” is a subject better known through its constituent technologies, such as bar coding, two-dimensional coding, magnetic encoding and electronic coding, including the much vaunted radio frequency identification (RFID)”

The Centre puts these technologies in context by taking visitors through scenarios. Visitors can move unaccompanied through the demonstrations and use the equipment. There are a range of scenarios in which you can use the equipment including a hospital, airport, warehouse, retail outlet, manufacturing plant, town hall and they are planning to create a classroom of the future.

Screen Sharing

Plugins (Youtube videos/video/flash)

Brio is built on Adobe’s Flash platform, and operates inside a web browser.

It allows you to:

• Host unlimited online meetings with up to 3 meeting participants.
• Interact through screen sharing, chat and whiteboards.
• Access a meeting via a personalized URL.
• Distribute documents and files to meeting participants.
• Use integrated VoIP, teleconferencing and multi-point video.

We found that access to the meeting was quick and the screen sharing worked well but we had some difficulties with the sound.  It’s worth a try even though the numbers who can participate are limited to 3.

Also feel free to leave comments on this blog.

“Unlike tiny videos on websites like YouTube, Miro videos are usually very high quality and look great when watched full screen. Since Miro downloads videos completely before you watch, your videos will never skip or stutter while they are playing.”

When you download Miro you can then choose for the programme to find all the videos on your computer. I found some I didn’t even know I had.

On the Miro website there is also a guide on how to make internet TV and covers shooting, editing, publishing and promoting the film.

You can extract the course into a zip file which has your self contained course in SCORM 2004 or SCORM 1.2 compatible format which can then, according to myUdutu, be:

• loaded into your existing CMS
• distributed via CD
• hosted on your own webspace
• kept for your archives

It is free to author, preview and pilot it but there is a watermark (which you click to remove) on the pages until you choose the publish live option. Then it appears to be that you must purchase screens for hosting which are $1 each. I’ll post a sample course when I’ve finished creating it.

There is also a Live Class Module for Moodle.

The program has been in development since 2003 and since then the founder, Bruce Joy, says the focus has been on:

“how to scale the virtual web up to millions of worlds; how to connect them together; and how to solve the infrastructure issues so that no one person or company ‘owns’ the virtual web. Although our ‘beta’ software implementation requires Microsoft Windows®, our underlying framework is absolutely cross-platform and non-device specific.” (Bruce Joy, October 2007)

The Beta 2 version has now been released and you can sign up for the closed beta here.  It seems to be an interesting development so I’ll be keeping an eye on progress.

The video here takes you through the basics:

In Touch Care in Sheffield use 3D resources which they purchased from Amazing Interactives as part of their LIG2 bid (Learning Innovation Grant) and have found them to be extremely effective teaching aids for their Health & Social Care, Oral Health and Childcare courses. Jo North, the Executive Director of In Touch Care, prepared a podcast for us on the developments made through strategic planning, excellent technical support in house, investment in 3D interactive aids, simulators and staff development in the use of these tools, two parts of which you can view in the video section of our social networking site mrscyhspace. The videos are not edited in a whizzy way yet but are still useful as Jo North sets out very clearly each stage of her organisation’s e learning journey and describes how the 3D and other tools have been used effectively.

Some professionally made videos about In Touch Care can be viewed on their website.