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Virtually Augmented Social Skills Training

Kevin Ambrose, Educational Psychology
Faculty Advisor: Bruce Homer
NML Awards: The Social Justice Award (May 2013), The New Media Lab Digital Dissertation Award (April 2014)

KAmbrose-pro-imageThis New Media Lab project involves learning the Linden Scripting Language in order to create a 3D virtual environment on private property within Second LifeTM to teach individuals with high functioning autism social skills. The Virtually Augmented Social Skills Training project will culminate in the creation of the intervention used in my proposed dissertation project. I began by taking building classes within Second LifeTM with the nonprofit organization, Southern Tier Health Link NY. In addition, I have studied within Second Life at the College of Scripting. I have used YouTube videos, websites, forums, blogs, and the Second Life wiki to learn scripting and building techniques. In addition to learning scripting within Second LifeTM, I am also learning to build cognitive tutoring software into my virtual environment with the Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (http://ctat.pact.cs.cmu.edu/) and learning to build 3D models with an open source program called Blender to import into my environment.