Virtual reality and immersive worlds refer to artificial computer-generated environments, with which users act and interact as in a known environment by the use of figurative virtual individuals (avatars). Virtual environments will be the technology of the early twenty-first century that will most dramatically change the way we live, particularly in the areas of training and education, product development and entertainment (Schmorrow, 2009). The usefulness of immersive worlds has been proved in different fields. They reduce geographic and social barriers between different stakeholders and create virtual social spaces which can positively impact learning and discussion outcomes (Lorenzo et al. 2012).

We propose a PICO session in a virtual building to disseminate the importance of soil functions and its conservation. It is particularly conceived for facilitating the participation of young scientists that cannot attend the conference in person. In a virtual room, avatars will present and discuss: 1) what is being done in Soil Sciences; 2) which are their main current limitations and difficulties and 3) which are the future hot research lines.

This year you can also make a reservation of a room for virtual meetings during the conference. If you are interested, please write to the conveners. The main attractiveness of this session is that you, as an avatar, will able to get involved into the fascinating EGU community!


REFERENCES:
Lorenzo C.M., Sicilia, M.A., Sánchez S. 2012. Studying the effectiveness of multi-user immersive environments for collaborative evaluation tasks. Computers & Education 59 (2012) 1361–1376
Schmorrow D.D. 2009. “Why virtual?” Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science 10(3): 279-282.

Get immersed in the Soil Sciences: new and bright ideas communicated through avatars
Why virtual? Because geographic and social barriers are removed. Because people feel different with their avatars. In virtual social spaces, you feel comfortable which positively impact outcomes. Because it is simply fun.

Imagine attending an EGU meeting in a virtual building with incredible rooms where a group of avatars, senior and young scientists, from different places around the world are going to talk you about what remains to be done in Soil Sciences. In fact, you should choose your avatar to participate in the PICO session that we propose, thought to make questions and to discuss on the future hot research lines. Only your laptop is needed to attend. Come to its immersive world.