Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
guI, the graphical user Interface
tems, task forces, and liaison roles that facilitate
the flow of information to reduce the uncertainty.
The role of media in uncertainty reduction is its
ability to transmit the sufficient amount of cor-
rect information. Equivocality is associated with
negotiating meanings for ambiguous situations. To
deal with equivocality, people in an organization
must find structures that enable rapid information
cycles among them so that meaning can emerge
(Ramasundaram, et al., 2005).
While the virtual meeting rooms and classrooms
discussed above are intended for group learning and
for replicating a real-life lecture scenario, a Collab-
orative Learning Environment with Virtual Reality
also caters for individual learning with facilities for
students to review and acquire the lecture notes.
Obtaining the learning material is achieved in a
natural and intuitive way through a virtual library.
The library contains a bookcase and a number of
desks. When a tutor uploads notes to the system,
they are automatically represented by a topic on the
library shelf. Students can then enter the library and
browse the catalogue of lecture notes available. When
a student clicks on a topic, the notes associated with
that particular topic are placed on the nearest free
table. The user can then review the notes, flicking
back and forth through them and also download
them to their own computer for review at a later
date. At present the library contains eight desks. If
students are viewing notes at all eight desks, then
the next student attempting to view a set of lecture
notes is instructed to download them directly to their
own computer for viewing. Personal notes taken
by the student during a learning session can also be
accessed via the library. In addition, a number of
links to external websites are available. For example,
clicking on the dictionary opens a webpage for the
online version of an English dictionary, and likewise
clicking on the encyclopedia opens a webpage for an
online encyclopedia that students can use (Monahan,
et al., 2008).
As a summary the specifications of a Virtual
Reality Environment for E-learning can be ac-
cording to Table 2 (Bouras, et al., 2001).
The main purpose of the Graphical User Interface
(GUI) is to host a suite of communication controls
for the system. It is made up of a series of panels.
The initial panel details personal user information
such as their name and status.
This is a messaging service where users can
type a message and send it to all those connected or
alternatively send it privately to individual users.
The GUI also provides a panel with tools for users
to broadcast their voice. Once a user connects to
the communication server, they can select an area
or virtual room in the 3D environment to broadcast
to. For example, they can choose to broadcast to
a meeting room allowing anyone in this room to
hear the voice broadcast. Furthermore users can
broadcast a live stream from their web-cam to a
media board in the Virtual Reality environment.
The web cast is automatically displayed in the
3D environment of all users currently connected.
This is actually a Face-to-face conversation tool
Table 2. General concepts for collaborative Virtual
Reality based e-learning
The ability to support a maximum number
of simultaneous users, which could vary ac-
cording to the specific settings of each virtual
world.
Scalability
This is realized by distributing and synchro-
nizing user input as well as user independent
behavior in order to achieve the impression of
a single shared world.
Persistence
It should be possible to customize an existing
VE, before
Presenting it to the users.
Extensibility
It should be possible to interface a Virtual
Environment to external applications.
Openness
Communi-
cation
The users in a Learning Virtual Environment
should be able to communicate.
A Web-based application implemented with
international accepted standards and technolo-
gies (HTTP, HTML, VRML, and JAVA).
Compat-
ibility
Support
of variable
content
Several forms of data should be supported and
embedded in the Learning Virtual Environ-
ment.
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