Virtual Worlds

Intro
How it all started
What it is all about
How it can affect you
What about the Future

Active Worlds Basics
More info on AW
Installing the Browser
Using the Browser

Active Worlds Edu
AW for educational use

The Palace Basics
More info on The Palace
Installing the Client
Using the Client

The Palace Edu
The Palace for educational use

Active Worlds is a great platform to create 3D Virtual Learning Environments. It's especially great for art classes (showing 3D sculptures and other 3D artpieces), science and biology (showing 3D models of bodyparts, organs, DNA strings, molecules, etc) and other classes that have need to show their work in 3D.

A 3D copy of your school is also possible, but keep in mind that chat text is spread over a large area and is not limited to a room. This way it can be very hard to hold more than one class simultaneously..

Active Worlds environments are very rich and just the looks are already very attractive to the eyes of both teachers and students.

An example application you can use for an Active Worlds world is having a maze that gives clues in a native language, so the students can only get out by trying to read the hints. They can ask their fellow students for help. And if they can't manage to get out, a teacher can give more hints. Or they can search for information using the HTML interface build into Active Worlds.

There are a number of universities already using Active Worlds. The Tilburg University in the Netherlands is working on a Active Worlds world called BOWorld that should give information to new students of the B.O.W.

TheU is a project to promote the use of Active Worlds for Education. TheU also is the home of another new project, the Virtual High School.

Science Classroom in the Virtual High School (TheU)

Student WebQuest Wing in the VHS

Flying over the VHS Courtyard

Virtual Cafeteria with Live TV (BOWorld)