Practical Applications of Technology in Education

Hey guys! I'm a little busy today but when I've got some spare time I'd like to write a bit about practical applications of technology in education, and how that can be applied in a 3D environment too.  In the meantime, what brought this on was my recent introduction to the Khan Academy -- an excellent website that is home to thousands of instructional videos and exercises on an array of topics... from math to humanities, and its all free.

I've been using it myself as I'm learning Calculus.  The videos are really top notch, and they're a great idea.  I've posted a video below of a TED Talk concerning Khan Academy, and how it's really a great idea and I hope that it catches on.





But anyway, my experience using Khan Academy got me thinking: could similar intuitive education be done in the 3D environment?  What exactly would you need for that?  Interpersonal interaction?  Manipulating objects on the fly?  We can do some of this already.  As for the rest, well... I'll elaborate more on that later. :)

Some new features...

I'm trying to build this site up to be a nice resource and I enjoy adding things to the toolbar on the right side of the page.  In particular the new chat box is exciting though I doubt it will see much use, and the 'What's new in AW' box is something I check everyday now because its proved to be a useful tool. :)

What do you guys think?  Cluttered or am I doing alright over there so far?

Busy Day! In the meantime...

Hey everyone!  I won't be able to get a full-fledged post up for tonight but I do have enough time to drop a small blurb in and offer you some thoughts about tomorrow's post!  I want to start discussing how to really do justice to a 3D project in a 2D presentation environment (i.e. Active Worlds on a web page).  How do you do that!?   I've got a few ideas, but as far as presentation mediums go, I think people have found a very good start in utilizing video.  Below you'll see a great example: SW Chris' Active Worlds Exploration Demo.

If you don't know Chris very well he's really great with video and puts a lot of consideration into his projects; I think his video is a good case study for the "do's and dont's" of discussing the Active Worlds Browser in this medium and we'll talk a bit more about that tomorrow.

In the meantime... what do you think?  Does video do AW justice outside of our little universe, and do you know of any other good examples where it does?  Feel free to share! :)