Monday 15 February 2010
Interactive Whiteboards and Virtual Worlds
20:35 | 
Posted by
Rock
Touch-screens
Touch-screen PCs have been around for over 30 years now! I used a Hewlett Packard 150 touch-screen PC, based on the 8088, back in the mid 1980s. However, things have moved on rapidly since then, and with the advent of Microsoft's multitouch Surface, Apple's iPad, and various Interactive Whiteboards, it would not be long before the direct manipulation of 3D objects in 3D Virtual Worlds was a possibility.
Edusim
Moves to combine Interactive Whiteboards with the manipulation of 3D objects in 3D Virtual Worlds were actually started back in 2007. It was then that the Edusim project was started at the Greenbush Education Service Center in Southeast Kansas, as an effort to bring an engaging 3D experience to the classroom interactive whiteboard.
Based on a slimmed-down version of Open Cobalt Edusim is a 3D multi-user virtual world platform and authoring toolkit, and coupled with the latest developments in interactive whiteboards the project aims to:
The results are amazing. Take a look at this video showing Edusim in action.
Interactive Whiteboards
Edusim has been successfully tested on the following Interactive Whiteboards:
Kids have never had it so good!
Rock
Touch-screen PCs have been around for over 30 years now! I used a Hewlett Packard 150 touch-screen PC, based on the 8088, back in the mid 1980s. However, things have moved on rapidly since then, and with the advent of Microsoft's multitouch Surface, Apple's iPad, and various Interactive Whiteboards, it would not be long before the direct manipulation of 3D objects in 3D Virtual Worlds was a possibility.
Microsoft Surface
Edusim
Moves to combine Interactive Whiteboards with the manipulation of 3D objects in 3D Virtual Worlds were actually started back in 2007. It was then that the Edusim project was started at the Greenbush Education Service Center in Southeast Kansas, as an effort to bring an engaging 3D experience to the classroom interactive whiteboard.
Based on a slimmed-down version of Open Cobalt Edusim is a 3D multi-user virtual world platform and authoring toolkit, and coupled with the latest developments in interactive whiteboards the project aims to:
engage student through "immersive touch" by leveraging 3D virtual environments on the interactive surface or classroom interactive whiteboard.
The results are amazing. Take a look at this video showing Edusim in action.
Edusim running on a Smartboard
Interactive Whiteboards
Edusim has been successfully tested on the following Interactive Whiteboards:
 |
| Activeboard |
 |
| Interwrite |
 | |
| Polyvision |
 |
| Mimio |
 | |
| eBeam |
Kids have never had it so good!
Rock