CAREER: Virtual communities of learning and care: multi-user virtual environments that promote positive youth development

这一职业项目旨在开发一项研究和教育计划，通过使用被称为身份构建环境(ICES)的多用户虚拟环境来促进青年积极健康的发展，该环境被假设为培养新型的学习和关怀社区。这种技术可能产生最大影响的一种情况是，如果不这样做，青年可能会被孤立，并有可能出现与心理健康有关的问题。PI将与波士顿儿童医院的年轻人合作，这些年轻人患有严重的肾脏和心脏衰竭，如果没有心脏和肾脏移植等医疗干预，他们将无法存活。一个实用的开发模型为设计ICE提供了一个框架。它还为在复杂的现实世界环境中进行研究提供了一个模型。假设ICES将1)促进积极的青年发展(衡量能力、人脉、性格、信心、关爱和对民间社会的贡献)，2)补充和加强面对面的心理社会干预，3)积极影响是由于使青年参与认知、社会和情感发展的在线活动的设计特点和性质。教育活动包括为本科生和研究生提供跨学科研究小组的研究机会，在医疗保健和社区环境中进行服务学习，为教育、心理健康、工程和计算机科学等不同学科的学生提供新的课程和课程。

This CAREER project aims to develop a research and education program to foster positive and healthy youth development through the use of multi-user, virtual environments called identity construction environments (ICEs), which are hypothesized to foster new kinds of communities of learning and care. One context where such technologies may have the most impact is in situations where youth might otherwise be isolated and in danger of developing mental health-related problems. The PI will work with youth at the Boston Children's Hospital that have suffered severe renal and cardiac failure and who wouldn't otherwise survive without medical interventions such as heart and kidney transplants. An applied developmental model provides a framework to design ICEs. It also provides a model for doing research in complex real world settings. It is hypothesized that ICEs will 1) promote positive youth development (measured as competence, connection, character, confidence, caring and contribution to civil society), 2) complement and augment face-to-face psychosocial interventions, and 3) that the positive effects are due to design features and the nature of online activities that engage youth in cognitive, social and emotional development. Educational activities include research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in an interdisciplinary research group, service learning in healthcare and community-based settings, new courses and curricula for students from a variety of disciplines: education, mental health, engineering and computer science.