The Future, Virtual Classrooms- Open Source

African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (Avoir- a collboration of 13 African universities who specialize in creating free software relevant to African users), in conjunction with the University of the Western Cape have just released Chisimba/KEWL3 Realtime Virtual Classroom.

The virtual classroom application allows presentations to be uploaded in PowerPoint or OpenOffice format and made available online as well as embedded in websites or blogged. The Realtime Tools allow the presentation to be picked up and given live on the site, in a realtime virtual classroom setting. It also allows presenters to share desktop applications in real time with other participants. Importing presentations into the the application is a one-click operation. The virtual classroom software also allows users to import graphics as well as transfer multiple documents.

The main new features in this release are:

(1) Application Sharing. This allows you to share applications on your desktop in realtime with other participants. It is still limited in its capability as it allows only the presenter to share applications, and you might experience some perfomance problems over low band-width networks.
(2) Direct import of presentations. You can still import directly other presentations in the middle of the main one, and if you are running outside webpresent, then you can import new presentations with a simple click of a button.
(3) Support of Graphics. Import graphics instantly into the virtual classroom, or into the presentation in realtime.
(4) Multi Document File Transfer

AVOIR project leader, Derek Keats of UWC, says that this is the first application of its kind in the world that is free software. "It demonstrates the remarkable, world class talent that we have in Africa and what can be achieved when we collaborate to accomplish something."

To test drive the demo online or for more information, follow the link :) Avoir">Avoir