3D as Accelerator

For educators exploring mobile, large display, virtual reality or augmented reality platforms using 3D, it is important to know the value added benefits of these products. To date, most reports about the effectiveness of using stereo 3D in the classroom revolve around increased retention of learning, ‘wow’ factor, motivation to learn, and higher pre-test/post-test scores. What if there is another benefit we are missing entirely, something much more appealing to educators?

One advantage of teaching with 3D, based on recent learning experiences in advantage of teaching with 3D, based on learning experiences in Swedish schools, appears to be the acceleration of curriculum. The growth dividend associated with the acceleration of curriculum seems very attractive.  Here’s how it’s evidenced in some Swedish schools.

Using the 3D Classroom, a richly 3D simulation series produced by Sensavis, teachers in Sweden are seeing some surprising results, even at very young ages. At the intermediate school level, Principal Mattias Bostrom reported the following example of curriculum acceleration in action:

An 8th grade biology teacher using The 3D Classroom stopped having tests in anatomy at the end of a course. Instead he had the 8th grade students teaching what they had learned to 4th and 5th grade students, but using the same 3D visualization tools. This way he could better understand the depth of the 8th grade students’ knowledge. During the experiment, the instructor noticed that the 4th and 5th grade students asked tougher questions than he had imagined they would ask. The biology teacher, curious about what the younger students had learned, conducted another spot experiment.  He took the last year’s final test for 8th grade anatomy and gave it to the 5th graders. He was surprised and delighted when the 5th graders scored better on this test than last year’s 8th graders. Humorously, at the same time he was a bit worried what to teach the 4th and 5th graders when they became 8th graders. 

Stay tuned next week for a post involving curriculum acceleration by even younger students.