WebQuest in a Virtual World

I thought I would share with everyone a teaser for my capstone project I am doing for my MAED at Hamline. When it is complete it will comprise four WebQuests that exist within the virtual world of Active Worlds. In this video you see the environment students would visit for the first assignment on the first task of the first of these four WebQuests. I am trying to integrate as many different web 2.0 and peripheral devices as possible. So far in this task I have integrated virtual worlds, wikis, YouTube, and cell phone podcasting in a way that should feel seemless to students but giving them ways to influence this virtual environment while learning at the same time about art history, geometry, and drawing. I hope to have this all finished within a month but at the rate things are going it might be a bit longer.

Google Maps Street View

WOW! This is amazing. I wonder how long it will take to capture every street in the US. Actually, I am more interested in them capturing streets in more distant locals. There are some obvious educational applications of this tool. Now, if these panoramic images could be done as webcams and broadcast video in real time and we merged this technology with Second Life it would be amazing. Stationary panoramic webcams could also contain microphones and speakers. Those in the virtual version of a location could hear what was going on and talk to actual people there. Plus, virtual buildings could be constructed within a context of real space. I do believe we are not far from something like this being a reality. Complex? Yes. But approaching technology transparency.