Title: Learning Taken to a New Dimension: As 3D Technology Wins over Students, Vendors Are Finding Ways to Make It More Accessible, and Teachers Are Searching for More Intriguing Ways to Use It
Abstract: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHILE 3D TECHNOLOGY'S first recorded use dates back to the 1800s, its popularity first surged in the 1950s with the rise of 3D films that paired the now classic red and cyan filter system with cardboard specs. Today, a state-of-the-art update to the technology from Texas Instruments called Digital Light Processing (DLP) uses millions of microscopic mirrors to reflect light and create the three-dimensional effects via a single lens projector. In movie theaters and television production, it has become--if not yet ubiquitous-increasingly prolific. In education, its use has grown over the past two years. Since T.H.E. Journal last wrote about 3D technology in K-12 education a little more than a year ago, the number of brand manufacturers now using DLP chips to create affordable 3D classroom projectors has doubled to 18. Consequently, more and more schools are equipping their classrooms with this technology. Complete 3D implementation can be expensive. In fact, so far many of schools that have pioneered its use have done so in partnership with vendors. Nevertheless, some of them have found intriguing ways to help their students learn and overcome obstacles to implementation. When other schools still waiting to make the transformation are ready, they'll have the experience of several trailblazing schools and districts to call upon. With 28,000 K-12 students and 54 schools, the Boulder Valley School District (CO) was the first, and is still the largest, district to implement 3D, experimenting with the technology in four of its schools, including an elementary, a middle, three high school classrooms and a day school and treatment center for kids with special needs. According to Kristin Donley, a science teacher and STEM instructor at Boulder Valley's Monarch High School, the implementation of 3D in her classroom has allowed her students to become much more adept at understanding abstract information. teach mostly biology and chemistry and a lot of that information is hard to visualize, so the 3D really helped them see in much more detail what I was trying to teach them, says Donley. As they would do an essay question about molecular processes, for example, they were able to recall details much better from a 3D representation versus a 2D and were able to put those details in their essays. Donley notes that students also were more likely to notice details and enjoy correcting mistakes they found: During a 3D video on meiosis cell division they realized spindle fibers were attached at the wrong points, an unintentional error. kids were able to identify that, to a higher level of understanding based on that video, Donley says. Then they started asking much deeper questions about the content much quicker. According to Len Scrogan, a former Boulder Valley director of instructional technology and library media and consultant with Texas Instruments, although stereoscopic 3D is indeed compelling for student learning, its power goes beyond just the wow factor of the visualization. What happens with 3D in the classroom is the closer you bring it to the learner, the more they stop, totally focus, and want to understand a whole new world they haven't seen, Scrogan says. We see it in all our schools and in our most difficult classrooms, including our lockdown schools. I call it the 'ladybug effect.' The closest thing I can think of is when you were a child and you had a little ladybug in the palm of your hand. You spent the time to investigate and to care. For those students who are primarily visual learners, seeing a concept come to life in 3D and viewing it from different perspectives can promote a new understanding of material, says Jodi Szuter, sales manager of XpanD, a manufacturer of active shutter 3D glasses, which use technology that helps create a realistic illusion of depth perception for the wearer. …
Publication Year: 2011
Publication Date: 2011-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot