Designing for Environmental Citizenship: Insights from Combining Immersive VR and Dialogue-Based Activities
摘要
In large metropolitan areas, the urban heat island effect and growing urbanization pose health risks and deepen the disconnect between residents-especially children-and nature. This disconnection hinders public engagement with nature-based climate solutions. To address this, we present an educational approach grounded in dialogic and collaborative pedagogy, combining interactive, single-user immersive Virtual Reality (i-VR) with mobile app-mediated group dialogue. In VR, children explore future environmental scenarios shaped by human actions; outside VR, they discuss real-world environmental issues and sustainable solutions. An evaluation workshop with ten participants-five educators and five high school children-offered valuable feedback and design recommendations. Findings highlight the potential of an IDN paradigm combining embodied learning in VR with dialogue to reconnect urban youth with nature, foster environmental citizenship, and inform future use of social VR and in-VR dialogic elements.