The K24x7 blog is intended as a place for anyone interested in applications of technology to teaching and learning to explore ideas and options. It is one component of a larger system - Knowledge 24x7 - created using free tools for generating audio, video, and 3-D systems to build a Virtual Learning Environment for use at home or in school.
An early effort at making 3-D web sites ubiquitous is now available from ExitReality (http://www.exitreality.com/).The premise is simple, the implementation is difficult – create an interface that allows every web page to be viewed in 3-D.Try if for yourself. Download the free ExitReality plugin “…that allows anyone to view every web page in 3D” View the introductory video and try it out using the “Visit any website in 3D” URL box or the “Web 3D Search.”Some sites clearly site work very well, others poorly. Try launching the 3-D version at http://3d.exitreality.com; sign in, choose an avatar and take a stroll around the Plaza.Navigation is simple compared to Second Life; use the arrow keys or hold down the right mouse button. Download the plug-in; installation is simple by following the instructions.When installation is complete, the ExitReality icon will appear in your browser tool bar.
At the time I was writing this, ExitReality was still in beta, so there was little to see and few users to meet at the site.It does allow you to include audio files, as I learned on a visit to “Hades.”I suspect it will follow Second Life in supporting live voice chats, possibly using a third-party multi-voice application, such as Ventrilo (http://www.ventrilo.com/).
Many Web 2.0 applications and gadgets originally written for computers have been, or are being adapted, to run on smart phones. As the cost continues to drop, more and more applications useful for teaching and learning will, if the iPhone experience is any indication of trends, be integrated into smart phones, with video podcasts , social networking , internet searching, and blogging leading the way.
The small form factor limits their utility, but can be remedied with the addition of a Bluetooth laser virtual keyboard and a pair of video goggles for a large screen viewing experience; a pricey solution, but already available and almost certainly the precursor of more effective add-ons to make smart phones an all-in-one solution for entering the virtual world. When you search the web for video goggles, you will find that there are already models available for a 3-D viewing experience on the iPhone.
Formerly relegated to scary movies and Massively Multi-player Online Games (MMOGs), 3-D is becoming increasingly popular for television and the Internet, where Linden Lab’s Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com) leads the way. JoKay and Sean FitzGerald’s wiki page, “Second Life in Education,” (http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses) is a great place to start your own investigation into a 3-D version of a classroom. If you are a Moodle user, most of the work has already been done. On its web site (http://www.sloodle.org) Sloodle describes itself as"...an Open Source project which integrates the multi-user virtual environment of Second Life®with the Moodle ® learning-management system. … Sloodle provides a range of tools for supporting learning and teaching to the immersive virtual world; tools which are integrated with a tried and tested leading web-based learning management system.” The illustration from Sloodle (http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/sl/index.php/) shows how it works:
Sloodle has a growing user base, but it’s too new to have generated a substantial research base, so its effectiveness as a teaching tool is untested. Students (and geeky adults like me) will love it, administrators and parents will be more skeptical nd probably resist it, so tread lightly. It’s close integration with Moodle, for which there already is a large community of users, suggests Sloodle will set the standard for the entry of 3-D Web applications supporting teaching and learning in the virtual world
I once published an essay entitled, “What Language Do You Speak?” The point of the essay was that each of us speaks a unique language based on our demographic characteristics, education, and experience. So, I am a 70+-year old, Wharton-school trained graduate, B.S. in Economics, plus 30 graduate credits in Quantitative Economics, who returned to graduate school after 20 years of higher ed teaching and administration, to earn a doctorate in education and begin a second and third career, initially in technology in the private sector, than as a K-12 educator, eventually as a superintendent of schools and finally a COO/CFO for a large non-profit publisher and professional development organization, Along the way, I spent ten years in experiential education, started four alternative schools, and edited a compendium of best practices in K-12 education. I’ve been a computer user since 1953, and involved in online learning and instructional technology for more than 30 years.
Every once in a while you stumble across something so funky that you just have to try it. I can't believe I spent nearly an hour tweaking the image, adding a background photo (my house), and recording a message.
Voki is free; a much more powerful commercial version is found at SitePal
View the introductory video and try it out using the “Visit any website in 3D” URL box or the “Web 3D Search.” Some sites clearly site work very well, others poorly. Try launching the 3-D version at http://3d.exitreality.com; sign in, choose an avatar and take a stroll around the Plaza. Navigation is simple compared to Second Life; use the arrow keys or hold down the right mouse button. Download the plug-in; installation is simple by following the instructions. When installation is complete, the ExitReality icon will appear in your browser tool bar.
At the time I was writing this, ExitReality was still in beta, so there was little to see and few users to meet at the site.It does allow you to include audio files, as I learned on a visit to “Hades.”I suspect it will follow Second Life in supporting live voice chats, possibly using a third-party multi-voice application, such as Ventrilo (http://www.ventrilo.com/).
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