A blog of my own research into e-learning technology
May 5, 2015 2 Comments
It’s great that Microsoft are pushing education as a major stream for Hololens, I would though have probably hoped for a slightly better Build 2015 demo as what was demonstrated, something with location context sensitivity.
But still, good times ahead and I’m looking forward to the day I can try out VOIS with Hololens!
October 12, 2014 Leave a comment
Haven’t blogged for an awful long time, so thought I’d put a couple of updates on here with regards to what I’ve been up to.
One of my current pet projects is trying to develop a HTML5/java based collaborative virtual world which would be similar to Vastpark and Protosphere, but would run natively on any modern device that supports HTML5.
It’s going to take me some time to develop, but I have already done some concept screens:
I’ll keep posting my progress on the development as it goes along.
April 27, 2013 1 Comment
I know, not a very catchy title, but for now it will do!
For quite some time I’ve been promoting the concept of integrating Communities of Practice with a Virtual World to allow large organisations to bring staff together in one information portal that fosters collaborative working and lifelong learning.
Colleagues collaboratively creating an excel formula within a virtual world
Whilst doing so I’ve noticed that many virtual world technology companies (such as VastPark and SnapGroove) are moving into data visualisation as part of their main offering. They see that once you have an engaged an audience brainstorming within a virtual world, increasingly that audience will want to view it’s own big data and analytics, whilst collaboratively making key decisions or tinkering with their formula for making those key decisions.
To that end I wanted to find out more about the way research staff work and was kindly allowed to attend a group meeting of the Operation Research (OR) Society. Dr Stephen Lorrimer, the Head of Analytical Services for the NHS discussed the importance of OR whilst David Gilding from Nottinghamshire NHS discussed some sample case projects done recently. What was noticeable about the people attending was that they made an outsider interested in finding out more very welcome and I’d like to thank both James Crosbie and Jane Parkin for taking care of me.
Community of Practice portals can be seamlessly integrated within a virtual world
The OR teams within the NHS did seem to be quite disparate and I thought could make use of technology in improving communication between themselves to discuss and improve each others work. I also wondered whether having a communications platform (as in the title!) could help improve QA within a group by allowing disparate researchers to interactively work together.
A VastPark virtual world displaying a large dataset
Jane Parkin invited me to join the OR society and I’m very keen on doing more work to see how analytical research work can be improved using communications technology such as that provided by VastPark and SnapGroove, as well as using that technology to improve links between these staff and key decision makers.
A VastPark world displaying geo-specific data set
April 23, 2013 Leave a comment
As part of last month’s presentation to DSTL/Qinetiq we hosted a small virtual world for attendee’s to see how collaboration and communication could work.
The virtual world was based around version 2 of VastPark’s software platform although soon we’re hoping to get our hands on version 3 later this year which will:
February 12, 2013 Leave a comment
Myself and a colleague, Just Harris, will be presenting a white paper on learning innovation within the Contemporary Operating Environment at a forthcoming learning conference in March at Qinetiq’s Farnborough site.
Other presentations will be made by Qinetiq as well as Newmann and Spurr (NSC). NSC are currently the company providing the JCOVE simulation service for both pre-deployment and in-theatre learning.
Our paper will discuss a number of streams:
Following presentations their will be lunch and a live online demonstration of the use of a virtual world for collaborative learning.
The demonstration will be using VastPark technologies, for a video example of their work, go to this link: http://vimeo.com/49000257
July 17, 2011 Leave a comment
Attended a fantastic demonstration on Friday in a virtual world from the guys at VastPark.
Once in the world I was shown a seat at a microsoft style surface table, where Bruce Joy and Tim Glew from VastPark proceeded to introduce office documents, websites and other media onto the table.
I could take hold of each object, re-size and display each object full screen, whilst we all continued chatting via VOIP in the virtual world.
A fantastic piece of collaboration and I’m looking forward to seeing more from these guys.
July 8, 2011 Leave a comment
Virtual World Sample 1
Virtual World Sample 2
Vast Park is .net based and developers can add there only .net extensions, so soon I’m hoping to add extra in-world features.
Elearning Technologist 