Sensoriality and pupil immersive meaning making in a virtual secondary school: A pedagogical avatarial interaction

Abstract

We present a study of avatarial interactions in a pedagogical virtual 3D world. We find that there are variations as regards the three dimensions of immersion, symbolic, bodily and social, according to the academic profile of the pupils. The class with a lower mastery of academic skills in maths, French, English and a second language, was found to be more involved with the symbolic immersion aspects, and less with aspects of bodily and social immersion, whereas the class group with a higher mastery of academic skills presented the opposite features. When merging the two class groups, it was the medium high score group that was found to present salient features, namely high indicators as far as the three forms of immersion were concerned.