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December 2011

December 06, 2011

Moodle 2.2 released today (6-Dec-2011) includes a facility which allows for the embedding of tools that are provided externally as activities on courses.  Close integration is possible using the IMS Global Learning Tool Interoperability (IMS LTI) standard. See http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2011/11/28/moodle-2-supports-connecting-to-ims-lti-tools/

But the same mechanism allows for effectively any external tool to be easily embedded (above showing the Edinburgh MSc in e-Learning IDEL11 Course Holyrood Park ELGG Blog).  The simple mechanism just means you input the URL from which the tool or contents are served.  More advanced facilities allow for proper IMS LTI integration. See the image of the advanced version of the tool options.

Keywords: IDEL11, IMS LTI, Moodle

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December 07, 2011

A number of people are investigating Unity3D as a 3D graphics engine for virtual worlds. It can be delivered through a web browser on a range of platforms including mobile devices. It might offer a light weight alternative to Second Life and OpenSim.

I have created a simple I-Room from scratch, built that into a complex Unity3D terrain and incorporated very simple avatars as an exercise in learning about Unity3D.  I have also experimented with two different multi-user server addons - SmartFox Pro and Photon. I have embedded the Unity3D virtual world view into a web page alongside collaboration widgets to provide Twitter following of a given #tag, VoIP via Tokbox, and a Dabbleboard for showing presentations and giving a shared whiteboard. The demo systems are all available via http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~ai/unity/

Even better, there are a number of groups interested in content exchange from OpenSim to Unity3D. An example is the recent conversion of the OpenVCE collaboration region which was originally on the Second Life VCE region, ported to OpenSim and then converted through Tipodean's Collada Converter for use in Unity3D. It is now available for use under the flexible Lesser GPL licence.

Keywords: Collada, IDEL11, Tokbox, Unity3D

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December 08, 2011

Its chilly in Sony Home ...

Keywords: IDEL11, Sony Home

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