BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - August 22, 2008 - The Immersive Education Initiative today launched its series of Immersive Education: South America events. Today's "Immersive Education Day at Fundación Universitaria Sanitas" event connects over 200 delegates attending the conference in Bogota, Colombia, with faculty, teachers and researchers from around the world who are participating in the event remotely using virtual worlds technology. During the event Immersive Education Initiative members from Boston College, Cornell University, Montana State University, Southeast Kansas Education Service Center at Greenbush, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Media Communications Technology High School, and Sun Microsystems will give a series of presentations and demonstrations to provide attendees with an in-depth overview of Immersive Education.

"Immersive Education methods are new in our country. We are making an effort to deepen our experiences around the world and see how they might be useful to the Colombian Education System. We are hoping these round table workshops allow our guests to have a true experience through Immersive Education," said Mauricio Herrera and Diana Silva, Managing Directors e-Sanitas, Sanitas University, Bogota Columbia.

Today's event will be followed in September by a similar event in Sao Paulo City, Brazil. A related series of Immersive Education: Asia events is launching in November, with Immersive Education: Europe scheduled for 2009. Universities, colleges, and research institutes interested in participating in these or other Immersive Education events are encouraged to contact the Immersive Education Initiative for details.

Immersive Education is developed by the Immersive Education Initiative, a non-profit international collaboration of universities, colleges, research institutes, consortia and companies that are working together to define and develop open standards, best practices, platforms, and communities of support for virtual worlds, simulators and game-based learning and training systems.

Immersive Education combines interactive 3D graphics, video game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat, Web cameras and rich digital media with collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Immersive Education gives participants a sense of "being there" even when attending a class or training session in person isn't possible, practical, or desirable, which in turn provides educators and students with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience.

About Immersive Education
Immersive Education (ImmersiveEducation.org) combines interactive 3D graphics, commercial game and simulation technology, virtual reality, voice chat (Voice over IP/VoIP), Web cameras (webcams) and rich digital media with collaborative online course environments and classrooms. Immersive Education gives participants a sense of "being there" even when attending a class or training session in person isn't possible, practical, or desirable, which in turn provides educators and students with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances the learning experience. Unlike traditional computer-based learning systems, Immersive Education is designed to immerse and engage students in the same way that today's best video games grab and keep the attention of players. Immersive Education supports self-directed learning as well as collaborative group-based learning environments that can be delivered over the Internet or using fixed-media such as CD-ROM and DVD. Shorter mini-games and interactive lessons can be injected into larger bodies of course material to further heighten and enrich the Immersive Education experience.

About the Media Grid
The Media Grid is a public utility for digital media. Based on new and emerging distributed computational grid technologies, the Media Grid builds upon existing Internet and Web standards to create a unique network optimized for digital media delivery, storage, and processing. As an on-demand public computing utility, a range of software programs and Web sites can use the Media Grid for delivery and storage of rich media content, media processing, and computing power. The Media Grid is an open and extensible platform that enables a wide range of applications not possible with the traditional Internet alone, including: Massive Media on Demand (MMoD); Interactive digital cinema on demand; Immersive Education and distance learning; Truly immersive multiplayer games and Virtual Reality (VR); Hollywood movie and film rendering, special effects, and composition; Real-time rendering of high resolution graphics; Real-time visualization of complex weather patterns; Real-time protein modeling and drug design; Telepresence, telemedicine, and telesurgery; Vehicle and aircraft design and simulation; Visualization of scientific and medical data.

The Grid Institute leads the design and development of the global Media Grid through the MediaGrid.org open standards organization in collaboration with industry, academia, and governments from around the world.

To learn more about the Media Grid, Immersive Education or the Education Grid visit:
MediaGrid.org, ImmersiveEducation.org and TheEducationGrid.org