The new program, which opens this August after a $3 million renovation, will have one 3D printer for every 4 students in a classroom, but that is just the beginning. As Glen Bull, Gavin Garner, and Greg Lewin from the University of Virginia put it, “The challenge is to find a curriculum to go with it.” Speaking at this week’s Inside 3D Printing Conference in New York, the trio emphasized that, “You can’t just take a 3D printing lesson plan and drop it into a middle school and say, ‘here you go.’” And this is why the involvement of University of Virginia is so important.

Faculty and students from UVA’s Schools of Engineering and Education are working together to develop and test new curricula for critical STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education that makes use of 3D printing. One of their first successes was a project in which middle school students designed and built a fully functional speaker. Teams were broken into two halves – one to design and test a high frequency tweeter and another to design and test a low frequency woofer – and then at the end of the project the two teams were forced to integrate the two parts into one integrated speaker. In another project, currently still in a pilot stage, undergraduate engineering students are challenged to program a computer controlled pen that was made with a 3D printer.

Overall, the speakers were both optimistic about the future of 3D printing in the classroom, especially the availability of various funding sources, but also cautionary that curricula are difficult to develop and take a lot of time and testing. What is clear is that the Commonwealth of Virginia is taking 3D printing very seriously, and that they are leading the way in 3D printing education.
/Authored by Brian H. Jaffe, founder of Mission St. Manufacturing and contributor to On 3D Printing/

Their uses are varied and can adapt to different needs.

1. Communications scenarios. It is clear virtual worlds are being used to teach field specific communications. For example, an MBA negotiations class may meet virtually with different company leaders to negotiate the terms of an agreement.
2. Developing Tools. Some scientific fields are integrating lectures with 3D models for teaching purposes. For instance, in the field of forensic pathology, Second Life is being used to teach autopsy procedures.
3. Staging an Exhibition. Students at the London College of Fashion held a virtual degree show and created a Second Life building to display their final projects.
4. Virtual campuses. These are becoming quite common. Many universities are building a virtual presence to focus on learning resources, student centers, and marketing efforts.
5. Virtual Classrooms-Some professors are using the platform as a meeting space for students to attend lecture with embedded videos, illustrations, ebooks, or 3D models.
6. Virtual Centers. Several prestigious research labs and centers, such as the POC Center for Emerging Neurotechnology are creating virtual offices to discuss ideas, meet colleagues, share methodologies, or compare research.
7. Conferences Facilities. The MAYO clinic in Second Life hosts virtual events on diseases for residents and even includes a bookstore.
8. Technical Training. A virtual scenario might prepare hair stylists to practice the steps of the coloring process. Practice can not only build confidence, but emphasize important techniques.
9. Virtual Field trip. This option is great if you only want to use the technology for a trial basis or as a final project. Engineers might visit a chemical plant and see how they would address problems.
10. Simulated Experiences. To experience a simulated world. For instance, The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) created a world to simulate a tsunami or hurricane.
11. Safety-focused Lessons. This can be especially useful to see if students are ready to perform dangerous activities that can be life-threatening, such as trauma, terrorist, or evacuation trainings.
12. Virtual World economies. Virtual worlds have their own currency and economies. The Second Life currency is the Linden, which can be used to buy objects, land, or personalize your virtual appearance. Students might explore the economy of a virtual world. USC Marshall School of Business uses the platform to allow students to run their own businesses and manage rental properties.
13. Archaeological and historical sites. Some countries are exploring replicating archeological sites for public viewing and research studies.
14. Libraries and Museums: Some academics from the ALA (American Library Association) are predicting that “cloud” technology coupled with virtual platforms may make traditional libraries obsolete. Stanford University already has a virtual university library in Second Life.
15. Student Activism. Anti-violence campuses on Second Llife integrate seminars, workshops, exhibitions and films related to anti-bullying, violence and discrimination.
16. Language Learning. Second life is especially popular for practicing language skills. Text and audio forms of language can be integrated in meaningful ways to support learning.
17. Cultural Immersion. Some courses are using virtual worlds to recreate interactive exhibits, such as exploring the heritage of Native peoples.
18. Instructors design a world with specific parameters. This is especially useful if you want students to practice exploring a scientific site, such as a virtual mine before visiting the real thing.
19. Research Studies. Since the field is still relatively new, virtual worlds themselves are the subject of much academic research. Cornell University’s Weill Medical College is currently exploring if Virtual Technology can be used to help individuals cope with PTSD related to the World Trade Center bombings.
20. Collaboration. The process of creating a world provides a learning experience in itself. Students must learn what parameters and aspects should be included to have it simulate a real situation or environment. For example, an urban planning course, might create a world that follows the principles of an ideal urban plan or architecture students might design buildings for a city.

/Posted by EdTech Times Staff, Ed Tech Times/

Youngblut’s research has found some crucial characteristics for the successful integration of virtual worlds.

- Effective virtual worlds allow the learner to visualize or enact learning scenarios through active engagement.
- The key to efficacy of virtual worlds is interactivity, rather than immersion. This simply means that students learn by doing in this environment.
- Virtual worlds can be applied to create spaces that transcend safety or distance parameters.
- Ease of navigation through the world seems to make the user experience better and improve learning motivation.
- Teachers best serve as facilitators in the discovery process, rather than problem solvers.
- Desktop Virtual worlds are the preferred method as they more cost effective and less cumbersome than immersive VR.

- Worlds must build learning through interaction and construction, rather than by assimilation as with traditional instruction.

In addition, virtual worlds can be used to effectively integrate media, such as:
- e-Books
- Hyperlinked articles
- Objects to manipulate, such as artifacts
- Interactive calendars or blackboards
- Surveys, where feedback is sent via email

/Posted by EdTech Times Staff /

The Head of Physics Department at University of Debrecen asked two of their students to represent Leonar3Do at the Festival. Monika and Mariann participated with their own Leonar3Do kits, which they have won at the Vimensio Mobile Weekend competition. During the whole Festival, thanks to the great interest, they could not leave their stand, even not for a moment. Not only the children were fascinated, but the grownups also found it engaging. While the children immersed in the LeoBang software, mature audience could dissect and analyze the prefabricated virtual crystal models and interact with the LeoWorld software. We can proudly say, the girls have received loads of positive feedbacks and recognition from national and foreign visitors also. We hope Leonar3Do will achieve a same great success at Researcher’s Night.

How beneficial 3D printing is in education ?
Yes schools are still in the early stage of adoption of this innovative technology, but the exciting thing is what is to come. 3D printing provides several features that can revolutionize education here are some of them :

It provides teachers with 3 dimensional visual aids that they can use in their classroom particulalry in illustrating a hard to grasp concept
3D printers make it easy for teachers to seize the interest of their students compared to just showing the pictorial representations of objects.
It enhances hands-on learning and learning by doing. Using this prototyping technology, students will be able to produce realistic 3 dimensional mini-models . ( great for engineering, architecture, and multi-media arts students ).
It provides more room for interactive class activities. In biology, for instance, teachers can create a 3D model of the human heart, head. skeleten…etc to teach students about the human body.

Given all these attributes, 3D printing seems to hold some promising and ground-breaking innovation that will definitely assist in the fulfillment of a productive educational experience.

/Educational Technology and Mobile Learning/

• digital products and services

• expansion into global markets

• efficient investment in its content-based enterprises

(like books and journalism).

Each of them are working on end-to-end solutions: not just textbooks and testing, but software-based learning delivery platforms. They invest in highly interactive platform-specific apps and basic, cross-platform e-textbook standards.

While going digital gives digital educational publishers the opportunity to add more and more, increasingly complex, illustrations and content, there is a practical limit defined by cost rather than capacity. Simply, if it takes the digital educational publisher a long time to create data files, animations and illustrations, then costs can escalate. In practice, it remains essential to consider what information needs to be imparted, and which of these new digital media are best for imparting it, before diving in to the exciting worlds of animation, illustration software and multimedia.

Companies such as Pearson , Oxford University Press and Mc Graw Hill are amongst many educational publishers who have taken a muti-pronged approach in their digital educational publishing strategy. All three companies have invested in digital publishing software for the education sector to enable them to catalogue their ever growing banks of material and publish them across all known digital devices. They also use the same software to develop resources for the K-12 education publishing market, developing interactive video and audio enhanced books for maths and language development in this sector. They achieved this with a solution from 3D Issue for Education

“3D Issue has provided OUP Australia & New Zealand with a highly production- and user-friendly product. Australia is such a vast and extreme country, and 3D Issue has helped us widen our market reach by providing cross-platform solutions for both offline and online delivery, from small marketing and promotional brochures to 700+ page publications.”
Oxford University Press

To learn more about how digital publishing software can help the education publishing sector, visit edu.3DIssue.com

I believe we should be embracing these opportunities. For instance I see AR as a real opportunity for colleges and universities, not only as a way to market and promote themselves, but as a way to communicate with learners and improve the student experience.

AR allows people to add digital content to printed material, geographic locations and objects. Then using a smart device or tablet, viewers can scan an object and the digital content will appear. The digital information can range from a link to a website, an invitation to make a phone call, a video, a 3D model or any other supported digital information. For example, the Scarlett project from the University of Manchester used it to allow access to rare books and manuscripts.

City University London have used a combination of techniques to develop resources through the CARE (Creating Augmented Reality in Education) project for healthcare students, including a series of ‘health walks’. These use the GPS functionality of devices in conjunction with AR to allow students to discover the health risks around the locality. The advantage of this is the delivery of situated contextualised learning.

So what are the advantages for learners? AR provides a more effective way to enable learners to access content. A ‘QR code’ is simply a short cut to a URL – it has no other meaning in its own right. Many AR platforms use a visual browser to recognise an image. There is no need to add a special symbol to trigger the content. The trigger can be a source of information in its own right, it can give a clue about what the extra content may be, yet also still provide a message for anyone unable to access the extras.

Soon all phones produced will be smartphones; this means that future learners will have the means to access AR content at their fingertips. Images on walls or in publications can allow learners to access information when it suits them.

South Staffordshire College grabbed the technology and put it to use across their curriculum. The bricklaying team at the college produced their own videos which have improved the number of trainees cutting bricks right first time from around 40% to a staggering 90%. Think what this can save in terms of cost on this course.

So why does there seem to be a sudden interest to tap into these technologies? As AR is an emerging technology, many of the platforms that support it have allowed free or low cost access. There have been improvements in the interfaces for developing on these platforms meaning you don’t need to be a geek to be able to access it, all you require is some basic understanding of files and a creative flair.

Future learners will expect to be able to make full use of their own technology, and as expectations rise, if it is out there in the real world there should be a pressing reason to make use of it in education. I believe educators have a duty to educate for the real world and make use of future technology that will be part of that world.

Judy Bloxham/The Guardian

The aim of using Virtual Reality as a medical training tool is to offer additional means to teach surgeon student. The goal is to halve the “on the fly” learning in the operating room with real patients and to improve the quality of the medical treatment.
Within a virtual operating room the student will be able to practice the technical skills, the procedures and the theoretical background of operations and diseases.
Currently the main research attention is paid to the development of this virtual operating room. With two haptic devices, a 3D vision, a 3D model system and an assessment program an environment will be created in which surgeon students can improve and test their operating skills.

University of Twente

Virtual worlds do not offer more advantages over more traditional learning environments, but instead enhance what has been happening in classrooms. Traditional learning and virtual reality can work together to keep students engaged and move them forward into 21st Century learning. While traditional learning can stand alone, virtual reality is more of a venue to enhance traditional learning and should not be used as a stand-alone method of teaching.

Virtual worlds do not give students a better experience than real world experiences, only a different experience. Real world experiences are an important part of teaching/learning in my own classroom. In the expeditionary learning world, our students do quite a bit of our learning from experts in the field we are studying. That being the case, we go on quite a bit of “fieldwork” which is like a field trip, but involves students learning from, and then working with, the expert in the field. Virtual reality gives our students opportunity to do even more fieldwork, with experts that are not local. We have spent time with underwater archaeologists that have excavated sunken ships from the Age of Exploration, and with designers at GM when students were learning about engineering and the design process. Students would not have had the opportunity to do this fieldwork without technology and virtual reality.

To prevent students from looking at virtual worlds as just games, teachers must treat them as learning experiences. When a teacher sets up expectations and impresses upon students that the experience is fun, but also there are important lessons to be taken from the experience, students are likely to take it more seriously. When the virtual experience is obviously tied to current learning, students are more likely to understand the implications of the experience on their schoolwork.

Lisa Busch/Classroom 2.0