Bespace: A Multi-user Web3D Lecture Hall (original) (raw)

Bespace: Realism and the Design of Virtual Space

Bespace is a synchronous web3D lecture hall and performance system that seeks to tap the educational and entertainment potential of virtual space. Its underlying interactive methodology is focused on the efficient delivery of information within the space. The entire virtual environment is treated as a one interface. Principles of human computer interaction are applied to the activities, avatars, and architecture. The outcome is an environment that utilizes the power of a digitally created reality and does not sacrifice usability in pursuit of realistic appearances. Bespace's interactive methodology seeks to implement the promises made by the early pioneers of virtual space.

1 Bespace: Realism and the Design of Virtual Space

2015

Bespace is a synchronous web3D lecture hall and performance system that seeks to tap the educational and entertainment potential of virtual space. Its underlying interactive methodology is focused on the efficient delivery of information within the space. The entire virtual environment is treated as a one interface. Principles of human computer interaction are applied to the activities, avatars, and architecture. The outcome is an environment that utilizes the power of a digitally created reality and does not sacrifice usability in pursuit of realistic appearances. Bespace’s interactive methodology seeks to implement the promises made by the early pioneers of virtual space. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and

3D virtual worlds in higher education

Informed Design of …, 2011

3D virtual worlds are becoming widespread due to cheaper powerful computers, high-speed broadband connections and efforts towards their tighter integration with current 2D web environments. Besides traditional gaming and entertainment applications, some serious propositions are starting to emerge for their use particularly in education, where they are perceived as enablers of active learning, learning by doing, and knowledge construction through social interaction. However, there is still little understanding of how 3D virtual ...

This Will Change Everything; Virtual Worlds in Education

This paper explores the potential for supplementing or even replacing bricks and-mortar spaces with virtual spaces for teaching and learning. Global population changes are creating an ever-widening gap of access to higher education, and current building strategies are simply not sufficient to cope. There exists the potential to utilise 3D virtual worlds to provide space for lecturing, student projects and simulations, while at the same time reducing costs to a fraction of the costs for campus-based buildings. Additionally, these spaces can be used to give students safe experiences that might otherwise be completely impossible. The paper presents work at the University of Auckland toward these ends.

Virtual worlds: Further development of web-based teaching

Proceedings of the Hawaii International Conference on Education, Honolulu, HI, 2005

Significant components of the Instructional Technology Program at Appalachian State University have been moved into a 3D virtual world web environment. These include whole courses, course experiences and various student and faculty interactions. Virtual worlds provide opportunities to add elements of space, movement and physical presence, along with dimensional artifacts and metaphors not found in more traditional web-based counterparts. Students enter the 3D world from a desktop computer. Just as watching a ...

Coming down to Earth: Helping teachers use 3D virtual worlds in across-spaces learning situations

Different approaches have explored how to provide seamless learning across multiple ICT-enabled physical and virtual spaces, including three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVW). However, these approaches present limitations that may reduce their acceptance in authentic educational practice: The difficulties of authoring and sharing teacher-created designs across different 3DVW platforms, or the lack of integration of 3DVWs with existing technologies in the classroom ecosystem (e.g., widespread web-based learning platforms such as Moodle, or mobile augmented reality applications). Focusing on a specific kind of 3DVW (virtual globes, such as Google Earth, used like 3DVWs), we propose a system that enables teachers to deploy across-spaces learning situations, which can be authored with a plethora of existing learning design tools, that involve different common web-based learning platforms, mobile AR applications and multiple kinds of virtual globes. A prototype of the architecture has been developed to evaluate this novel approach. The mixed-methods evaluation performed comprised both a feature analysis and a study where a teacher deployed an authentic across-spaces learning situation including Google Earth used as a 3DVW. Such evaluation shows that the system enables teachers deploy learning situations over different technological ecosystems composed by physical and web spaces, as well as by 3DVWs.

3D Virtual Learning Environments

Advances in Game-Based Learning

Heated debates involving reforms in the educational system are becoming more and more frequent in recent years, mostly due to the increasingly evident shortcomings in the educational system and its difficulties to evolve at the same pace as technological development. Since nowadays people spend much of their time interacting directly or indirectly with technological devices, one can think of using this involvement with educational purposes. Through this interaction people have easy and inexpensive access to a vast amount of information. In this sense, one can think of methodologies to improve education by focusing on the foundations of knowledge rather than the emphasis on the memorization of contents. Therefore, the aim of this work is to propose and validate an interactive content authoring system as well as a virtual classroom where lessons are taught by avatars in an attempt to make learning experience richer and more motivating to students.

EXPERIENCING EDUCATION WITH 3D VIRTUAL WORLDS

ABSTRACT In this paper we discuss the potentialities of 3D virtual worlds in education. We argue that assignments in virtual worlds and a constructivist approach go hand in hand. We identify the aspects of virtual worlds (such as ActiveWorlds and SecondLife) that make them useful for education and research, as well as aspects that do not. We found that intertwining real life instructional courses with virtual constructivist courses was very promising in terms of the learning experience.