funded project that aims to use virtual
learning environments as a means of examining bullying behaviour 
among school children.

Previous attempts to deal with bullying problems in schools have had
short-lived success. VICTEC aims to be an innovative educational
initiative for dealing with bullying problems by allowing children to
try out different perspectives involved. Children will also have the
opportunity to examine different coping mechanisms to deal with
bullying and determine whether these are successful or not.

Both technical and psychological teams are involved with the project.
The focus of the talk will be on the psychological contribution to the
project in terms of developing bullying scenarios for children, the
psychological profiles of children involved in bullying, and evaluation
techniques for the project. Examples of bullying scenarios, synthetic
characters, models of the school environments, and research into the
development of empathy between the child user of the system and
synthetic characters will be provided.

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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium Abstracts
On-line: http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq/