3D Learning, Its time to teach in Voxels instead of Pixels
Virtual & Augmented Reality seems like it lives only in the movies, with see-through computers controlled like the Minority Report or TV shows like Star Trek when you interact with Holograms and journey into the Holodeck to another world. These virtual worlds seem far away, and yet, the technology is here today.
Our lives have been surrounded in glorified 2D representations of information and data, taking information in through flat 2 dimensional textbooks, TV’s, computer screens, signs, posters. The colours have improved over the years, the sharpness, the contrast, the compactness, the ability to carry it, to hang it, to present it… all in 2 dimensions.
Pixels have always presented a flat, width and length of measurement, Voxels (or 3D pixels) give an object width, length and depth giving it volume and allowing for a more fundamental understanding of the topics being presented.
3D movies have been the closest we have come to experiencing learning in the most natural way possible, the way our real world is…in 3D. This idea never left the movie theatres. We live in a 3D world but we have always been forced to learn about it in a 2D world.
Digital tools like Virtual, Augmented & Mixed Reality (collectively XR), are all available right now providing immersive experiences, lessons and processes using multi-dimensional engagement through digital overlays of computer generated (CG) animations into your world.
Major Corporations are seeing dramatic results from using Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and 3D Learning. United Rentals has reduced new recruit training times by 40%, Walmart employee test results have increased 10–15%, and Nationwide has reduced training time from an average of 3 hours to only 25 minutes.
So why are we not implementing this technology into our classrooms?
Why are we not leveraging the power of these cutting-edge tools for our lessons, discovery, collaboration and adding them to our educational toolbox and fostering 3D world we have access to today?
The reality is that we have not taught our world to teach in 3-Dimensions.
Having a digital object in 3 dimensions hovering in your hand and the ability to look around it, zoom into it, stretch it, walk around it, poke it, pull at it and best of all interact with it engaging the user, who immediately understands all the dimensions and layers, how it moves, rotates, works, and its applications.
This is 3-Dimensional Learning.
Our world has not yet applied 3D Learning into the basic fundamentals of our school curriculum or in our work skill sets training. We have not yet bridged the thought process in our education system of 3D through our lessons about shapes, the mass of geometry, the dissection layers of anatomy, the rotation of all parts, the perception of depth, and the visual access in assembly and collaboration.
3-Dimensional Learning is needed to change the mindset to accept Virtual & Augmented Reality as toolsets into our daily interactions and processes. We have absorbed information through paper and walls and flat screens. It is time to open the mind to explore each side, behind something, above and below it, to take apart and put back together.
Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Realities are available and ready to show this world and education needs to change the way we think to adapt to the Future of Work where 3D applications will be required and necessary. Introducing this curriculum into today’s classrooms & job training will prepare the next generation to accept the concepts of technologies that will change the way we create, make, build, collaborate with and use.
The human mind has been trained in 2D, and to see things in flat pixels. With the digital resources we have today, it’s now time to think, learn and teach in voxels and immerse our students in a rich and comprehensive 3-Dimensional world.
About Julie Smithson
Julie’s personal mission is ‘To inspire and educate future leaders to think and act in a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable way’. It is through this lens, she manages operations at MetaVRse, a global leading XR consulting and product development company.
Julie’s passion for education, community and technology has her leading the VR/AR Association (VRARA) Toronto Chapter as well as the VRARA 5G and Education Committees bridging the gap with the next generation in the Student Education Committee.
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