Avatar Languages Blog

Google Lively may have disappeared, but there are other options for browser-based 3D virtual environments, such as Hangout.net.

In the few months that it was around, Lively gained some following amongst language educators and it will clearly be missed.  However there are alternatives and perhaps hangout.net will turn out to be one. Hangout.net is much more like Lively than ExitReality as it is based within a browser, rather than a way to move around the web in general (which is what ExitReality offers).

I would like to show you my room, but unfortunately you need to sign up, log in, become friends with the avatar “Avatar Languages” and then visit the below embed.

One of the neat quirks about hangout.net is the ability to roll your mouse so that you look through the head of your avatar, which gives you a view like this…

Language educators could use hangout to invite students to interact in a 3D room without the need to download whole virtual worlds like Second Life or Twinity (HangOut.net only requires a quick download and is accessed via a normal browser such as FireFox or Internet Explorer).  Students can watch YouTube videos and view Flickr images within the room.  There are also plenty of opportunities to decorate the room and change the appearance of the avatars.

The below interview gives some background into hangout.net and how it is envisaged as a 3D social networking site…

There are also a series of tutorials on YouTube, such as this one on how to move within hangout.net…

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 8:04 pm and is filed under AUTHOR: HOWARD VICKERS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.