New Nexus is described as a “tool kit for educators to create VW [virtual worlds] content”. It'll be free to use or modify, as easy to use as possible, and also flexible and adaptable according to Tripp Robbins, who wrote a summary of the project for Terra Nova. It's also going to be cross-platform, working on multiple operating systems.
“If and when the Dream Kit is created, educators around the world will be able to use it to create Learning Modules. (My conservative ballpark guess is that a reasonable tool would only be useable by 1%-2% of primary and secondary teachers; at its most user-friendly, it'd still require some tech savvy.) Each new module can be shared on the web and available for free download so that the storehouse of available, ever-improving materials will always be growing.”
Robbins says the New Nexus project could take an open-source approach, with individuals working together to create modules on a not-for-profit basis. Or it could involve taking funding from charitable organisations to hire engineers and artists to create them. It's interesting, clearly, but my first reaction is to wonder about the top-down approach - teachers and educators create modules, and children explore them.
Wouldn't it be more exciting if, well, the children were creating the modules themselves? So New Nexus would provide the structure and basic environments, but the kids would supply the creativity, guided by their teachers. Maybe this is part of the New Nexus vision, of course - it's early days.
New Nexus website (via
Terra Nova)
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