Start a conversation about Virtual Reality (VR) in polite society nowadays and chances are you'll either get a blank stare, a response along the lines of "Isn't that something to do with tactile gloves and head mounted gear?" or a sigh accompanied by a wistful look from somebody reflecting on a technology that held so much promise yet seems to have delivered so little.

Well, forget about what you know, or think you know, because there's a company in South Africa that is busy writing a new chapter in the VR domain. The Naledi3d Factory is using VR to try to improve education in Africa. Yes, you're reading correctly. Virtual Reality in African education! How are they doing this? It's all pretty straight forward, yet quite profound.

It all started in the late 1990's when a guy called Dave Lockwood (the current MD of Naledi3d) realised that traditional education methods were failing Africa's diverse communities. He came to the conclusion that text-based learning was inherently inefficient in communities where literacy levels were often very low to begin with. In addition, pre-packaged learning materials were often Euro-centric in nature and ignored the extremely diverse cultural values and knowledge systems of communities in different African countries. Enter VR! Because of its intensely visual (some say game like) nature, VR immerses the user in an environment where natural interactions with objects and tasks can be simulated to such a degree that learning takes on an organic rather than a formulaic character. This bridges language and literacy barriers because text becomes a secondary, supporting mechanism and not the main learning vehicle.

To test his theory, Dave put together a team and started creating simple PC-based VR simulations (without goggles & gloves) using EON Reality Inc.'s, EON Studio software. However, his knowledge economy paradigm didn't gel well with his employers at the time so Dave decided to take the venture private in 2000 and the Naledi3d Factory was born!

One of their first projects was a basic health and hygiene simulation for a town called Nakaseke in Uganda. Working closely with the community, Dave's team put together an interactive simulation to teach basic hygiene skills that are important in a rural environment. The simulation was installed on PC's in the local community centre where young and old alike could come and use it. The results were impressive. Feedback showed a drop in dysentery levels and, because folks were getting used to using a PC for the first time, they started exploring how to use the computers for things like word processing, spreadsheets and web surfing, etc!

The company has gone on to create VR simulations for themes as diverse as bee-keeping, how to build a pit latrine, how to apply proper water conservation in small-scale farming, how water pumps work, HIV/AIDS prevention, how a PC works, etc. In addition, the Factory has also developed safety sims for the South African mining industry as well as industrial training packages for the water industry, Department of Labour, etc.

The folks at the Naled3d Factory have now taken their vision to the next level and created a concept called the Interactive 3d Learning Object, or i3dlo for short. The i3dlo is essentially a small VR simulation that addresses a specific learning objective. However, what makes the i3dlo unique is the fact that it can be "translated" into nearly any language using tools freely available on the web. EON Reality Inc.'s proprietary .eoz file can be unzipped allowing users to edit sound, picture and text files using tools like Audacity, Gimp, etc. This means that a single i3dlo can be "localised" (as the guys at Naledi3d like to call it) into many languages extending its usability across the globe. For example, the Pit Latrine i3dlo has been translated into Shona (Zimbabwe), French and Portuguese so far. The company has built a website to host these i3dlo's and, as they are translated by a growing network of participants, this free resource will undoubtedly help educators across Africa!

Take a few minutes of your time to look at the Naledi3d Factory's website and, if you're as excited as I am about what they're doing then get in touch with them and find ways of working together!