Much information communication technology (ICT) design work involves international collaboration. This requires cross-cultural understandings with one's co-collaborators. There are few opportunities for this to occur in a pedagogical setting. This paper outlines a pedagogically-oriented case study of the use of a 3D collaborative virtual environment (3DCVE). The 3D co-located laboratory (3DCollab) described in this paper served as a cross-cultural exchange platform. It fostered deeper understandings of alternate meanings to everyday social and work practices and design computing assumptions. The project involved students across three cooperating institutions, on three different continents in different time zones. It builds on previous exercises conducted by the authors