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IBM engineers are demonstrating the integration of Lotus Sametime with the several virtual world platforms.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzuiEzTah5w

A 3-D meeting can be launched directly from within Sametime, creating a virtual meeting space that uses Sametime capabilities available in a virtual environment, including presentation tools, access to the avatar’s inventory and full avatar functionality demonstrating the business value virtual environments can bring to the future of unified communications.

This is a proof of concept and a first good step. There are lot of companies trying to develop gaming and informal environments such as second life. I believe, virtual world is moving towards augmented reality. We have processor speed now that could process CGI animation in real time using a normal desktop computer. 

I think we would see a lot of application focusing on virtual and augmented reality.

A demostration of Augmented Reality…the seamless mixing of the real and the virtual. Quite simply, this is the future. AR has unlimited potential, the potential to give us virtualy anything anywhere.

For many of those interested in AR, one of its most important characteristics is the way in which it makes possible a transformation of the focus of interaction.

The interactive system is no longer a precise location, but the whole environment; interaction is no longer simply a face-to-screen exchange, but dissolves itself in the surrounding space and objects. Using an information system is no longer exclusively a conscious and intentional act

I believe this could be a very sophisticated framework to build next generation learning content. At present we are mostly waiting for head-mount display technology to mature. When we have a full color sunlight-readable overlay display with an apparent resolution of about 90dpi at 2feet (say, 180 arc-seconds) this will really take off.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9KPJlA5yds

The car is just an example but think how far the e-learning industry can go with this technology. There are already some prototypes with children book and story telling out there in the market. I think we need companies to invest in custom content development projects in this platform. I believe this will change the way we perceive online learning.