Mature Strategies (1)

In my first post of this series, “The Hillman Files,” I introduced our readers to the pilot project underway in the St. Francis area schools for the last two years. In the second post, “What the 3D Kids Say,” I shifted the spotlight to what the children have to say about learning in 3D in this intriguing Minnesota pilot project. In this post, I focus on the effective and varied teaching strategies used by the project leader, fourth-grade teacher Holli Hillman. What she does—and how she does it—is of great importance for those of us trying to understand how to best advantage 3D classroom instruction.

Texas Instruments uses the term “3D educator” to describe those brave innovators who push the power of 3D visualization in learning to its

Holli Hillman

instructional limits.  Holli Hillman is a 3D educator in every sense of the term. And by the time I am done, you may learn why I consider Holli Hillman to be the best elementary school 3D educator in the country.

Great 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. As I have stated many times, we simply don’t show 3D movies in classrooms. Not ever. To the contrary, 3D educators add value. In the next post of this series, we will identify some of the important value-added practices employed by Hillman in her successful 3D pilot project.