Welcome to the CDP Group A Website

This website documents the development of a 3D Turtle graphics implementation in Second Life, as part of a project exploring innovative ways to use Second Life for teaching/education purposes.

Historically, turtles are a type of robot aimed at the educational market for computer science and mechanical engineering training. They were designed in the late 1940s, and are traditionally hemispheric and are capable of traveling forwards and turning on the spot. Turtles are controlled using the procedural Logo programming language and usually contain a retractable pen to allow pictures or diagrams to be drawn. Turtle systems have also been developed as software, allowing users to learn the Logo programming language without access to a physical Turtle.

This project works to extend the traditional 2D form of the Turtle software to 3D using the Second Life virtual environment. As well as eliminating the practical issues of operating a Turtle robot and the confines of 2D, our system allows for the creation of more interesting graphics through drawing 3D geometric shapes, and we feel it will generally be more fun to use.

Our system will be used to teach basic procedural programming, to students with no programming background, through drawing 3D geometric shapes using the Logo language.