The primary mission of the initiative is to work with students who have not been provided quality education, who have struggled to achieve educational success in their lives, or who have become subjects of the achievement gap. This high school gives those students the opportunity to earn their diploma, go to college or find employment. The high school also provides their immersive learning opportunities to students in the care of the Division of Youth Services or the Sheriff’s Department.

The institute uses its own secure virtual world to hold classes ensuring that only enrolled students have access to the world, operating much like security and disciplinary services would in a physical high school.

Roxbury Institute of Technology serves as a great model for secondary education institutions to use technology for the mission of improving educational opportunity in the United States. Watch this video to see an inside look of how the immersive high school looks.

Several institutions, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and James Madison University in Virginia, have tested out the idea of technology-based foreign language learning. At UNC – Chapel Hill, students in beginner level Spanish conjugate verbs and learn vocabulary on a computer program throughout the week, and attend a virtual live class once a week. This class convenes via Web-conferencing software where the students click on a “raised hand” icon if they want to answer a question. At James Madison University, students can receive credit for a 16-week course in Spanish that is largely managed by Rosetta Stone. This software, with a version built specifically for educational use, combines interactive speaking activities, simulated real-life conversations, and interactive grammar and spelling activities to create one of the most unique and proven effective language-learning programs in the world. While it was once for personal use, Rosetta Stone technique is now incorporated into many classrooms.

One main point the article highlights is that although online learning has proven effective for students in beginner- and intermediate-level courses, it is rare to find an entire degree in foreign language offered in a solely virtual world. However, that type of technology is improving, with web conferencing software like Elluminate. Elluminate lets students and professors interact through two-way audio, an interactive whiteboard, desktop sharing, breakout rooms and session recording. This covers the extremely important “conversational” aspect of any foreign language study. With the use of Rosetta Stone, Elluminate, and the eventual use of webcams, there is a great likelihood for foreign language studies to be the next field to embrace the technological advances in the higher education industry.

Traditionally, students learned these skills through role playing, but many felt intimidated. One student said acting through the avatar greatly improved his confidence.

In the future, Birmingham City University hopes to expand the project to include medical students, police trainees, and other professionals in one online world where different professions learn to communicate with one another.

Check out this video on Sky News to learn more about the virtual hospital.

Learn about SimHub’s own Virtual Healthcare Facility from USC Upstate on the projects page.

The Allosphere is a 26-year research effort by Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin. Essentially, it is a large-scale immersive laboratory that boasts a 30-foot diameter built inside of a 3-story, echo-free cube. The environment allows interactive visual representation of mathematical and scientific data, allowing the increasing number of scientific problems to be represented and researched visually. The cube allows for manipulation, exploration, and analysis of very large-scale data sets. All of this activity can simulate virtual sensorial perception.

One breakthrough educational technology honored at the IMMY awards was the Virtual Lap Band by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The University received a $2.3 million federal grant to build this touch sensitive virtual reality simulator to teach surgeons certified procedures for laparoscopic surgery.

One of the reasons this virtual reality surgery is so important, is because it has been proven that physicians show increased success in surgery the more times they perform it. This technology gives them the opportunity for repetitive practice and proper certification before they start performing on humans.

The system features real laparoscopic tools, as well as realistic computer-generated models of the scene displayed on a monitor. The users can use their sense of touch while interacting with the technology. The haptics ensures that a physician cutting tissue with the simulator will be able to feel the lifelike characteristics of virtual tissue. Automation also comes into play, as the simulator will also be able to literally guide the hands of trainees, so they can see and feel the correct movements as they learn specific surgical tasks.

This video, compliments of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, features one medical student testing out the Gastric Banding Simulator.

Check back next week to learn about the 1st place recipient in the education category at the IMMY awards!

SWIFT was developed by the University of Leicester in Leicester, United Kingdom. SWIFT developed laboratory activities in a virtual world used for teaching and learning biomedical sciences. SWIFT compares the learning outcomes of the traditional classroom with the virtual world, not intending to replace real-life laboratory learning, but to complement it.

SimHub’s emerging technologies focusing on virtual worlds, simulation, augmented reality, and serious gaming were recognized with four other noteworthy projects. The ImTech award winner in the Research & Education category was a project called StarCAVE by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, utilized by the University of California, Santa Barbra.

The technology is a five-sided room with 360-degree projections that surround the user, offering scientists groundbreaking insights into their research. The scientists can be instantly transported to a world the size of a particle or the size of the universe, allowing them to make discoveries from an entirely new perspective. Users of the StarCAVE span far and wide, ranging from researchers in neuroscience to art history. Viewers use 3D polarizing glasses that enable them to navigate 360 degrees around objects that are projected throughout the cave.

To provide a truly realistic experience in this virtual world, the StarCAVE is also fully equipped with a surround sound system, which maximizes the perception of sounds coming from many different sides of the room. The StarCAVE is also wheelchair accessible, and was constructed to withstand earthquakes. The engineers of StarCAVE are continuously working on advancements to increase visual acuity and upgrade systems for greater realism.

StarCAVE is only one impressive technology recognized by IMTech’s 2010 “Immy Awards.” Check back next week to learn about what other notable technology organizations are changing the realm of education.

With the use of TeachME^TM, student teachers are provided with a broad range of opportunities for realistic experience, since the student avatars can be customized to reflect varying classroom demographics. This also allows the teacher educators to provide more focused instruction to the student teachers while the simulated teacher training takes place. Educators and students alike are very excited to experience teacher education training in a whole new world.

The Greenville Literacy Association will be hosting  their annual book sale this Saturday!

The really good, really big, really cheap book sale will be this Saturday (8/20) from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. located at McAlister Square. 225 S Pleasantburg dr.

A Technology Special Interest Group (Tech SIG) Learning Event