Using the iPod Touch (Ransboro NS)

Two points in particular resonated with me and our work here at Daynuv - (1) the idea of opening up the conversation between schools, and (2) the sharing of visual art. As it happens this is exactly the direction Daynuv is taking over the coming months in facilitating schools to participate in ‘field trips’ between their own private virtual worlds.

Not only will the students be able to visits other schools’ virtual islands as guests but also share and discuss their 3D creations, with live chat, in each other’s virtual presence. Whether they be mathematical sculptures, replicas of historical buildings and costumes, or a model of the space shuttle. Children will be able to show their avatar guests around their virtual world and give them copies to take back to their own worlds.

And we imagine they’ll also tweet about it

Virtual World Q&A with Bob Burke

A group of 5th class children in Gaelscoil Eoghain uí Thuairisc had a visit Tuesday from Bob Burke, the Clare based author of “The Third Pig Detective Agency.” Mr. Burke won the much-coveted Eilís Dillon Award at the 20th Bisto Children’s Book of the Year Awards for this, his first book.

What makes this visit by an author unusual was that it took place in a virtual world, the creation of the five children as part of the Daynuv/Giftedkids.ie project that has been running as a pilot project in the Gaelscoil over the last few months. The author logged in by special permission to the island from his Co. Clare base and chatted to the Carlow children in their own school.

“The virtual world demonstrated what can be achieved with creativity and imagination”, said Burke. “The kids have designed their own buildings which are both impressive and colourful and have dotted the landscape with Celtic crosses. I was particularly impressed with the auditorium where the virtual Q&A took place.”

The Gaelscoil children designed a special presentation podium where the meeting took place in their virtual world and gave Mr. Burke a guided tour of the island to explain their work, which features everything from a high-cross to a games arena and mansion with its own private swimming pool. Ódhran, Síobhra, Connor, Lauren and Niamh, themselves showing great promise in the area of creative writing, got the chance to question Bob on the trials and joys of becoming a published author.

“The Q&A was fast, frenetic and it was all I could do just to keep on top of the barrage of great questions I was asked”, added Burke. “The session was all the more impressive when you realise that in the real world the kids were asking the questions from different classrooms and I was answering them from 90 miles away yet we were together in a single location in the virtual world.”

Daynuv, the company behind this education and collaboration platform, based on 3D simulated environments, has partnered with Giftedkids.ie to develop a pilot for the support of exceptionally able children in the classroom. The Gaelscoil was delighted to have been chosen to explore the new project.

Daynuv specialises in the development of virtual worlds for immersive education and has received seed funding from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland to develop applications for children with special needs. “From our experience we’ve discovered that 3D learning software allows exceptionally able children to unlock the abilities which can go unnoticed in a traditional learning environment”, said James Corbett of Daynuv. “Partnering with GiftedKids.ie was the ideal way for us to bring this enabling technology to those who need it most”.

Contact:
James Corbett
Co-founder Daynuv.com
087-3207756
james@daynuv.com

Irish Primary School building it’s own virtual world

NEWCASTLEWEST, CO. LIMERICK - MAY 21, 2010: Daynuv has partnered with GiftedKids.ie to pilot a new ICT initiative aimed at supporting a group of exceptionally able students in Gaelscoil Eoghain Uí Thuairisc Carlow. The pilot, overseen and developed in conjuction with Bríd Uí Mhaoluala, Learning Support Teacher with Carlow Gaelscoil is the first of its kind in Ireland to use 3D modelling software and programming tools to teach part of the primary school curriculum in a learning support setting.

Daynuv built a private and secure GiftedKids.ie ‘island’ on their 3D grid. This deserted island was quickly peopled with avatars and architectural structures created by a group of five Gaelscoil students under the guidance of their teacher Brid Uí Mhaoluala. After some initial training the students quickly got to grips with the software and soon built a 3D world based a number of local structures including high crosses such as the Castledermot crosses. The students can access the island both at home and at school and can interact via their avatars with the virtual environment and with each other.

“With expertise in 3D modelling software and programming tools for children, Daynuv has created an engaging and empowering learning environment, particularly for children with exceptional ability and high visual spatial awareness”, said Margaret Keane of Giftedkids.ie.

Giftedkids.ie is a support website for parents and educators of “exceptionally able” and “twice exceptional” (gifted but with learning difficulties) children in Ireland. “We would like to thank Brid Uí Mhaoluala and the staff of Gaelscoil Eoghain Uí Thuairisc in particular for embracing this new technology so readily and recognising its potential use for these often overlooked group of students”.

Brid Uí Mhaoluala has been teaching small groups of exceptionally able children for the past number of years at the school and was interested in using this type of technology to provide enrichment material for her current group of students.

“We worked the Daynuv project for two periods a week in school, but the children continued to work on the project at home. It was great that they could work on what they wanted and on something truly challenging”, said Uí Mhaoluala. “I am not a techno-wizard, I don’t even have an ECDL, so by taking this on, I felt I would be able to say to any teacher that if I could do it, anyone could.”

Daynuv specialises in the development of virtual worlds for immersive education and has received seed funding from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland to develop applications for children with special needs. “From our experience we’ve discovered that 3D learning software allows exceptionally able children to unlock the abilities which can go unnoticed in a traditional learning environment”, said James Corbett of Daynuv. “Partnering with GiftedKids.ie was the ideal way for us to bring this enabling technology to those who need it most”.

Contact:

James Corbett, co-founder
Daynuv
Newcastlewest,
Co. Limerick
Phone: 087-3207756
http://www.daynuv.com

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You can watch a video of Simon’s wonderful talk in the video below and fast forward to our mention at about 9:15 (though we recommend watching the whole thing from start to finish).

“Does an exceptionally bright child mean an exceptionally bright future? Not necessarily. Parenting in itself can be daunting but parenting a “gifted” child can be incredibly challenging. Unlike many other countries there are scant resources available in Ireland for exceptionally able kids”

We’re delighted at Daynuv to have teamed up with GiftedKids.ie to pilot a new ICT initiative aimed at supporting a group of exceptionally able students in Gaelscoil Eoghain Uí Thuairisc Carlow. The pilot is the first of its kind in Ireland to use 3D modelling software and programming tools to teach part of the primary school curriculum in a learning support setting.

GiftedKids Virtual World

A full article on the partnership has now been published on the GiftedKids.ie website and I’ll excerpt below just one quote from the children involved -

“Daynuv is not a game, it is a hobby and a tool. When such a programme, granting the ability to create anything and the chance to interact with other people, is used in the education of children the possibilities are massive. The programme allows children to understand architecture. The control of the land is excellent. Not only can buildings be erected but looking out on the horizon we can see mountains, lakes and valleys of our own creation. In creating replicas of true buildings we gain a deeper knowledge of the processes, toils and triumphs used in building. The programme is enjoyable to use and is a fascinating meeting place for classmates.” ~ Conor

Fourteen years on [from the first publication of the Sunday Times Rich List] our love affair with material excess has soured in the face of the worst recession in living memory, and many of us feel acutely embarrassed by just how obsessed with wealth we became during the boom years. But for others, the crash has provided an opportunity to step back and ask if there are other ways to measure wealth…. to enrich their own lives, and the lives of those around them. So now, in 2010,with no apologies to Murdoch, we present The Sunday Business Post’s Enriched List.

We are honoured at Daynuv to be included in that list. Here’s a short extract from the article -

‘The use of technology in education is something which as a society we really need to look at more,” says Corbett. ‘‘We’re currently working with different groups of disadvantaged kids - children with physical and intellectual disabilities, and children from troubled backgrounds. Kids like this fall out of the mainstream, and it can be hard to get them back on track.”

Research Assistant and organizer K. Linehan said, “Students have been telling me all day about how much they’ve enjoyed it. It’s definitely the best I’ve seen in the virtual worlds area and the most up to date and realistic.” Wow, thanks!

We won’t report on all the talks we attended here as the Twitter stream for #cesi2010 conveyed the essence of each presentation better than we could hope to recapture. Suffice it to say there wasn’t a dull note and each speaker provided much food for thought.

We have to say though that we particularly enjoyed the presentation by Anne McMurrough and Ban Ryan on “21st Century Classroom: Connecting teachers and children through ‘play’ technology - The Nintendo DS and Wii”. This was huge fun and the massive enthusiasm of the presenters rubbed off on everyone. Really inspirational stuff.

We did a presentation and workshop on Practical Virtual Worlds for Education which seemed to be well received and we certainly had some wonderful conversations with interested parties afterwards. We have published the slightly modified (more ‘readable’) slides here and embedded the smaller version below.

Huge credit is due to everyone involved in the CESI conference for organizing one of the very best days of the year. Roll on 2011.

GiftedKids.ie is an organization for exceptionally able children and their parents. These children have enormous learning potential, but face numerous challenges in a country where there are scant resources to meet their needs. They often struggle in school, feel isolated and find it difficult to “fit” in with both their teachers and peers. In addition there is a growing population of children in Ireland with dual exceptionality, i.e. their intellectual ability is often in the top 5% or above but they also have mild to severe learning challenges or sometimes profound disabilities. Daynuv Ltd. is working closely with GiftedKids.ie to develop an innovative education and collaboration platform based on 3D simulated environments.

Ogra: iAffect is an organization offering volunteering opportunities to young people in Ireland. Volunteers are given a deeper sense of ownership of their chosen projects by bringing them in close virtual contact with the people they are helping. The chosen means of doing this is through virtual world simulations of actual developing world scenarios e.g. an orphanage in Belarus, a village in Uganda. Daynuv has set up and is hosting this simulation platform in close partnership with Ogra and is currently designing further scenarios from the developing world.

The Computer Clubhouse in Dublin’s Digital Hub provides a creative and safe after-school learning environment for young people from under-served communities in the south west inner city. Unlike a standard computer classroom, the Computer Clubhouse is a vibrant environment, with elements of an artist’s studio, inventor’s workshop, TV newsroom, architects’ office, robotics lab, and music studio. Activities are guided by current educational research showing that adolescents learn most effectively when engaged in designing projects, rather than memorizing facts or learning isolated skills. And Daynuv’s virtual world simulations are fitting right in with that ethos by providing the open-ended opportunity for collaboration in a 3D environment which matches the scope of their own ideas and imagination.

Carlow Educate Together NS under the leadership of Principal Simon Lewis is widely recognized as one of Ireland most innovative primary schools. Mr. Lewis if a foremost expert in interactive whiteboard technology and founder of Anseo.net - a leading magazine-style online resource for primary schools in Ireland. Daynuv Ltd. is working with Carlow Educate Together to pioneer the education potential of 3D simulated environments, such as historical re-enactments and digital puppetry for drama classes.

The Northside Learning Hub is an innovative and creative project based in Limerick City which works with young people, the wider community and partner schools and third level colleges to add value to the social and educational experience of young people and their families living in the surrounding area. The Hub supports schools to deliver curricula in new and innovative ways and Daynuv is now becoming a part of this process by facilitating a collaborative simulated environment that can connect the children in Limerick with their counterpart in the Computer Clubhouse in Dublin. This goes more further than a Web 2.0 social networking or instant messaging connection - we are providing the means by which all participants can work on objects and media in a shared 3D space.