By Jeff Saporito for Grid World News
Traditional online education takes place via emotionless blogs, websites, chat rooms, wikis or discussion boards. Students and teachers interact only through text, unable to conduct experiments or attempt hands-on learning. It is designed to teach the basics and leave process to the field - to educate in a passive environment. Sprott-Shaw Degree College is hoping to change that.
Sprott-Shaw College is an international collection of educational institutions found in a far off place. Now using the power and advantages of our Linden world, Sprott-Shaw has commissioned a campus that will allow students to attend approved online classes completely within. Some degrees, they hope, can be earned entirely through class at this new facility, while others (pre-med, pre-law, etc.) will require attendance at another school after a few years.
The campus itself, though beautiful and rather customary at first glance, contains a wealth of exclusive technologies programmed and designed for Sprott-Shaw by Crystal Studio, the same pack of brains behind the Chernobyl Memorial. The core sim is home to the college’s community elements: classrooms, dormitories, a visitor’s center, common areas and a great library. Neighbor to this central sim is Sprott Shaw Trades and Hospital, which contain technologies for engineering and medical students, respectively.
The school aspires to fashion a sim for each degree as such, housing specialized equipment capable of giving the students a hands-on complexity never before utilized. For instance, in Hospital, students will be able to analyze MRI and X-RAY images uploaded by a working hospital to their MRI or X-RAY units on the sim, in real time, on a global scale. Then, they can talk about their findings with doctors and nurses. In the electrical trade warehouse, engineering students can study circuitry from their three-dimensional teacher, blueprint a circuit on Crystal Studio’s inventive “EEEL” (Emulated Electricity on Electron Level) system, and watch it physically construct itself on a testing table for functionality. These are only the beginnings of what will come.
Additionally, the library contains numerous laptop stations where students can gather information catered to their classes and lessons. Logging into a computer system provides the user with hundreds of literary sources catered to their coursework. Implemented in the ten-person classrooms are Crystal Studio’s own “3DILE” (3-Dimensional Interactive Learning Environment) tools. Instructors can log in at the front desk, use the video screen, and teach students in more personalized ways than ever formerly possible.
Sprott-Shaw Linden has been years in development, as much time and money has been spent to guarantee an industry-approved teaching platform is developed and high standards for education are attainable. Sprott-Shaw faculty has been in training on campus with the educational systems for nearly a year, and once prepared, full-time Linden-deployed faculty will be available. It is the first school of its kind, and the faculty does not want to rush things and fail. The payoff is coming together, as the campus’ first classes are now in session.
For those interested in better understanding the innovation powering the school, as this article only touches the surface, a guided tour system exists spanning all of the sims. Inside the campus visitor’s center, a free HUD can be acquired. This HUD is triggered when the wearer clicks on Sprott-Shaw logos immersed in a glowing red aura that are spattered around campus. Clicking these will guide one through the college with words and pictures, explaining each aspect of the school.
Sprott-Shaw unquestionably has enormous potential to completely redefine the way people view and conceptualize Internet education through its application of physical representation and inimitable technological innovation. A pioneer in its class, it will surely be imitated if proven a success, hopefully capable of setting a new precedent for global education.
For a YouTube trailer on the EEEL system, see here.
For a YouTube trailer touring the Sprott-Shaw campus, see here.
For further information on Sprott-Shaw, check out their website.