Welcome to the home of interactive3d learning objects
HIV/AIDS - showing the link to poverty (UNESCO-IICBA, 2005)
Case Study: Nakaseke
(UNESCO 2001/04)
Nakaseke: Pop. 36 000.
The model was first installed at the Multipurpose Community Telecentre (MCT) in 2001.
Staff have used use it in 24 primary and 4 secondary schools. Community and church leaders, and the local clinic also use it. "It has been shown to community members and school children; with the special approach of having users run it on their own” (UNESCO Nat. Commission, 2003)
The MPC staff also used the VR model to entice locals to the Centre – “it has also been one way of encouraging locals that were originally intimidated by the MCT to participate and use the equipment at the MCT...".
Feedback from Nakaseke in 2003 was very encouraging. This not only indicated that the VR-based learning material was well received, but that the incidence of hygiene-related disease in the community had dropped significantly.
The story so far...
The early days – growing a vision
The concept of using Virtual Reality as an educational tool in Africa took shape from 2000 onwards with the establishment of the Naledi3d Factory and the support of UNESCO in a pilot project that tested the concept of using VR in a small rural community in Uganda (Nakaseke, north of Kampala) addressing basic hygiene.
The formative years
Between 2000 and 2006, VR was used to address several other diverse learning areas, including HIV, Malaria and “employment”. During this period, topics tended to be covered comprehensively – an approach that had consequences for budget needs as well as how training organisations had to use the material.
Adolescence – the interactive3d learning object is born
In 2004, the concept of smaller, self-contained simulations addressing specific learning messages began to emerge. These simulations can be used in a number of ways and even incorporated into existing learning material.
Thus the “interactive3d learning object” was born – a combination of “the interactive 3D simulation” and the educational concept of the “learning object” .
Growing up
Projects between 2004 and 2007 helped to refine the i3dlo concept, with contributions from experts in the field – including Pasi Silander, a learning object expert from Finland, as well as Dr Bob Day, of Non Zero-Sum Development (South Africa).
The i3dlo concept was also tested through several projects between 2004 and 2008 – for example, addressing water issues (with country teams from Mozambique, Sudan, Senegal, Ethiopia and South Africa); PC literacy (supported by OSISA) and math and science (supported by IICBA).
A clearer understanding of how to easily translate and implement i3dlo’s also emerged during this period, and colleagues from seven countries met in Pretoria to better understand this approach. By the end of this period, a solid i3dlo platform was beginning to emerge:
An informal 10-country implementation network began to emerge
A process to translate i3dlo’s without using the original VR authoring tools
Testing of these processes in French, Portuguese and significantly, in the first ever African language – Shona (work that continues at World Links in Harare)
Founding of a i3dlo web site to make available all developed i3dlo’s
And out in the field…
These ideas, building since 2000 and the experience gained in working with i3dlo’s, while exciting, also accumulated in the success of our first major implementation project in Zimbabwe - working with small-holding farmers in five districts, supported by the WK Kellogg Foundation.
This three year project, which ended in 2009, saw the Naledi3d Factory partnering with World Links Zimbabwe (WLZ) to address issues around water and soil conservation, sorghum, pests and bee-keeping. The i3dlo’s developed were translated in Harare into Shona before being used at five World Links Community centres – and the local VR committees, established as part of the project, continue to hold their own workshops and field days, some attracting upwards of 200 people.
The project also achieved recognition when it was selected by the World Summit Award (WSA) Grand Jury 2009 “as one of the most outstanding examples of creative and innovative e-Content”.
Unlike many stories, this is a story with no ending – but there are many blank pages yet to be filled…
“Aluta Continua”