How to Include 3D Technology into Learning

A friend of mine came over to my house last year with his latest gadget that he was trying out. He had been raving about it for the last couple weeks and felt I should give it a try. Most of the time when he gets like this I decide to just humor him and act like the new gadget is amazing, but this time I actually agreed with him. The new device he was showing me was 3D goggles attached to his cell phone.

In the Past

I was familiar with 3D just because of experiences I had when I was a kid. When I was about eight years old, I used to have a 3D poster in my room of movie monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein. When I would throw on 3D glasses, they would look like they were emerging from the poster to come and get me. Then there was also that time I saw Jaws 3D when the shark somehow entered into a water amusement park. The 3D technology at the time was very underwhelming, but it was fun. However, if you have not tried 3D and virtual reality in the last couple of years, you are in for a treat.

My Recent Experience

After my friend messed around with his phone and set up the virtual situations I was about ready to enter, he attached 3D goggles and headphones to his phone and I put the contraption on over my head. The first experience with this 3D technology had me skiing down a mountainside covered in snow. I felt like I was really on the mountain. In fact, I had to sit down midway through so I didn’t fall down from my movement. The next situation he placed me in was virtual skydiving out of a plane. I actually had a bit of anxiety when I jumped out of the plane and coasted down through the sky.

Possibilities in Education

Of course, being an educator, I immediately thought of the implications of 3D technology being used throughout education. I know I am not the only one that has considered this after I completed an online search and came away with many schools already trying their best to incorporate it. But if you have not considered this innovative technology yet for your classroom, let me fill you in on ways that you could use it.

Watching things in 3D makes it all come to life. You actually feel like you are there at the location you are viewing. While there is no chance that your school would be willing to pay for a class trip to the Amazon rainforest so the students could study nature and take a gander at the unique animals there, you can still have your students experience it through virtual reality with the 3D goggles. And this is merely the tip of the iceberg. It could be used for many other Science lessons.

The same can be done for other subjects as well. Every History lesson could come to life as students visit the location and time period they are learning about. Think of how Geography would be easier to teach when the student can actually “visit” these places instead of looking at a two-dimensional map that merely explains physical features with different shades of color. Math could be simplified with as well with 3D technology. Geometry would have been so much easier to learn when you could have seen the images in 3D as you circle around the shape.

How To Go About Doing This Immediately

Most classrooms have a projector nowadays, so by simply showing the 3D videos and images on the screen with the kids wearing their 3D glasses is one way to do this that won’t break the bank. There are enough 3D movies in theaters that you should be able to snag free 3D glasses if you play your cards right. This will definitely bring the wow factor to learning in your classroom. Your students will leave school at the end of the day and actually talk to their parents about what they learned in the classroom!

Struggling with Technology?

If you don’t feel like this is something you can pull off without a bit of help, iAchieve may be able to be of assistance. We help strengthen your technological skills through workshops and professional development. Soon enough, you will be the teacher in your hallway that the rest of the teachers come to for hi-tech help.

Written by Ryan Crawley

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