Company

Earthsim (see here for contact details) was set up in October 2003 as a partner company of Qube Software with a remit to market and commercialise interactive immersive learning delivered over broadband to the home.

The commercial objective of the company is to generate online subscriptions for access to the Earthsim Channel. Awareness is achieved by developing strong co-marketing relationships with the PC hardware industry as well as downstream partners such as broadband providers.

We will be regularly updating this site to provide the latest business news and information for customers and investors.

Business Goals

  • Become a premier subscription service for interactive learning.
  • Capitalise on new technology in the home and the growth of broadband.
  • Cross new boundaries of interactive 3D on the internet.
  • Match the quality of production and the entertainment value of console games in a family-orientated learning product.

Academic Goals

  • Bridge the gap between cutting edge academic research and consumers. Working closely with research institutions Earthsim aims to help present their work to the general public in accessible but sound scientific ways. If you are a member of an academic institution and would like to get involved with the project, you can find out more here.
  • Work to fund new research in areas that consumers most want to see in next generation versions of Earthsim.

Educational Goals

  • Provide a deeper understanding of our home in the universe.
  • Increase awareness and understanding of biodiversity on earth.
  • Inspire young people to look closely at the interconnected nature of life.
  • Demonstrate the consequences of human impact on the earth's biosphere.

Bringing Learning Home - The Future of Home Education

Today, games are the primary driving force behind high-end PC adoption in the home. Earthsim can change this by delivering a fully-immersive 3D experience with the opportunity for children to learn about science through interaction and exploration.

Looking at the evidence, we believe there is a gap in the market for entertaining educational content and that Earthsim has all the elements in place to fill this gap.

The potential role of computers in children's education is undoubtedly a key factor in their increasing uptake by families worldwide. This has been helped by the price of the equipment coming down and the technology becoming more user-friendly. At the same time, parents are being opted in to relationships with schools whereby they are encouraged to support their child's learning at home, and 'tutor' them in order to give them an 'educational' edge. Parents believe that investing in a computer is investing in their children's future and that computers give access to a world of knowledge that would otherwise be denied to them. Most crucially, children want to use them. As these learning pursuits generally take place in leisure time, the fact that they are presented in an entertaining way should act as an incentive for the children and satisfy the parents' expectations of the benefits of the PC as a means of home education.

Increasingly, children are using consoles for entertainment, and the computer is often seen as the medium for communication and creative and educational pursuits. It seems, however, that we have reached a point where the educational software and websites available are not stimulating enough to keep children off their consoles. The software on the market is often disappointing and doesn't live up to its packaging.

"Compared with the amount of money spent on developing computer games, just a fraction of that is spent on educational tools and games. Educational websites we looked at were almost unanimously without depth and the level of interaction was in some cases quite minimal."

Dr Pamela Odih, Sociologist, Goldsmiths College London

"It is repeatedly pointed out, for example, that young people of their own volition choose to spend many hours playing complex computer games outside school. Games, it seems, 'have something', they seem to have a way of engaging and interesting young people. The desire to harness this motivational power to encourage young people to want to learn is the main driver behind an interest in computer games for learning."

Ben Williamson, Learning Researcher, NESTA Futurelab

The interactive educational software available today falls in to two categories: the overtly educational packages or websites, which seem to follow the 'drill and practice' methods used by teachers, and the 'exploration and discovery' packages which are too free-form to provide a successful learning situation. David Buckingham, in his book, 'Education, Entertainment and Learning in the Home', believes that 'guided discovery learning' (Laurillard 1995) is particularly well suited to multimedia products. This style of learning falls somewhere between the two approaches above and involves collaboration and dialogue between user and software. He writes: 'It depends on the agreement of a shared goal, and the supply of guidance about how to achieve it; but they should also have the opportunity to devise their own approach and to deviate from the line suggested'.

"Real innovation happens when people move beyond existing beliefs and limitations. Designers and developers making products for children need to move away from the limitations of national curriculum guidelines and existing pedagogical methodologies to embrace the exciting new learning opportunities that interactive technologies offer. Future interactive learning products for children need to support their natural desire to explore and discover, make their own connections and find their own "learning" paths, allowing them to be part of developing future ways of learning."

Amy Branton, Creative Director, Skybluepink Interaction Design Studio

Increasing numbers of researchers and teachers are also beginning to suggest that playing computer games develops young people's thinking in a way that we need to pay attention to.

"Young people are developing the ability to process information very quickly, determining what is and is not of relevance to them; the ability to process information in parallel at the same time from a range of different sources; the familiarity with exploring information in a non-linear fashion - ie by 'jumping' through a range of different information resources, creating links rather than following a 'story'; a relaxed approach to 'play', viewing this as a valid activity and conceptualising the computer as primarily a 'play tool'; and having a model of doing in order to learn, rather than learning in order to do. Finally, these characteristics also include a relaxed acceptance of fantasy as a valid space of experience and a view of technology as a friend, familiar through having grown up with it."

Ben Williamson, Learning Researcher, NESTA Futurelab

With all the advances in technology over the past decade, it seems that the opportunity for creating powerful and innovative learning oriented software has so far been missed. Yet, there exists a wealth of console and PC games, which capture children's imaginations, develop skills, and keep them engrossed for hours on end.

At Earthsim we choose to call this type of interactive learning experience "Learning Entertainment". Earthsim will fill the gap between entertainment and education by using the latest technology to create a unique platform by which children can explore and learn about the fascinating world of science and nature while being thoroughly entertained.

"The speed of human learning in an experience is directly connected to the amount of fun one is having during that experience, so crafting fun experiences around directed learning goals is one of the fastest ways for humans to absorb information. Any good teacher intuitively knows this. We now have the technology and know-how to build these experiences and the internet is the ideal medium for their delivery. It is only a matter of time before learning entertainment is widely accepted as the way to use computers to teach"

Servan Keondjian, CEO, Earthsim

Links

Interactive Learning

Dinosaurs