The Use of Virtual Worlds for Developing Intercultural Competences: a study in Brazil and Portugal

Abstract

This study is aimed to identify how Tridimensional Digital Virtual Worlds (3DVW) can be used as an environment for developing intercultural competences. We used Design Research as the research method to create an artifact, an educational method for practical learning through an intercultural virtual exchange in the 3DVW Second Life®. The research participants were masters students from the School of Economics and Management – ISEG, in Portugal, and students from the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos – UNISINOS, in Brazil. In order to evaluate the process of development of intercultural competences in the 3DVW, we adopted self assessment instruments (applied before and after the virtual exchange), questionnaires, and also the critical incidents technique to select, based on direct observation (video recording), situations and events where it was possible to identify evidences of intercultural competence development. The main results indicate that the 3DVW can be used as an environment for the development of intercultural competence especially due to the affordances of social interaction, content production and knowledge sharing. The students involved in the virtual exchange inside Second Life had to practice a set of attitudes and skills such as communication skills; culture-specific knowledge; understanding others' worldviews; skills to analyze, evaluate, and relate; skills to listen, observe and interpret; respect; openness; tolerance for ambiguity, among other, that are all attributes of intercultural competence.