Before and After (2)

The evidence of the informal action research (cited in last week's blog post) gives us some useful insight as to how 3D learning actually works in a classroom. Here are samples of before and after (before 3D visualization, and after) with Ms. Hillman's students:

Water cycle before

Water cycle after

Another before/after

Another water cycle after

The Lesson Learned.

Perhaps one fourth grader described it best: “you can picture it in your head better." Ms. Hillman beamed: “the visualization is so rich that it provides an experience unlike anything you can provide through teacher talk, or even hands-on investigation.” She added : “[3D simulation] takes students on virtual field trips to places they would otherwise never be able to go; the color, imagery, and the depth is attractive and captivating.”

Holli Hillman then asks the reader a clever rhetorical question: “The difference in visual understanding speaks for itself, right?” Right. 

Scaling Educational 3D (3)

In our previous post we highlighted two of the strategies used by Holli Hillman used in scaling 3D beyond the single school installation or pilot project. In this post we will unpack three more practical strategies worth emulation: 

The Plan.  Most school technology efforts use an approach like this: “Fire, Aim, Ready!” Ms. Hillman’s paradigm became “Ready…Aim… Fire!” She knew that “you don’t just buy 3D.” You plan for 3D; you think it through; and you try to remove as many obstacles as you can before you begin. In developing her action plan, Ms. Hillman sought help from both inside and outside the district, ensuring that her efforts would indeed be successful.

The Promotion. In a famous Russian farce by Ilf and Petrov, “Christopher Columbus Discovers America,” there’s a saying uttered by Christopher Columbus that goes like this: “Without publicity—there’s no prosperity!” Effective scaling of 3D from one school to many schools requires marketing and promotion. In the midst of her project, Ms. Hillman wrote the following note to me: “This morning I had a VIP visitor. Brenda Cassellius, the Commissioner of Education for the state of Minnesota came in to view our district’s 3D set up and the way in which we are using it. Then on Monday,  I will have a Congresswoman here also. Very exciting things happening!”

The Results. In education, effective promotion is more likely to see scale increase if results are strongly evident. Simply using technology is never as convincing as is producing results with technology. Ms. Hillman didn’t merely show off the technology, she marketed the results of using 3D in the classroom. She began to gather informative student anecdotes or stories, collect data on student performance and improvement, and document  how well—or how quickly—students were learning.

In our next and final post in this series about scaling educational 3D, we will explore three more critical strategies. Please come back next week.

Scaling Educational 3D (2)

The St. Francis 3D project described in last week's post began in a single school, in a single fourth grade classroom. But last year, it was extended to all of the other schools in this innovative district. How did they do it? Here are two of the keys to success we can unpack from this timely success story:

The Champion. The vision began with a lone fourth-grade teacher, Holli Hillman. She was struck with the potential of 3D visualization in learning and acted upon her vision. She became a force of one. A ‘champion’ is the term we often use in education. She ached for a chance to employ this technology to improve student learning. That’s how all good educators improve classrooms—with a yearning, an ache, and by untiringly wondering, “what if?”

The Allies. The reality is that a force of one doesn’t really work in education. You might think so, but it doesn’t. Ms. Hillman had to find allies in order to truly realize her vision. She presented her ideas to her principal, colleagues, peers, parents, district leaders, superintendent, and even I.T. technical leaders. She sought their support, their advice, and their blessing. She convinced them, but she did so based on trust, passion, and the promise of value-added learning. In doing so, she grew and nurtured a large ‘family’ of co-travelers. She wrote: “My Superintendent along with his entire District Leadership Team were some of the first to view the 3D content only 12 short hours after it was up and running. I have been enthusiastic about this pilot project for quite some time and was ecstatic to share it immediately once it was up and running. My Superintendent couldn’t stop grinning as he walked from one corner of the room to the other watching the stereoscopic imagery travel with him. He was stunned that what I had been describing for several months was exactly as incredibly visual as I explained. He and I talked extensively about how this would be used in the classroom as a teaching and learning tool; and why this content is so incredible.”

In next week's blog post, we will unpack six more vital keys for scaling up 3D in your setting.

Scaling Educational 3D (1)

If you look at 3D in education across country, almost all implementations involve isolated, individual schools. These pioneer 3D-using sites are often magnet, STEM-focused, private, charter, or otherwise impassioned schools that simply caught the vision and saw the potential for 3D visualization in learning. 

In some U.S. school districts, mobile 3D carts have been purchased for every school, but almost all of these ‘district’ efforts have grown quiet, languishing due to lack of vision, training, and leadership. In my opinion, you cannot simply “buy 3D” and throw it loosely into classrooms; rather, effective and log-lasting  3D programs must be seeded, grown, nurtured, and cultivated. Above all, they must be led.

The St. Francis school district 3D project may well be the only successful district-level implementation of 3D learning in the U.S. Certainly, this group of forward-thinking educators offers key strategies for successfully pursuing district-wide implementation of 3D in almost any setting. What we can learn from this district will help all of us better support, sustain, and leverage future 3D initiatives in schools.

The St. Francis project began in a single school, in a single fourth grade classroom. But this last year, it was extended to all of the other schools in this innovative district. How did they do it? In our next blog posts, we unpack some of the keys to success for scaling educational 3D.

Mature Strategies (2)

As stated in a previous post, effective 3D instruction certainly depends on good equipment and well-crafted content. But the effectiveness of 3D in learning also hinges on creative teaching strategies used by talented educators.

We simply don’t show 3D movies in classrooms. Not ever. To the contrary, 3D educators add value. Here are some of the important value-added practices employed by Hillman in her successful 3D pilot project:

• using only parts of the 3D simulation that are age appropriate
• muting the narrator because vocabulary might be too advanced
• providing the teacher’s own narration in order to simplify the content for the learner
• pausing the 3D simulation for discussion, allowing for questions or  further explanation of the topic
• watching, discussing, then watching again – repeating as needed (repetition encourages mastery and comprehension)
• previewing a topic in 3D before the chapter/unit begins
• creating a KWL chart together with the students, after showing a 3D simulation or animation
• using 3D as a form of enrichment and/or expansion on a topic for those students who are ready for more
• using the 3D simulation AS the lesson (Holli explains: “the visualization is often so rich that it provides an experience unlike anything one can offer through lecture or even hands-on; of course, the teacher can still provide elaboration, clarification, and guide discussion, since a 1-4 minute 3D simulation will never replace the teacher.”)
• taking a virtual field trip (Holli notes: “3D can take students places they would never otherwise be able to go—and the color, imagery and depth is attractive and captivating!”)

In her own words, Holli Hillman hopes to “step outside of the box and implement [3D as an] innovative instructional approach.” Her enthusiasm is palpable and each of the above strategies helps us understand what a gifted 3D educator actually does with this powerful new medium of instruction. She is not afraid of sharing her insight and enthusiasm both with interested visitors and questioning skeptics alike. “I can’t wait to watch it all unfold,” she declares, as she makes plans to explore even more creative teaching angles in the months to come. 

What the 3D Kids Say

The recent YouTube craze “What the Fox Says” is amusing to most, but carries a confusing message. Not so with “What the 3D kids say” in a two-year pilot project led by 4^th grade teacher-innovator, Holli Hillman.  In this week’s installment of the St. Francis school success story, we’re going to listen chiefly to the voices of the children involved in the project over the last two years. Face it—we can learn more from the sincere words of children, spoken in a few minutes, than we can learn from lengthy ramblings of marketing experts or educational experts.

What the 3D Kids Say

Cedar Creek Community School

I am going to bring you these quotes in a straight and unadulterated way—directly from the mouths of the 4^th grade children in this 3D project. I am only going to comment indirectly; the italics in each quotation below are mine. They represent my silent smile, pointing the reader to a key understanding or brain-based principle about “learning with depth.” By remaining silent, I feel I will provide greater voice to these nine-year-old students.  So, in that spirit, here is “what the 3D kids say” about learning with 3D:

"It's visual. You can see the actual water cycle and how it really is. A poster doesn't rain. Makes you feel like you are there and it helps you understand it better."

"The visual is good because we remember pictures and not words."

“We remember better and can visualize it [at] another time.”

"It makes it seem like you slow everything down and it makes it easier to learn it because you want to pay more attention to it and we're not just reading about it. You get to see more angles of things and more of the close up parts...like more details."

"It's more exciting to see things pop out because you feel like you're there and you learn more facts as someone tells you about what you're looking at. The screen moves and you actually feel like you're in the mountains."

"It's more exciting for us to learn in 3D because it shows you the system and how it works."

"When you show us a picture, you see the picture, and copy the picture because it doesn’t talk. But when you see the 3D, you don't copy it - you see it differently so you draw what you learned."

"You can picture it in your head better."

"We learn more in less time."

 “Ssshhh!” [whispered by children when adults are talking while students are viewing 3D content]”

Holli Hillman, the teacher extraordinaire leading this project adds: “My students are ready for more. They ask me daily if we get to view 3D. Although it's not something I use daily, as I continue to discover more content, my students and I will look forward to viewing concepts in 3D in other subject areas very soon!”

Well, there you have it. Consider going back to re-read each child's statement. Think about the brain-based research I highlighted with each italicized phrase. It make you wonder why 3D isn’t adopted more broadly, doesn’t it? 

The Hillman Files

There are a lot of good things happening with educational 3D across the country, yet I find that most of the great stories about 3D in classrooms somehow seem to fly under the radar. Good things are in fact happening, but often no one knows about them. That’s because educators rarely toot their own horn; it’s also because the education industry is highly isolated and successful programs are often geographically pigeonholed. Rarely do successes get the broad recognition they deserve. 

This is a story about 3D project that began at Cedar Creek Community School (Cedar, MN) and is now extending district-wide.

The St. Francis Schools are no stranger to innovative technology use, being well-equipped with projectors, SMARTboards, document cameras, and other innovative technologies. More than two years ago, however, they began a planning process to bring teaching with depth—stereo 3D visualization—into their classrooms. Led by 4^th grade teacher-innovator, Holli Hillman, this project represents what I believe to be the single most successful district-level 3D implementation in the nation. Bar none. And for that reason, there’s much to be learned from these humble yet daring St. Francis innovators. Let’s continue our story.

Holli Hillman

Hillman, a seasoned and bright educator, summarizes the St. Francis project in this way:

“We are exploring stereoscopic 3D content, currently in the areas of Science and Mathematics, for our STEM initiative. Because many of the 3D lesson topics were produced using the Common Core Standards, many directly correlate with our Minnesota state standards, making this content worthy of replacing some curriculum.”

The content being used by Hillman includes stereoscopic 3D simulations created by DesignMate. She explains the advantages of teaching with depth in this way:

 “3D brings concrete, abstract concepts to life and allows for optimum visualization and comprehension of some very conceptual topics. This content is fascinating and the sky is the limit for how it can be used. I believe this to be a ground-breaking approach to instruction as well as comprehension for students. The color and imagery are beyond bold and attention-grabbing.”

Remarkably, Hillman’ innovative efforts began with her 4^th grade classroom. That is significant because the far majority of 3D projects in the nation are being implemented in middle and high schools.

Folks, there’s so much more to this story. That is why I am turning this piece into an off-and-on-again series. I consider Holli Hillman to be the best 3D educator in the U.S., and in future installments, you will clearly find out why.