The Kentucky Community & Technical College System (KCTCS) presents a way of fusing interactive 3-D models with hands-on simulations to provide multiple opportunities to experiment without risk and enhance learning for the future workforce.
Traditionally, academic institutions have relied on tools such as blackboard outlines, physical demonstrations and videos to facilitate learning. However, through computers and projectors, 3-D technology allows users to see a person, place or thing as it would appear in real life. This opens the door to a virtual world of possibilities in the classroom, where students can learn about science anatomy, geography, architecture and astronomy by interacting with the content rather than reading about it in a textbook.
KCTCS, which includes 16 colleges across 65 campuses, created the KCTCS Interactive Digital Center which currently has completed the creation of five interactive digital learning modules in the areas of energy, health care and manufacturing. The IDC has also delivered training across the country to other colleges and businesses on how to use the 3-D software in addition to creating customized solutions for industry clients.
Although KCTCS leadership had been looking to integrate the 3-D technologies into the classroom for the past seven years, the push really came in the wake of the coal mining tragedies in 2006. That's when KCTCS launched its first virtual project for the Kentucky Coal Academy to show advantages of simulation-based training.
Such innovative units of instruction can be viewed on a laptop, while others use 3-D stereographic projection technology, which allows learning objects to pop out in the middle of the room. For some projects, students enter a space called a "CAVE," which has screens on the walls that project a real environment of the respective field such as a hospital room, for instance.
Traditionally, academic institutions have relied on tools such as blackboard outlines, physical demonstrations and videos to facilitate learning. However, through computers and projectors, 3-D technology allows users to see a person, place or thing as it would appear in real life. This opens the door to a virtual world of possibilities in the classroom, where students can learn about science anatomy, geography, architecture and astronomy by interacting with the content rather than reading about it in a textbook.
KCTCS, which includes 16 colleges across 65 campuses, created the KCTCS Interactive Digital Center which currently has completed the creation of five interactive digital learning modules in the areas of energy, health care and manufacturing. The IDC has also delivered training across the country to other colleges and businesses on how to use the 3-D software in addition to creating customized solutions for industry clients.Although KCTCS leadership had been looking to integrate the 3-D technologies into the classroom for the past seven years, the push really came in the wake of the coal mining tragedies in 2006. That's when KCTCS launched its first virtual project for the Kentucky Coal Academy to show advantages of simulation-based training.
Such innovative units of instruction can be viewed on a laptop, while others use 3-D stereographic projection technology, which allows learning objects to pop out in the middle of the room. For some projects, students enter a space called a "CAVE," which has screens on the walls that project a real environment of the respective field such as a hospital room, for instance.
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