Implementing 3D (Part 3)

This is the final post in my series offering advice about implementing 3D projects in your own setting. If you are in a state of planning, each tip is  an important strategy for implementing a 3D pilot project in a school or university setting.

Tip #3

It’s also important to find and use integrators. In a Future-Talk 3D post long ago, I spoke about the vital role of integrators in implementing and supporting 3D projects in classroom settings.

An integrator is a company that can help ‘integrate’ the disparate pieces involved classroom 3D projects, whether at the K-12 or university level. An integrator can help identify the needed hardware components, help you identify high-quality 3D glasses, offer sound technical advice, provide helpful technical support, solve problems over the long-haul, and even suggest appropriate 3D content.

In a word, an integrator can help simplify often confusing 3D technologies, making your road toward instructional success much easier and trouble-free. Most importantly, they can prevent you from making costly mistakes. I have recently updated my list of trusted 3D-capable integrators. These folks know their business. Some of them are better at individual PC or small setting installations; others are better at large scale installations, such as classrooms. They know 3D and I know their work. Presented in alphabetic order, they are:

3Dlivesurgery (Europe)

Aulanova (South and Latin America)

AV Rover (international)

Boson (U.S.)

Conference Technologies (U.S. University venues)

Convergent Solution (U.S.)

Eon Reality (international)

Mechdyne (University, military and high-end venues, Intl)
Nvidia (U.S.)

Okulda 3D (Turkey)
Reachout Interactives (International)

XpandD (international)

(If any of my readers also represent an integrator firm with which I am currently unaware, please leave a comment below, listing your web site; and please contact me via email, so that I can update my list.)

Implementing 3D (Part 2)

This is the second post in our series offering advice about implementing 3D projects in your own setting. If you are in a state of planning, each tip is an important strategy for implementing a 3D pilot project in a school or university setting.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons I have learned about implementing successful 3D installations or pilot projects is exemplified in this poster I recently crafted:

Think deeply about the truths in this poster. I am quite serious about this.

Come back next week for an insightful posting on Tip #3...

Implementing 3D (Part 1)

In the last two months I have been approached by four educators, situated across the nation, for advice about implementing 3D projects in their settings. If you are in a similar state of planning, I can provide a series of three essential tips for you, each an important strategy for implementing a 3D pilot project in a school or university setting:

Tip #1

It takes longer than you think. Implementing a 3D project usually doesn’t happen in a lightning-quick fashion. It takes time to grease the wheels. It takes time to explain it to funders or school/district/university supervisors. It takes time to do your research. It takes time to write a grant or obtain funding. It takes time to carefully interface with your IT department on support or set up. It takes time to see how specific content titles match up to your curriculum. It takes time to think through how you want to best employ 3D in your classroom. (In our original BVS3D project, we gave all participating teachers an entire spring and summer just to play and explore the 3D content we were using—in order to find the right fit, the right purpose, and unforeseen challenges—before officially launching our 4-school case study.)

Buying the equipment is easy. It’s the other stuff that matters. Consider this fact in your implementation timetable. 

See next week’s posting for an insightful Tip #2...