7.8 Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds let your students explore three-dimensional models of real-world places or of places that cannot exist in our world. Just by pointing and clicking, you can move around, above, and even through these specially constructed digital worlds. Whether peeking inside an atom or exploring a simulated distant galaxy, these digital representations can take you and your students on real or fantasy fieldtrips that could only have been imagined.

Visit the Contact Consortiums Web site at http://www.ccon.org and explore to discover more about virtual reality. Then visit some of the virtual worlds created by Contact Consortiums special interest group, Biota at http://www.biota.org/index.html

After touring these unique worlds and two others from the list below or that you find on the Web, describe your experiences in those virtual worlds and how you think virtual worlds will be able to enhance teaching and learning. Be prepared to share your views with your peers.

Want to know more? Check out these sites:

Google Education Virtual Reality

http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/vrk12/index.htm

http://www.utexas.edu/depts/grg/eworks/wie/ludwig/earthwor.html

http://www.ento.vt.edu/~sharov/3d/3dinsect.html

http://www-vrl.umich.edu/

http://www.materialworlds.com/