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Press Release: Award-winning author does virtual world Q&A with school children
Posted in: Blog by James on June 23, 2010
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
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