Croquet to be Featured at NLII's 2005 Focus Session on Emerging Practices and Learning Technologies

The National Learning Infrastructure Initiative's 2005 Spring Focus session on Emerging Practices and Learning Technologies (co-hosted by Rice University) will feature a Croquet presentation and discussion with Julian Lombardi and Mark P. McCahill. The Spring Focus Session explores new technologies on campus and the students driving these changes. Using learner-centered principles as a guide, the session will be used to evaluate emerging learning practices enabled by new technologies as well as alternative pedagogies. The audience for this session will include those involved in planning, designing, and/or supporting teaching with technology who are drawn from the fields of information technology, instructional support, learners and faculty, librarians, directors of learning centers. The session will take place at Rice University on March 8th-9th in Houston Texas.

Mark P. McCahill and Julian Lombardi to present at CNI 2005

Mark P. McCahill and Julian Lombardi have been invited to do a plenary presentation on Croquet at the Coalition for Networked Information's (CNI) Spring Task Force Meeting on April 4th and 5th, 2005 in Washington D.C.. The title of the plenary is: Croquet: Croquet - A Collaborative 3D Virtual Learning Environment. Twice each year, representatives from the member organizations of the Coaltion for Networked Information gather for Task Force Meetings. The meetings are designed to explore new technologies, content and applications; to further collaboration; to analyze technology policy issues; and to catalyze the development and deployment of new projects. The meetings also seek to address s state-of-the-art developments and issues of interest to the membership, as outlined in each year's Program Plan. Interoperability and standards, developing and managing networked information content, and innovations in teaching and learning are topics that consistently engage CNI members' interests

Japan's NICT Signs Croquet Development Contract with University of Wisconsin

In December 2004, The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NiCT) of Japan signed a $200,000 contract with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop new educational uses for Croquet. "Private developers and now government agencies are beginning to take note of Croquet's possibilities," says Julian Lombardi, director of the project at the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) at UW-Madison. "Our Japanese colleagues are interested in working with Alan Kay and our team to develop new ways for all of us to interact with network-deliverable information." Alan Kay presently serves as Senior Scientist at UW's Division of Information Technology.

3DSolve begins developing commercial software using Croquet

3Dsolve, a North Carolina-based technology company, has begun developing commercial educational software using Croquet. Like 3Dsolve, NICT sees Croquet as a communications platform and service, available anytime, anywhere, from any device. Croquet is designed to run on everything, from a PDA through a set-top box. “What we’re doing here is very early work, less research and more development – bringing over our work into Croquet,” said Frank Boosman, chief marketing officer for 3Dsolve. “It’s obvious that Croquet is an excellent vehicle for e-learning, and lends itself extremely well to simulation learning.” Observers say that Croquet will change the way people think about software and computation, from today's device-oriented perspective to a perspective of computation as a persistent, pervasive service.