%0 Journal Article %J Journal of Network and Computer Applications, Academic Press, No.3, Vol 24 %D 2001 %T e-Learning through Distributed Virtual Environments %A Christos Bouras %A Thrasivoulos Tsiatsos %A A Philopoulos %X e-learning is one of the emerging needs of the information age. Access to education is going to become crucial for the success of our information society, and therefore a lot of potential is seen in distance learning and distributed virtual environments. The communicative character of the distributed virtual environments would allow students and staff to meet in social shared spaces and engage in on-line real-time seminars and tutorials. Such technologies may mitigate some of the problems of isolation that distance learning brings. This paper presents our work in multi-user distributed virtual environments which are designed and implemented for educational uses in the bounds of the VES project. Furthermore, it presents our proposal for the extensions and reconstruction of the current system in order to create a more efficient system, which can be characterized as a learning virtual environment. %B Journal of Network and Computer Applications, Academic Press, No.3, Vol 24 %P 175 - 199 %8 July %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B EUROMICRO WORKSHOP on Multimedia and Telecommunications, Maastricht, Netherlands, Vol II %D 2000 %T Distributed Virtual Learning Environment: A Web-Based Approach %A Christos Bouras %A A Philopoulos %X In this paper, we present a web-based Distributed Virtual Learning Environment (DVLE) that could be used as a sophisticated tool for distance education and collaboration between teachers and students. We design and develop this application and the corresponding Graphical User Interface (GUI) as a proposal that aims at providing an integrated communicational environment which supplies the communicative needs of an educational community, using the latest telecommunication and multimedia information processing technology. The environment that we propose can be used for virtual lectures, virtual conferences, and exchange of useful material and experiences among teachers and students. It is a web-based application that is being developed as client/server architecture using standard protocols and technologies such as HTTP, HTML, Java and VRML. %B EUROMICRO WORKSHOP on Multimedia and Telecommunications, Maastricht, Netherlands, Vol II %P 50 - 55 %8 4 - 7 September %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B 5th Joint Conference on Information Sciences-JCIS 2000-1st International Workshop on Intelligent Multimedia Computing and Networking, Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, Vol. 2 %D 2000 %T A Networked Intelligent Distributed Virtual Training Environmnet:A First Approach %A Christos Bouras %A Thrasivoulos Tsiatsos %A A Philopoulos %X Collaborative livelong learning is one of the emerging needs of the information age. Access to education is going to become crucial for the success of our information society. Therefore a lot of potential is seen in distance learning and online collaborative environments. This paper proposes an intelligent distributed virtual training environment for distance education through shared 3D spaces %B 5th Joint Conference on Information Sciences-JCIS 2000-1st International Workshop on Intelligent Multimedia Computing and Networking, Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA, Vol. 2 %P 604 - 607 %8 27 February - 3 March %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B World Conference of the WWW, Internet and Intranet- WebNet 2000, San Antonio, Texas, USA %D 2000 %T Using Multi-user Distributed Virtual Environments in Education %A Christos Bouras %A Thrasivoulos Tsiatsos %A A Philopoulos %X On-line learning is one of the emerging needs of the information age. Access to education is going to become crucial for the success of our information society. Therefore a lot of potential is seen in distance learning and distributed virtual environments. The communicative character of the distributed virtual environments would allow for students and stuff to meet in social shared spaces and engage in on-line real-time seminars and tutorials. Such technologies may mitigate some of the problems of isolation that distance learning brings. This paper presents multiuser distributed virtual environments, which are designed and implemented for educational uses. %B World Conference of the WWW, Internet and Intranet- WebNet 2000, San Antonio, Texas, USA %P 56 - 62 %8 30 October - 4 November %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B 3rd Open Classroom Conference, Balatonfured, Hungary %D 1999 %T The Information and Communication Technologies in Education %A Christos Bouras %A A Philopoulos %A D Fotakis %X In the majority of the advanced countries there are many educational school networks and even more and more schools are getting equipped with multimedia computers and connected to the Internet. Through the advancements of the personal computer and the Internet, the school of the future will find new strengths in both personalised and community learning environments. The prevailing perspective for the introduction of the Information and Communication Technologies can be characterised as the “computer as a tool”. However, as with all tools, effective use of the technology is embedded within practices and activities that realise its functionality for specific purposes and situations. On the other hand, the investigation of the relationship between practices, purposes, and situations and computer-based learning technologies is a major topic on pedagogic research. %B 3rd Open Classroom Conference, Balatonfured, Hungary %P 27 - 31 %8 25 - 26 March %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B 4th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia, Gifu, Japan, Vol. 2 %D 1998 %T A Distributed Virtual Learning Center in Cyberspace %A Christos Bouras %A A Philopoulos %A D Fotakis %X In this paper, we present a user-friendly 3D Distributed Virtual Environment (DVE) that would be used for on-line access to educational multimedia material over the Internet. We design and develop this application and the corresponding Graphical User Interface (GUI) in the framework of the European project “Virtual European School” (VES) whose aim is to develop a comprehensive resource of teaching material for secondary school education and to provide access to this material over Internet. It is a web-based application that is being developed as a client/server architecture using standard protocols and technologies such as TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML, Java and appropriate 3D formats. %B 4th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia, Gifu, Japan, Vol. 2 %P 410 - 415 %8 18 - 20 November %G eng %0 Conference Paper %B EDEN Conference, Bologna, Italy %D 1998 %T Distributed Virtual Reality Environments Over Web for Distance Education %A Christos Bouras %A A Philopoulos %X Virtual Environments for education have been discussed in various ways. While advanced multi-user educational VEs are still speculation, simpler VEs based on standard technologies have been in existence for some time. On the other hand, there is a great enthusiasm for promoting Virtual Reality as a major factor in future (and present) environments for training and education. In this paper, we discuss the concept of the Distributed Virtual Environments and the use of them in distance education applications. Next, we consider VRML technology as the key technology for building such environments and we present the basic features and functionalities of it that make it suitable for delivering VEs over the Web. In addition to this, we present some of the roles of VRML in education. Finally, we conclude with some recommendations on the construction of Virtual Reality Environments for educational purposes. %B EDEN Conference, Bologna, Italy %P 481 - 484 %8 24 - 26 June %G eng