Education and training

[Douglas Rushkoff invites us to imagine] "a classroom of students with a teacher, occurring in real time. The students are from twelve different countries, each plugged in to a VR system, all modemed to the teacher's house. They sit around a virtual classroom, see one another and the teacher. The teacher explains that today's topic is the Colosseum in ancient Rome. She holds up a map of ancient Rome and says, 'Let's go'. The students fly over the skyline of the ancient city, following their teacher. 'Stay together now,' she says, pointing out the Colosseum and explaining why it was positioned across town from the Forum. The class lands at the main archway to the Colosseum. 'Let's go inside ...' "(Rushkoff, 1994, pp.69-70)

Tiffin, J. & Rajasingham, L. (1995). In Search of the Virtual Class. London: Routledge.

Virtual Reality in Training and Education: Resource Guide to Citations and Online Information
—a comprehensive bibliography of documents on VR in education and training
» http://www.hitl.washington.edu/kb/edvr/

The Synthetic Worlds Initiative
"The Synthetic Worlds Initiative is a research center at Indiana University whose aim is to promote innovative thinking on synthetic worlds. Synthetic worlds are immersive digital spaces that can host many online users on a persistent basis. The most popular applications of this technology today are massive video games. Our goal is to learn about this technology and deploy it for research and education. The Initiative holds a bi-annual series of conferences, the Ludium, and is building Arden: The World of William Shakespeare, a massive synthetic world."
» http://swi.indiana.edu/index.htm

The Virtual Gorilla Exhibit Project
» http://www.cc.gatech.edu/grads/a/Don.Allison/gorilla/gorilla.html

More documentation can be found in The Virtual Gorilla Exhibit: Teaching Principles of Zoo Habitat Design Using an Immersive Virtual Environments Application
» http://vtopus.cs.vt.edu/~bowman/gorilla_design.html

Teacher Resource Bank: Virtual Reality Learning Resource Sampler
A long listing of VR worlds and models in all VR formats (QTVR, VRML, Viscape)
» http://www.teacherresourcebank.com/vrml/vrml_resources.htm
[Link verified and viewed 17 March 2007]

Distance Education: a gallery of demonstrations ('How your car works', 'Gear Box', 'Excavator', 'The 3D Periodic Table', 'Golf') from ParallelGraphics (with free downloads of all models).
» http://www.parallelgraphics.com/products/showroom/distance-education/
[Link verified and viewed 17 March 2007]

VRMath
"VRMath is an open, online VRLE (Virtual Reality Learning Environment), in which users can use a Logo like language to construct 3D virtual worlds. During the construction processes, users will improve their spatial ability by linking their mathematical language to 3D real time graphics, and participating in online community."
» http://cobia.ed.qut.edu.au/~andy/vrmath/index.php
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2005]

The Virtual Solar System (Viscape)
» http://www.nationalgeographic.com/solarsystem/ax/high.html
[Link verified and viewed 17 March 2007]

Consumerland (Viscape)
"The purpose of this virtual world is to explain the European-wide aspect of consumer protection with the intention of providing consumers with the confidence needed to explore the advantages of the Single Market and participate in its construction."
» http://europa.eu.int/ISPO/consumerland/consumer/internet/c_en/accueil.htm
[Link verified and viewed 17 March 2007]

Virtual Natural Ecosystems: Tidal Flat Information System, Korea (Viscape)
» http://www.wetland.or.kr/html/eng/
[Link verified and viewed 17 March 2007]

Physics (Viscape)
» http://imej.wfu.edu/articles/2001/2/02/index.asp
See also:
» http://heebok.kongju.ac.kr/VRPS/
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2005]

Virtual RadLab (key stage 4 radioactivity topic) (Viscape)
» http://www.virart.nottingham.ac.uk/virart/index.php? option=content&task=view&id=35&Itemid=31
» http://www.virart.nottingham.ac.uk/radlab4.svr
[Link verified and viewed 22 Feb 2005]

JHU Virtual Submarine (Viscape)
» http://www.jhuapl.edu/websub/
[Link verified and viewed 09 Feb 2005]

Traffic-City (road safety training) (Viscape)
» http://www.traffic-city.de/demo/main.htm