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DESIGN:
PEDAGOGIC
MULTI-USER
COLLABORATIVE VRML LEARNING ENVIRONMENT.
A
Dream Building: a Diagram of a Mechanism of Learning
M.
Phillips and V. Geroimenko
STAR
(Science, Technology, Arts Research), University of Plymouth
This paper
describes the development of an OnLine collaborative learning
environment that integrates a variety of internet technologies,
including RTC, video conferencing, and photo-realistic VR (QTVR
and RealVR), within a multi-user VRML environment
or MUSE (Multi User Simulation Environment). This VRML environment
is designed to assist and support employees of the New Media
industries (including; digital TV, Interactive Media developers,
electronic publishing, Information Architects, etc) enrolled on
short courses run by the Interactive Media Group in the School
of Computing, University of Plymouth. Aspects of the project also
support the CAiiA-STAR integrated doctoral research platform.
The project will ultimately deliver a number of OnLine VRML spaces/places
and software tools that will allow participants to create their
own haptic learning sub-environments within the overall
architecture of the project. The paper focuses on the design of
the architectural hub of the project, the Panopticon.
Keywords:
Panopticon, Virtual Environments, VRML, MUSE, OnLine Learning.

Fig
1. The Panopticon with Avatars (VRML model).
"Niblungs
below
bow
to Alberich
I
shall be watching
to
see that you're working
day
and night
You
must be toiling,
sweating
to serve
your
invisible Lord
who
can watch you unseen
and
spy on his subjects
You
are my slaves now and for ever"
(Wagner,
Das Rheingold)
So reads
the preface to Semples Benthams Prison: A study
of the Panopticon Penitentiary. An ominous start to a book
that describes Jeremy Benthams (1748-1832) ill-fated struggle
to build the Panopticon; or the Inspection House (circa
1791). An infamous structure that was never built in the lifetime
of its creator, but has been manifest in many modern high security
prisons, and re-framed to describe the architecture of internet
surveillance. For the Panopticon was more than a plan for a building
of brick and stone, it is a fluid architecture that
is realised in the mind of the surveyor and the surveyed. In the
words of Foucault:
"But the
Panopticon must not be understood as a dream building: it is the
diagram of a mechanism of power reduced to its ideal form; its
functioning, abstracted from any obstacle, resistance or friction,
must be represented as a pure architectural and optical system:
it is in fact a figure of political technology that may and must
be detached from any specific use." (Foucault, 1975)
However,
the focus on the negative interpretation of the Panopticon does
not do justice to the utilitarian and humanist ambitions of its
creator. One can imagine Bentham turning in his glass box in UCL.
For he envisaged it having far wider humanitarian applications
'to all establishments whatsoever, in which, within a space not
too large to be covered or commanded by buildings, a number of
persons are meant to be kept under inspection' (Bentham, 1843),
such as hospitals, schools, and possibly, OnLine learning.

Fig
2. Diagram of Panopticon Layers/Modules.
The hub
of the OnLine multi-user Learning Environment is inspired by and
based on Benthams architecture for the Panopticon. Figure
2 is a diagram of the various sections of the VRML model, which
provides access to all of the modules/courses available within
the scheme. Each layer of the building houses a module. Access
to the modules is provided through the Core which
runs up through the centre of the building. Here participants
can register for a particular module, and have access to that
layer of the building. The various sections or zones available
(Figure 3) within each layer include: Library, Archive, Social
MUD (all three run across levels/modules), RTC, Participants Spaces,
FTP, Gallery, News, One to One Tutorial Space, and a MUSE Presentation
Space. Each zone has the architecture of a historical dream
building (e.g., Barrels Hall, The Adoration of the Magi,
Port Eliot) to underpin contextual practice.

Fig
3. Diagram of Panopticon Layers/Modules)
One of the
advantages of such a VR place is that it focuses the organisation
of a course on issues of time rather than space. The
allocation of studio space is less of a priority and the organisation
of contact time becomes of prime importance. MUSE (Multi User
Simulation Environment), Multi-user (shared, collaborative) VR
is a 3D computer generated environment on the Internet where participants
(represented as "avatars") can meet each other, walk around together
and communicate using text, gesture, voice or preprogrammed "emotions"
(e.g. "happy" or "sad") (Roehl, 1999). A Virtual Community on
the Web (for instance, Active Worlds' Web site alone has around
500 different VR worlds) can be accessed using a medium powered
PC with a modem connection. In this instance it is expected that
the participants in the system will have access to reasonably
fast ethernet or ISDN connections.
Currently
the Panopticon environment is being built using a range of software
tools (3D Studio Max, Strata 3D, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc), centered
on Community Place from Sony. The Community Place is a suite of
VRML 97 compliant products for building and viewing advanced multi-user
3D worlds on the Internet including: tools for viewing VRML97
worlds with Java-based behaviors and multi-user environments;
tools for creating shared online worlds; a multi-user server that
supports up to 100 simultaneous users; a tool for adding shared
applications to a multi-user world; a tool for managing multiple
3D spaces.
In general,
the Community Place package provides an advanced technological
basis for achieving the objectives of the Panopticon project,
and builds on existing experience developed on previous projects
(Ahlsén, 1998). However, the Sony platform is limited by
its single platform delivery. It is the ambition of the project
to deliver on as many platforms as possible. Alternative Java
and VRML models are currently being explored. Within this virtual
environment the fluid architecture of the Panopticon
becomes the perfect form to support a social learning interaction
where the surveyors co-operatively survey themselves.
Notes:
Figure 1:
The Panopticon with Avatars (VRML model), modelled by Glenn Kavenagh,
(3D Studio Max).
Figure 2:
Layered/Modular Diagram of the Panopticon, Mike Phillips,
StrataStudio, Photoshop.
Zone dream
buildings include: Barrels Hall in Ullenhall Warwikshire home
to Lady in; The Adoration of the Magi by Da Vinci;
Port Eliot House, St Germans, Cornwall, home to Joseph of A'rimathéa,
Circa 2 AD.
Information
about the Community Place software including their evaluation
versions is available from Sony's Virtual Society Web site at
http://vs.spiw.com
References:
Ahlsén,
E. & Geroimenko, V. (1998) Virtual Reality as a Communication
Aid for Person with Aphasia. Proceedings of the 2nd European
Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies.
Skövde, Sweden, p 229-235 or The Realistic Virtual
University Project by Vladimir Geroimenko (with some working
prototypes) at http://www.ling.gu.se/ ~ vladimir/rvu_demos.htm
Bentham,
J., Works, ed. Browning, IV, 1834, pp40 (The Bentham Collection
University College London).
Foucault
M. 1975. Discipline and Punish, The Birth of the Prison.
Penguin Books 1991, pp 205
Semple, S.
Bentham's prison A study of the Panopticon Penitentiary.
Clarenden Press Oxford. Preface.
Roehl, B.
(1999) Shared Worlds. VR News, 8(1), p 10-14 (most
resent overview of multi-user VR technology).
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