Edorble is a new 3D world with a different approach. The CEO is Gabe Baker, who is a former teacher, he knows well what a classroom needs. The best is to come, teachers can get a 3D world in Edorble for free. Many teachers may want to start the new school year with new ideas, maybe joining Edorble is a good one.
The world is free at the moment as it is in the Beta phase, so I went in and got a world, after inspecting everything I can say that what I liked most of the world is that it is easy to register, there is uncomplicated access to your own private world and once you are in the world you can use lots of media to teach. I liked the boards with tools ready to use.
The tools you can use in there are:
Edorble also has a blog where teachers can get inspiration.
I would recommend Edorble for primary schools as it is a safe environment with lots of colourful places to gather in small groups and a big auditorium to watch films and talk to the whole class.Edorble also has children avatars which are not common in other worlds, but which are important if children are to feel at home and want to create an avatar that looks like them.The teacher's voice can be heard in the whole world, so pupils won't be able to hide, leave the world or do other activities, but the ones teachers want them to do.
The best part is to come as Gabe announced that the range of tools would be increasing with time and some day we will be able to access the world via mobile phone and even use Oculus Rift. Of course the world is not only for schools, I can easily imagine companies renting one of them to have international conferences with their branches on a regular basis. Check the homepage EDORBLE Even employees with no gaming experience will use the world with perfection as it is very straight forward to understand.
Edorble is a cute world to feel at ease in a private environment. I felt like walking into a children's book where I expected to meet fairy tales of all sorts. The only thing I could not do was take pictures like it is normally the case in other worlds, but the memory of my many visits to the world has not been blurred.