3D Projectors in the Classroom: The kids are ready--but what about the textbook-bound curriculum?

Recently several companies have unveiled 3D DLP projector systems for use in K-12 settings.   Why 3D in the classroom?

To provide students with immersive learning experiences, according to information from a press release from Texas Instruments:
DLP Technology Enhances Interactive Learning by Demonstrating Industry's Only 3D-Enabled Single-Projector: "Immersive learning provided by 3D displays shown to increase test scores, close the gender gap and increase knowledge retention."

Here are a few quotes from the students who had a chance to try out a 3D learning experience in their classroom:

"I think it would really stay in your brain more, because you're having fun with it."
"It's really interactive and exciting"
"It lets you focus on the details of it."

Students usually don't give this sort of reaction when they are asked to open up a traditional textbook!
"Book work is boring. (With 3D) you get into it...and then you can play back that picture in your mind when you're taking a test" - Student, Rock Island, IL (track 3).


DLP Enables 3D in the Classroom at FETC (Promotional video)






RELATED:


The Classroom in 3D
THE Journal, February 2010
"In assessing the classroom potential of 3D, experts point to its capacity to enhance visualization. That could prove useful in classes such as geometry, in which the third dimension could illustrate complex spatial concepts, and biology, where 3D could be used for frog dissections or to show images of cells.  Subjects such as astronomy, history, geography, art history, and earth sciences would be enriched as well."

One barrier to the adoption of 3D technology in the classroom is the lack of appropriate 3D content.  According to the THE Journal article,  content providers working on 3D content include Safari Montage, BenQ, AVRover, Discovery Education, Promethean World, Eon Reality, and RM Educational Software.  Texas Instruments is involved with some of these companies.

3D Enabled Projectors
Texas Instruments (also see DLP Link & Active Glasses)
BenQ
Mitsubishi
Sharp
ViewSonic


SOMEWHAT RELATED:
Teachers Increasingly Value Media and Technology (pdf)
PBS and Grunwald Associates, LLC, 2009

Multimedia Storytelling; Brian Storm & Scott Strazzante (info via Innovative Interactivity)

Brian Storm, the founder and president of MediaStorm, recently was a presenter during UNC's Photo Night, an event that celebrates various forms of photo-journalism. Tracy Boyer, author of the Innovative Interactivity blog, recently posted about her experience attending the presentation and her chance to chat with Brian Storm over lunch.


Tracy's post provides a good overview of MediaStorm's business model, which has four main components - multiple platform publication, project-specific multimedia agency, an interactive production studio, and evangelism/training.  I think that MediaStorm's business model will hold well for the future, given the rapid changes in technology, journalism, and cross-platform interactive media. Despite the economic downturn, MediaStorm had their best year, according to Tracy.


Below is an example of what you'll find on the MediaStorm website:


Common Ground  (excerpt)
Photographer: Scott Strazzante

The full Common Ground project can be viewed at http://mediastorm.org/0023.htm


"On July 2, 2002, Jean and Harlow Cagwin watched as their home — the last remnant of their 118-acre cattle farm in Lockport, Illinois — was torn down clearing the way for a new housing development. Several years later, Ed and Amanda Grabenhofer and their four children moved into the new Willow Walk subdivision, their house just yards from where the Cagwin's home once stood.

Common Ground introduces us to the lives touched by this land, as photographer Scott Strazzante takes us on a visual journey exploring the differences and similarities of these two families while simultaneously asking us to look at what is common among us all."





What I liked about the videography and photography is how the photography juxtaposed similar pictures depicting the commonalities between the older couple who once lived on the farmland that was transformed into the suburban home for young families.


RELATED
ABOUT MEDIASTORM (from the MediaStorm website)

"Originally founded in 1994 at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, MediaStorm relaunched in March of 2005 with a focus on creating cinematic narratives for distribution across a variety of platforms.
In November 2005, MediaStorm premiered its award-winning multimedia publicationhttp://mediastorm.org. Utilizing animation, audio, video and the power of still photography, we publish diverse narratives that speak to the heart of the human condition.

MediaStorm is widely recognized for the quality editorial work we've produced for our many clients. We have created award-winning multimedia projects, interactive applications, and web sites for media companies, foundations and advocacy groups. Our clientele includes Starbucks, Council on Foreign Relations, and National Geographic Magazine. MediaStorm projects have also appeared on numerous websites including MSNBC, Slate, NPR and Reuters and have been broadcast on PBS..."

"MediaStorm is a multimedia production studio based in Brooklyn, New York and collaborating virtually with creative resources around the globe. MediaStorm's principal aim is to usher a new era of multimedia storytelling, via our  publication, our advanced workshops and our industry-leading production and consulting services. The people we hire and the culture that we have created for quality and innovation at MediaStorm are the keys to our success."

MediaStorm Founder Brian Storm advises journalism community to partner and collaborate
Tracy Boyer, Innovative Interactivity,  2/17/10
Bloggers: If you link to MediaStorm, be sure to send an email to info@mediastorm.org with your URL.


Some of my previous posts about multimedia/digital storytelling:
Visual Literacy and Multimedia Literacy Quotes
The Importance of Storytelling and Multimedia Content-Updated
Digital Storytelling Platforms and Multiple Perspectives: A look at the work of Jonathan Harris - food for thought for interactive timeline design.
Two Interesting Posts:  Colin Mulvany "Will the touch tablet save professional journalism?" & Michael Arrington -"The End of Hand Crafted Content"
Umajin Creative - Digital Storytelling for Interactive Whiteboard or Touch Screen- free demo available.
Resources for the (therapeutic) use of digital and multimedia storytelling & social stories for children and teens.

Johnny Holland on-line Magazine- some of my favorite posts.

If I had the time, I could spend several hours catching up with the on-line Johnny Holland Magazine.  Why?  It is full of stuff I like to think about.

"Johnny is an open collective talking, sharing, and finding answers about the interaction between people, products, systems or processes."

Here are a few of my favorite posts:

Learning from Games: A Language for Designing Emotion
Joe Lamantia, 8/3/2009

Lamantia's article discusses the thoughts of Nicole Lazzaro, a games researcher and design consultant, who suggests that there are four kinds of fun, as outlined in the chart below:
  --XEO Design Inc.

(The references for Lamantia's article are worth taking a look.)

Engaging the User: What We Can Learn from Games
Marc Sasinski, 8/31/09

When Data Gets Up Close and Personal
Stephen Anderson, 1/27/10

The Social Life of Visualization (4-part series by Jeremy Yuille and Hugh Macdonald)
The Social Life of Visualization, Part 2:  Creation Phase
The Social Life of Visualization, Part 3: Interpretation
The Social Life of Visualization, Part 4: The Capture Process

"Jeremy Yuille and Hugh Macdonald are interaction design researchers with ACID at RMIT University. They research the effects of social media on different industries, ranging from sport to finance."

The Future is Touchable
"Jeroen van Geel is founder of Johnny Holland and a senior interaction designer. He works part-time for Fabrique Communication & Design and the other part for his own clients."


Visit Johnny Holland Magazine to find out more about the "Johnnies" below:


:





(The "Johnnies" without pictures can be found on the Johnny Holland website.)

Design and Design Failures: Nicolas Nova's Interact 10 Presentation Slides (great pics!)

Today I thought I'd share slides from Nicolas Nova's presentation at Interact 10, a conference held recently in Savannah, G.A. I really wanted to attend this conference.

Design and Designed Failures: From Observing Failures To Provoking Them

Nicolas Nova is the author of the Pasta & Vinegar blog, and works at Lift Lab.

Here are a few of my favorite Pasta & Vinegar posts- I'll add a few more links later.

Tablet PC's strike back
Digital keypads in Paris
ATM interface complexity
(I've taken similar pictures while traveling!)

A review of Interact 10 can be found on Experientia's Putting People First blog.

RENCI Visualization Center Update & Link to Innovative Interactivity post

I've been meaning to visit a few of North Carolina's RENCI visualization centers, but I just haven't had a moment to squeeze the field trip in my schedule.  Tracy Boyer, who authors the Innovative Interactivity blog, had a chance to visit the center in Chapel Hill


For those of you who can't visit a RENCI center, visit Tracy's blog and read about her first-hand experience as a visitor: RENCI pioneering the visualization industry with innovative interfaces
I found a link to the following project, "The Docuverse",  deep within one of the RENCI websites:


The Docuverse: 1.5 million documents on the screen at once.

"The Docuverse is a method of displaying an entire digital library on a screen at once. The Docuverse takes a digital library of HTML documents and a set of queries and creates a “universe” around these queries. Each “galaxy” corresponds to a library query. Each “star” corresponds to a document. The most relevant documents found through a query are the stars located close to the center of a galaxy. Documents perceived by a search engine as less relevant are out among the arms of the galaxies. The visualization is interactive, allowing the user to zoom in and out of galaxies, change queries, and overlay different kinds of data mining results onto the visualization to show how documents with certain characteristics are distributed throughout the collection."

-RENCI


Below are a couple of videos from RENCI's YouTube channel:





Unity 3D Game Engine running on a multi-projector dome system using JavaScript:

FYI:  C#/WPF App to open Unity plug-in window at custom dimension

RENCI Focus Areas (from the RENCI website):
Biosciences & Health
Computing & Technology
Data & Information Management
Disaster & Environmental Research
Economic Development
Education and Outreach
Humanities, Arts and Social Science
Visualization & Collaborative Environments
Project Archive


RELATED
Multi-Touch at RENCI
Research by Touch:  RENCI Multitouch Table Gives Computer Science Research an Intuitive Interface
RENCI Anchor at Europa Center
RENCI at Duke University
RENCI at ECU
RENCI at North Carolina State University
RENCI at UNC Asheville
RENCI at UNC Chapel Hill 
RENCI at UNC Charlotte
RENCI at UNC Coastal Studies Institute
RENCI at UNC HSL

How to visit RENCI at UNC Chapel Hill

Video Games are Good: A Wii Lab for Walter Bickett Elementary School! (Union County, N.C.)

My last post:   Recess is Good...

This post:  Video Games are Good

I went to check my work email today and noticed this article about the Wii on my school district's website. Here is the cut & paste, with additional information and links about games for health below:

Walter Bickett Elementary gifted Wii lab from Tate Realtors 

Written by: Deb Coates Bledsoe, UCPS Communications Coordinator Posted February 4, 2010 by Deb Coates Bledsoe

Walter Bickett Elementary School held a ribbon cutting of its Wii Lab recently officially opening it to students. Pictured, from left, are Walter Bickett physical education teacher Jeff Sauser, PTA vice president Michelle Anderson, PTA president Carrie Beckham, Ron Sumrow and Danielle Spuler both of Allen Tate Realtors and Walter Bickett Elementary principal Theresa Benson.

Thanks to the generosity of Allen Tate Realtors, Walter Bickett Elementary students have the opportunity to be not only smarter, but also a little healthier. 
   
Funds donated to the school last year by Allen Tate helped purchase a Wii Lab, which was unveiled recently with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The lab consists of five stations, each containing a 26-inch flat-panel TV on a cart with locking cabinet. It also has the Wii gaming console and the Wii Fit Plus and Balance Board.
   
“Allen Tate Realtors have been community partners to Walter Bickett Elementary for many years,” said school principal Theresa Benson. “I am proud and honored to continue our partnership and friendship."
   
Allen Tate’s contribution of more than $3,000 last year made the purchase of the Wii Lab possible, while the TV’s were purchased with funds from the school’s parent teacher association.
   
The monetary help comes from an annual event held each year by Allen Tate Realtors called a “FUNDay.” This is a fee-based event where Realtors and employees pay to play golf and other activities. All proceeds benefit public education.
   
The day also includes silent and live auctions to raise additional funds. More than 800 individuals historically participate in the annual event, usually held at The Point Lake and Golf Club on Lake Norman. This year’s contribution to the Walter Bickett Elementary School is $4,166.
   
The Wii labs supplement the school’s Promethium boards, document cameras, data projectors, Wi-fi lab and iPod Rock Stars, which already serve students. These help students become globally aware and technology savvy, Benson said.
   
Another lab with an additional five stations is in the plans with money that was awarded to the school in a PEP (physical education program) grant.

RELATED
6th Annual Games for Health Conference
May 25-27,  Hyatt Harborside Boston
Games Beyond Entertainment Week

Serious Games Drastically Changing Health Outcomes

Eliane Alhadeff

Serious Games Blog: Posts on Games for Health

Eliane Alhadeff

I gave a presentation about game accessibility and games for health in K-12 settings at the 2008 Games for Health conference:

Accessible Games for Health and K-12 Education: Lessons from the Classroom

View more presentations from Lynn Marentette.

SOMEWHAT RELATED

Why Video Games are Good For Your Soul 
James Paul Gee

Big Thinkers:  James Paul Gee on Grading with Games

(Edutopia Video)