Karate Instructor Brings Lessons Online

Westwood's own karate instructor is about to enter the virtual world. 

Steve DiOrio, who teaches Uechi-Ryu karate through the Westwood Recreation Department, will now, in addition to regular instruction, be providing video-based lessons to a new website that launched last Friday. 

"I got connected with this group of guys who created an online educational and social networking site for kids," DiOrio said. 

That site is known as WonderWorldCity.com, and officially made its launch to the web on Friday at 3 p.m.

When kids sign into the site, they are able to travel to a virtual city that features various buildings, such as an exercise studio, a science pavilion and a music center. Through the use of avatars, kids can take three-minute lessons in different subject areas. 

"They originated as doing a combination of animation and live-action programming for television," DiOrio said. 

WonderWorldCity, he added, is based in Lawrence, where DiOrio will produce much of his content for the site. 

"They have a full studio up there, and I will go there and do karate lessons on a green screen," he said. "Even though I'll be in Lawrence, I'll be green-screened in with someone in Japan."

DiOrio's wife, Lisa, is also involved, and will be teaching math through the site. DiOrio, needless to say, will be focusing his time on karate instruction. 

"Normally in karate, you study with a particular teacher, you have classes several times a week," he said. "That's a little difficult to do online. So the intent there is to be a resource center to any martial artists."

As such, the basis of the videos and tutorials will be to give a broad overview of the karate art form to students. 

"I'm giving history, support and techniques that are universal to all forms of karate," DiOrio said. "There will be short, pre-recorded videos that you can access 24-7."

At the time of Friday's launch, DiOrio had up to seven recorded episodes launched on the site, and he will also be heading up live chat events for kids to take part on and speak with him in real time. 

"What makes this different is that this company has done a lot of work to make it safe," said DiOrio. 

The safety features are designed specifically to keep kids from using harsh language on the site or if an address or phone number is given, the site recognizes it and prevents it from being sent through. 

"The ways to communicate from person to person outside the [virtual] city are strictly controlled," DiOrio said. "Safety is a key to the whole thing. This is a way to make social networking available to children in a way that their parents can feel safe."

What's more, WonderWorldCity is approaching their site with high ambitions, such as reaching the same traffic numbers as Facebook within five years time, according to DiOrio.

"This is really going to revolutionize social networking for children," he said. "There's really nothing like it out there."