Are You Hyped for Ready Player One?

The highly anticipated movie, based on Ernest Cline’s best-selling novel, a sci-fi come dystopian thriller, is set to be released on the 30th March, and is undoubtedly causing an abundance of fans to... [writer invites reader to use their imagination]

You can check out the movie trailer here:

But this isn’t an article about Ready Player One...

What if I told you that in the deep and dirty depths of the crypto world, ‘The Oasis’ is closer than you think?

Decentraland

For those of you who aren’t aware of the project, Decentraland is a virtual reality driven metaverse which exists on the Ethereum blockchain. You can check out the short video below for a summary:

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In short, in Decentraland, thanks to the decentralised nature of the project, once you own ‘land’, you can literally build anything you want and your creation will exist as part of a large scale virtual reality world.

The Decentraland team have recently succeeded in conducting their first ‘Terra-auction’, which saw millions of pounds spent by thousands of businesses, entrepreneurs and visionaries - all rushing to get their hands on their own aspect of the first true metaverse real estate. Sound familiar? If you’ve read Ready Player One, then your mind might be flashing with individualised images of ‘The Oasis’ (the metaverse upon which the Ready Player One world is centred).

Check out this 2D map of the world:

But this isn’t an article about Decentraland either... Well, not exactly.

Whilst we have the phenomenal Decentraland team and their stunningly precocious conceptual idea to thank for Decentraland’s existence, there is also some truly exciting movement going on under the hood...

There are numerous ‘districts’ currently starting from the ground up, all focused on enhancing the users experience and creating bespoke segments of the metaverse aimed at enticing people of all ages, backgrounds, beliefs and individual preferences.

Here’s a couple:

• There’s Fluffyland (think pink and purple and yellow and lots of happy smiley things and unicorns and rainbows and... you get the point).

• There’s the Red Light District (think sex and sex and sex and sex and...).

• There’s the Vegas District (think gambling with cryptocurrencies, think poker, think roulette, think Vegas baby).

• Then, there’s Decentraland University (think learning, think virtual reality Mayan sacrifices, think community, think learning a second language, think learning an instrument, think unlimited potential in line with the great Aaron Schwartz).

The aforementioned districts have stunning project leaders, some of whom I’ve been fortunate to speak with, who maintain outstanding credentials composed of experience, determination, vision, drive and academic achievements. And it is one of these projects in particular that I’m looking to focus on.

Decentraland University

So what is Decentraland University? Decentraland University, or DCLU, as it is commonly referred to, is one of the ‘districts’ within Decentraland which is essentially set to establish itself as Decentraland’s very own educational system. Or as project lead James Ashton explains it:

“a meld of technologists, learning professionals and academics (who are) forming a sustainable institution that can grow as virtual reality technologies evolve”.

DCLU has almost 1500 land parcels which were contributed to as part of a humongous community effort as outlined above. Sub-surface, the DCLU board and members are quietly assembling a core of individuals capable of bringing to life truly revolutionary methods of teaching and learning like have never been seen before.

“But what’s it going to do” I hear you cry. Well it just so happens I can also answer that for you too... Mr. Ashton outlines the long term vision for DCLU as aiming:

“to develop a range of content, act as a portal onto the ecosystem of VR learning, and provide the support that individuals, companies and educational institutions need to transition into what we would probably call 'Virtual Worlds Based Learning’”.

You can take a look at a screen grab from one the recent proposals here:

I know, I know; learning isn’t cool or fun right? Wrong.

Imagine the possibilities... Rather than sitting in a classroom learning about, let’s say, the planet Saturn as part of an Astronomy lesson; you could be zooming around on a virtual tour of the planet in a virtual reality space craft.

Or how about a history lesson where you are part of a roaring crowd watching a re-creation of a Roman Gladiator battle in the Coliseum?

Imagine learning about a movie as part of a film-making course; and rather than merely watching a film clip, you are in a virtual reality simulation of the scene at the beginning of Pulp Fiction: “Any of you sons of bitches move, and I’ll execute every last fcking one of you”.*

Still not convinced this is going to be MASSIVE? Let’s take a look at one of the project ideas...

Meet Adam Sauer (Columbus, Ohio); a 27 year old self-confessed sushi loving American dude with a super sexy curly blonde afro, who plans to implement a ‘forest of data trees’.

This idea, Adam tells me, “started in MIT VR Hackathon” and the basic idea is that students learn numbers through the visualisation of colours lighting up a tree in a dark forest. He further explains it:

as you progress in each subject, (the) tress light up. It incentivises students to track their own progress, find dim areas, and light up the forest”.

Clearly extremely passionate about DCLU, I asked Adam what he hopes DCLU will achieve, to which he enthused “I hope it helps students from around the world get a killer education”.

That’s a big wish. But it’s one that that everyone involved with DCLU is shooting for. Boasting a team with the skills and resources like they do, they might just make it a reality:

The project is in its infancy, but step by step, DCLU could lead us to a whole new world for education as well as teaching and learning.

If you want to learn more, check out any of DCLU’s contact info below:

Rocket Chat: https://chat.decentraland.org/channel/District_University
Telegram: https://t.me/dclu_announce
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dcluniversity
SteemIt: https://steemit.com/@dcluniversity
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dcluni/

Thanks for reading, hope it got you hyped!