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Real Time. Interactive. Educational. Immersive. |
The aim of this blog is to keep virtual ecotourists, partner organizations, and curious conservationists updated about the vEcotourism project. It will outline our current work, showcase initial vEcotours as they are developed, link to exciting upcoming technologies, promote conservation projects, host visual media from tours, and serve to keep the vEcotourism community informed and connected.
To learn more about virtual ecotourism, begin your exploration at About vEcotourism.
Previous posts outlined the Virtual Ecotourism team’s current objectives and strategies, as well as plans for the near future. This final blog post briefly introduces two long-term objectives of the project. Although they are ambitious and may not be realized for some time, they remain extremely important to the vEco vision.
The vEco team is currently focused on Phase I of the project: Tour Development. However, we hope to finish assembling a template showcase tour by February 2012, and intend to begin Beta testing of the project near that time. This blog post outlines three areas of focus and strategic development for the coming months, including the creation of brand new tours worldwide.
Our last post described Phase I of the virtual ecotourism project: the ongoing development of tours and user interface. Although this has a major focus of the past months, the vEco team has also been busy with other projects including the creation of two new blog websites and an encouraging success in an international funding competition.
The overarching goal of the virtual ecotourism project is to connect people to the incredible ecosystems that sustain our planet as well as the diversity of cultures worldwide in order to contribute to the conservation of our planet.
But how do we plan to reach that goal? Over the next week, this blog will be featuring a series of posts that outline the vEco team’s current objectives and strategy, summarize our recent work and focus, and look to the future of the project.
A perfect post for the beginning of a new year! Read more
The team is very proud to announce that the virtual ecotourism project has been chosen, out of over 350 applicants, to advance to Stage Two of the Digital Media and Learning Badges Competition. This means that our content was deemed compelling and original, and capable of evaluating 21st century learning as part of a worldwide badge ecosystem.
This brings us one step closer to sharing the grand prize of $200,000 which we hope to use to develop a badging system for our tours.
The vEco team in Uganda has been hard at work collecting images, panoramas, and sounds at our new site on the shores of Lake Nabugabo. Enjoy this panorama near the shore, complete with sampled audio.
The Virtual Ecotourism team has been experimenting with an even more interactive form of 360° panoramic photo. In partnership with the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management (BCM 2011-2012) at The University of Oxford, we have created an audio and video enabled pano.
Mark Laxer is the author of The Monkey Bible and the inventor of virtual ecotourism. In summer 2011 he travelled to Uganda to meet with local people – including virtual ecotourism guides Jackson & Mark O. – and experienced first-hand the struggle and controversy surrounding dangerous animals of conservation importance.
The Virtual Ecotourism project has entered the Digital Media & Learning Badges Competition in a bid to win part of a $200,000 grant for the development of a badging system to reward on-line learning that is difficult to assess in other ways.
The virtual ecotourism team is always searching for the next exciting technology to use in our tours. 360′ panoramic photos are an amazing way to experience a far-off location.
