Gender and Diversity in Collaborative Virtual Teams - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design - page 274

and Diversity in Learner-Learner Interactions”
section.
A teaching and learning environment located
within a technological context can be used to
support instructor-learner and learner-learner
communication, and to aid collaborative learning
across different cultures. An individual's learn-
ing process, combined with synchronous or even
asynchronous interactivity with other learners,
can be enhanced with the proliferation of com-
munication technologies. Such technologies can
strengthen and increase additional communication
cues during group activities (Aviv, 2000). Due
to their unique features, CSCLEs provide strong
support for the collaborative learning process.
They help in teaming up groups of people who
are unable to meet face-to-face and facilitate
group interactions.
By using CSCLEs, learners from an individu-
alistic cultural context might emphasize more on
group achievement or relationship than before,
and learners from a collectivistic context might
become more independent and insistent on their
own opinion during the reasoning process. Future
research should work toward greater understand-
ing of this aspect. In addition, problems of cross-
cultural learning might be due to differences in
language, cultural values, and the types of learning
strategies preferred.
Recent technological developments have
opened new perspectives for the cooperation
between human learners, virtual humans, and
anthropomorphic robots, especially in an aug-
mented virtual reality environment. This kind
of learning environments can be defined as Digi-
Mech learning environments (DMLE) (La Russa
& Faggiano, 2004; Nijholt, 2005). The richness
and variety of users' possible interactions in such
environments go far beyond the simple sensorial
use of the virtual realities. The existing research,
literature, experiences, practices and academic
know-how support that DMLEs have extensive
educative and cognitive potentials, especially
in distant education context, and need further

explorations. In addition, the associated social
awareness mechanisms and diversity factors
need to be explored further, including the issue
of how robots and virtual humans perceive and
interpret the social situations in the community
they are a part of.

reFerenCes

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Adler, N. J. (1997). I nternational dimensions of
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Anderson, T. D., & Garrison, D. R. (1998).
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Andrews, T., & Schwarz, G. (2002). Preparing
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Ausburn, L. (2004). Gender and learning strategy
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