• The project aims to produce closer links between China and EU countries in the use of 3D interactive graphic environments in e-Learning in schools.

  • It will do this by creating a liaison between a leading Chinese technical centre in graphics, associated schools in China, and the members and associates (including education authorities and schools) of two e-Learning projects in the EU, who form the direct target groups. Chinese education bodies including schools in Zhejiang province, Macau and the rest of China form later indirect targets along with the OpenSource software community. Activities will include visits by project participants to schools in China  and the EU, assessment of cultural and social differences, production of open source software, dissemination and adaptation to Chinese conditions of outputs from the VICTEC and ELVES projects; duration 24 months.
• The  specific objectives to be addressed in order to achieve the liaison and contacts will be:

  1.      To investigate the potential of Virtual Environments (VEs) in general, and Synthetic Characters  in VEs in particular, to enhance the school curriculum in China

  2.      To transfer synthetic character technology into OpenSource form so that it can easily be taken up in Chinese schools.

  3.     To identify the strengths and weaknesses of using VR and synthetic character solutions for personal and social education programmes in Chinese schools with particular reference to social, organisational and cultural differences

  4.     To integrate and transfer Chinese graphics programming skills into e-Learning with synthetic characters in Europe

  5.      To strengthen the world OpenSource movement in the 3D graphics area by providing library support for synthetic characters

  6.      To disseminate project outcomes through the OpenSource movement, through the web, and through educational channels in China and Europe

• Relevance of the project to the target groups

In China, researchers in the area of graphics will gain access to state-of-the-art thinking in the application of 3D graphics using synthetic characters to e-learning software, and will strengthen their existing links with schools. They will also build strong links with EU programmes in e-Learning and the development of OpenSource software will allow them to transfer some of their strong graphics programming skills to this community. It will also allow them to develop long-term links with the OpenSource movement in general, and the OpenSG community in particular, thus overcoming a relative isolation

The schools in China will gain experience in the application of Virtual Reality technology in general to ICT and new approaches to personal and social education in particular. It will also lay the basis for a sharing of experience with the EU schools involved on approaches to personal and social education and the problems and issues in this field. Sharing experiences of dealing with aggressive and bullying behaviour in schools in the different environments will support the development of new perspectives and approaches.