Education is one domain that has accompanied civilization through the centuries, adapting its tools to fulfil the expectations of the students and the needs of the teachers. Such tools can be as obvious and traditional as pencils and a notebook, or as complex and innovative as websites and multi-us…
Education is one domain that has accompanied civilization through the centuries, adapting its tools to fulfil the expectations of the students and the needs of the teachers. Such tools can be as obvious and traditional as pencils and a notebook, or as complex and innovative as websites and multi-user virtual environments.
Typical in-person learning environments, such as classrooms and meeting rooms, are at times not the best solution to enable and maximize a student's ability to learn. Although they do fulfill their purpose of giving students the possibility of reaching course material and instructors, they also create a barrier that cannot be easily overcome. Web-based instruction and multi-user virtual environments break the time-limited barrier innate to typical lectures and explore, through innovative technologies, a concept as old as humankind: socialization and the feeling of belonging to a community.
Many universities, public institutions and private businesses are projecting themselves on the Internet and in virtual worlds to reach the customer at any time, giving them the idea of virtual presence that cannot be delivered through a simple website. This observation sparks the idea that is at the very foundation of this publication.
