A Virtual Learning Resource Center

This is a work in progress. It is planned to create hot items on something resembling the graphic above and allow browsing of the Virtual Learning Resource Center through the hotspots. But in this present implementation the hotspots are identified below and links from them are as would be from hotspots in the panoramic picture. The areas boxed below would be kept separate from each other (so that users entering the portal would logically confine themselves to the area most appropriate to them).

On to:

Virtual libraries

This presentation starts with a look at some existing libraries with virtual portals ...

Library and research skills

This is the start of a section on training in how to use the real and/or virtual library ...

Other Virtual Resource Portals

Virtual Bookshelves

Periodicals

References

Here are a few things you would expect to find in any library, except that these materials are all accessible online ...

eLearning for student skills practice

Multimedia for listening

This is where students would likely start out if they were visiting the LRC to get practice with their language learning ...

Communities for students and teachers

Tools for computer mediated communication

Professional Development for teachers

One advantage of a Virtual LRC is its potential for encouraging the formation of communities of learners (and here I mean both students enrolled in language courses and other lifelong learners, such as teachers). The sites linked here either

promote professional development through fostering of communities of practice of language learners and practitioners, (b)
provide or identify where the tools for online community formation can be obtained and explored, and (c) those offering
offer training in use of online communicatons and web development tools.

Conclusion

First, a CAD mockup of the LRC proposed for the MLI was prepared to scale. This was done using Sierra Complete Home / Home Architect 2.0. This program allowed me to select and in some cases design furniture, resize it to the dimensions specified on furniture ordered for the LRC, and manipulate its position it on a floor plan matching that of the LRC. The program then created a 3D rendition which users can walk through or even hover above using the mouse to direct virtual movement as it might occur in an actual LRC built to the same specs. The screen shots in the picture tour were made on walks through the CAD mockup of the LRC coming soon to the MLI.

I positioned the virtual camera near the entrance and rotated it 360 degrees, stopping half a dozen times to make screen shots. I stitched these together using a free version of PicMaker 1.0, which came bundled with software for a web cam I'd installed on my computer. The result was the rotating panorama at the top of this page. If I upgraded to a not-free version of the software I could create audio and video Hotspots in my panoramic photo which would make the cursor turn into a hand and would result in whatever action I specified when clicked on. Other software has been recommended to me which can do the same thing, and you can see its desciption here.

Well, you could use the tools above to create interactive adventure games for your students. Using a CAD program like Home Architect you can create a number of simple rooms with basic furniture. You can position objects on tables and beds and even put people in the rooms. Then you make panoramic pictures of the rooms and hyperlink (make hot spots on) various items that, when clicked on, open other documents (for example if you click on a piece of paper, you can read in another window what is on that paper). If you hyperlink the doors you can move from room to room. If there are people there you can make them start a dialog. Ok, when you've made one, let me know, ok?