Terra Learner

by jon@vlesupport.co.uk on 25/01/2011
in Main News

 VLE Support have launched the first futuristic collaborative virtual world, based on Second Life, but within a completely secure and closed environment. Their new product, ‘Terra Learner’ was unveiled at the recent BETT Show (January 2011).

Second Life is a virtual world that was originally created as a geeky plaything, but now it has 15 million inhabitants and a thriving economy fuelled by well-known organisations from the BBC to Mercedes Benz through to Save the Children Charity. Mark Trinick, managing director of VLE Support, commented: “One of Second Life’s greatest strengths is collaboration and so we think it could form the basis of new partnerships or projects between schools. Another key area of interest is developing business acumen in young adults and we are working with the independent sector and the Social Entrepreneur Project on this. Second Life is unique in that it operates a real economy but in a totally novel environment. The opportunities for entrepreneurs are significant, especially for the next generation of adults who will have grown up with gaming and the Web 2.0 phenomenon (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, and so on).”

The big downside of the main Second Life grid is that it does not provide a secure and closed environment where schools can collaborate safely. With that in mind, VLE Support have launched ‘Terra Learner’, their own secure environment based on Second Life technology, but controlled and hosted in the UK.
Used to its full capacity Terra Learner can be used to meet all the curriculum standards in virtual reality from EYFS through to KS4 on all subjects as a supplementary activity to existing methods.
Virtual reality is not just the domain of ICT, but it is the domain of all subjects and areas, from languages to mathematics. It also promotes:
• Social Interaction
• Communication
• Team Work
• Co-ordination
• Creativity and the use of ICT in teaching and learning across the curriculum

VLE Support has begun creating a prototype school which currently contains various learning materials. It will be adding new areas to the school over time. It has also been used on a trial bases with secondary schools in the borough of Islington for the past three months, and has proved to be a success.

Mark Trinick concluded: “We developed an ‘Astro-Park’ as a taster of what could be achieved, but the potential for learning in Terra Learner goes much further.”