SCORM scorned?

On the SLOODLE project, we’ve been asked from time to time if we provide support for SCORM. As Gia, our Sloodlebrity, once responded… “Why would we  do that?” – and indeed it’s something that we could do, but till now there hasn’t been enough compelling reason to invest the resources into it. (Though we did do a small proof of concept – just to prove it can be done!)

As schools throughout the UK get move involved in using a variety of VLE/LMS, so are publishers getting busy trying to sell them content to put on their shiny new VLEs. IUsher has a post on this – pointing out quite clearly that whatever SCORM compliant indicates, it has nothing to do with quality… also provides a fairly good explanation of what SCORM is: Schools Get Treated with SCORM

3D web getting whole lot faster… soon

A tech story for a change… because the implications are huge

Second Life runs in its own client… Metaplace runs in Flash… Sun’s Wonderland in Java.

These different options all, to varying extents, take the runtime environment out of the browser software itself. With Second Life this is obvious, less so with the other two. Flash is a plug-in that runs in your browser window, but it isn’t really part of the browser per se. Similar story with Java – if you don’t have Java Runtime Executables installed on your machine, your browser wont be able to run Java applications.

Javascript is different. This scripting language is interpreted by the browser client itself, and recent browser releases have significantly improved Javascript performance. So now, Javascript is able to do funky graphical tricks like the Google Chrome bouncing ball:

Now, at the bidding of Mozilla, the Khronos Foundation have started work to bring accelerated 3D graphics – courtesy of OpenGL – to Javascript and the browser. In a couple of years time, it looks like the 3D web really could be running in your browser – without needing any plugins or downloading 3rd party software.

Yamake – game maker for Nokia mobile phones

It was surely only a matter of time…

“Yamake is a groundbreaking new game for the N-Gage platform. Players can make, play and share games that are customized using user-generated multimedia content, and we are proud to be pioneering this new way of playing,” said Dr Mark Ollila, Director of Technology and Strategy and Head of Games Publishing, Nokia. “This is exactly what the future of mobile gaming should be about – creating games that you love and want to play, then sharing them with other players.”

Images and details still a little thin on the ground, but Jon Jordan had a go over at Pocket Gamer. Didn’t get a chance to actually try out the game creation side of it though, which is the bit I’m most interested in. There is some suspicion that the game making activities will be quite tightly constrained and fairly limited. For example, puzzle games such as jig-saws and sliding puzzles simply ask you to add your own image. Other game types include ‘Top Trumps’ card games, crosswords and quizzes. So probably not very open in terms of creating novel gameplay, but there could still be a fair amount of  classroom potential in a tool like this…

Introducing the UWS Metacampus

I’ve been quietly exploring Metaplace as time allows over the past few weeks – its not so much a virtual world as a web-based platform for building your virtual worlds, quickly and easily (though you can also put a lot more work in customising and developing your unique vision!). Tales from my first class to run in Metaplace below…

Computing less popular than ever in schools

The numbers of school students studying computing in the UK have slumped even further according to the BBC.

I had a really long post about this… but it got ate by my proxy server (aka web-blocker) – and I really don’t want to rewrite it now

Somehow, the categories and tags got saved, but not the actual text – frustrating or what?

Virtual World Watch – Start the Week Podcasts

At Virtual World Watch, John Kirriemuir has started a series of ’start the week’ short podcasts (~10 to 15 minutes). This week its me! More here: http://virtualworldwatch.net/2009/03/02/daniel-livingstone/ where I natter about virtual worlds uptake at the University of the West of Scotland and a little more about virtual worlds generally.