Chris Drage dons his 3D glasses for a classroom show by Texas Instruments
It seems that 3D has been a Holy Grail in learning resources for years. Until now, that is. Thanks to the efforts of Texas Instruments and projector manufacturers, 3D is here, it's classroom-ready and it's surprisingly accessible for students, teachers and schools.
Children live in a three-dimensional world so it seems a natural step natural to use 3D resources wherever spatially appropriate. The technology behind 3D has been around for decades – even yours truly can remember eagerly purchasing 3D comics with the cheap, red/green, cardboard ‘glasses’ only to find the resulting images rather disappointing to say the least. Only at university, studying geology, did I begin to understand the power of 3D when studying landforms and erosion with stereo-pairs under stereo lenses in the lab.
More recent developments in education have seen solutions which require two perfectly aligned projectors, two separate video feeds, polarisers, and glasses. A silver screen is required to utilise low-cost passive glasses. The major problem here has been the overall cost and impracticality for your typical classroom environment. Enter Texas Instruments with its DLP (Digital Light Processor) chip.
With the simple insertion of a DLP chip into an off-the-shelf digital projector, you get superb image quality with a standard screen and active glasses – no additional hardware or installation is required. Other attributes include ease of installation in a classroom, unlimited field of view, much better reliability, and lower overall cost to implement. Yes, I concede that the active glasses do at present cost £50-£60 each and that will preclude many from launching into a 3D virtual world just yet. However, I also remember when humble calculators cost about £60 each and Promethean’s interactive whiteboard pens cost £30+ each!
The Abbey School in Reading is one of the first secondaries to trial the new technology. Deputy head (operations and communications) Kathryn Macaulay, praises the development: “We choose to use 3D particularly with children as it the very best technology for them to understand. I think when they use ‘flat’ technology like a book, video or TV it just does not explain in the same way. I would like to see 3D explain the shape, the form and the concepts in all of the subject areas.”
So what do the students at Abbey School think? Comments include: “It’s really interactive and exciting”, “It lets you focus on the details...”, “I think it would stay in your brain more because you are having fun”, “I thought it was brilliant and really interesting way of learning”, “I think it will help you because you can see what it looks like in space” (see video above). Indeed the last comment really does encapsulate the advantages of using 3D projection in learning: Different from a physical model, this virtual one you can ‘walk round’ and you can look inside. It also will give teachers and students insights into experiments and other tasks that would be impossible in any other form.
A 3D projector uses your existing projector location and your current screen, does not require any IR emitters or polarisers and of course, the projector still functions perfectly for all standard, 2D applications. The immersive 3D classroom made possible by 3D, DLP technology enhances visual learning and stimulates hands-on learning in a way never before possible. The possibilities are endless for Enhanced and more engaging learning experience for students of all ages. When I can get my hands on a projector I will evaluate some of the content that is already out there and I don’t mean just Avatar or Alice in Wonderland! As in all technology, the hardware is nothing if not supported by the very best software. Watch this space!
Chris Drage is a CISCO Regional Academy manager and an adviser and trainer with Central Brent Education Improvement Partnership. You can contact him at
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