The Wayfarer project (2000-2001) aimed to develop usefulness of virtual environments as educational tools. Wayfarer, in the guise of a game, is a learning package for teaching map-reading and navigation by the use of three-dimensional virtual worlds. Students were asked to navigate a RT 3D VE with the help of a real map and find certain locations within the virtual space by combining the bearing taken from within the RT 3D VE and the information gathered from the physical map.

Wayfarer was designed for practical teaching purposes and had to deliver an environment that allowed for a transfer of navigational skills from virtual worlds into the physical world. Another goal was to enhance students' interest in the educational material by exploiting the appeal of computer games technology with the main target group being disaffected students aged 14 years and upwards.

The prototype was programmed by Rob Manton of West Herts College and used the Renderware 3D engine. It runs on consumer spec PCs and was tested in schools as well as presented to the British Army for practical use and at various conferences (like the Business of e-learning EESI conference, Cambridge 2002).

Working for the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET), I was consultant for the narrative structure and provided a variety of dramatic and narrative settings to the lead designer (Ian Raynes of West Herts College). One of these settings - an orienteering competition - was used for the first prototype produced as part of the Training Adventure Research Project at West Herts College, Watford with East of England Development Agency funding. My work work focussed on content structures and explored the freedom available for different narrative forms within the limitations of a given interactive setting.