Abstract:

In this study, attitudes of students who learned winter sports in a 3D virtual world (Second Life) towards virtual environment, learning winter sports in virtual environments and winter sports and differences regarding gender, 3D gaming, computers gaming and virtual world experiences were investigated. The purpose of the study, an attitude scale was developed and it was administered to 70 elementary 5th grade students. Through the pilot studies, attitude scale was reduced into three factors which are “attitude toward virtual environment”, “attitude toward learning winter sports in virtual world” and “attitude toward winter sports”. After actual data collection, an independent t-test was conducted to see whether there is significant difference in attitude scores regarding gender, 3D environment experience and computer gaming experience. For all attitude items the average values has positive tendency. While there is no difference in the entire attitude scores regarding the independent variables of gender, computer gaming and 3D computer gaming experiences, there is difference in attitude of learning winter sports in virtual world regarding 3D gaming experience. As a result, 3D virtual worlds positively effect on students’ attitude. Therefore, these environments are important for educational purposes

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