The Educational potential of 3DTV

This week’s CES in Las Vegas had thousands of tools, toys and tech all aimed at entertaining and / or informing us.  Whilst many of these technologies look amazing the reality is many of these will not make it to retail for many years to come.

However  one clear winner from a number of companies was 3D Television.  It works.  It’s cost effective and it will be on our shelves this year.  For those that want to know how 3DTV works click here, but the bigger question is what could it do for us as teachers?

Here are some options

• Use 3D to captivate you students with a frog dissection
• Walk through famous Architectural Structures and Environments as if you are there
• Show the amazing detail of the human body in 3D
• Explore Virtual topography to bring Geography to life
• Fly through the universe in 3D to inspire the next generation of Astronauts.

Let us remember that for this to work we still need every student to have a set of 3D glasses.  These are very cost effective at a couple of dollars each but could prove to be tedious and disruptive in a classroom. 

This technology can be purchased today and it works just the same on a data projector as it does a flat Panel.

The potential for 3D Visual education is both exciting and has great deal of scope but it is clearly an area that needs to be tested and validated as a worthwhile learning tool and not just a gimmick.

I think the future of interactive 3D education is available to us now from a range of technologies which need to be integrated.  Some of these were on show at this year’s CES such as Microsoft’s Project Natal which allows the user to control an environment entirely from gestures making the user part of the interface.  Combine with 3DTV and link it a multitude off apps, games and media on the World Wide Web and we have an amazing learning experience.

Obviously time will tell if these products are just a passing fad or really a worthwhile part of the average home entertainment setup.  One thing is for sure is that the lounge room and maybe the classroom may have to evolve somewhat to include these new technologies.

What potential do you see for 3DTV in your classroom?