There has been sustained and growing talk over recent years of the impact of 3d technologies on our everyday lives. Not that this is anything new to higher ed, but by riding the wave of the consumer level interest, the state of play in learning and teaching and research is evolving into a first class citizen outside of the niche labs and interest groups.
Take 3d printing for example, it was only a couple of years ago where there seemed to be a state of panic over “you can 3d print guns now”. Now everyone knows that is basically irrelevant and we are looking at how we can actually use them in our day to day lives, especially where large German supermarkets are basically giving 3d printers away.
On another angle, VR and AR (Virtual and Augmented realities) have been the promised disruptive technology for as many years as many of us can remember. Only recently with advances on several fronts do they actually look like promising tech that is not going to go away (but let’s not forget 3dtv which died a very quiet death recently).
And then there is 3d digitization hitting mainstream where many are espousing “you can scan 3d things with your phone now”. While this may true, it is really not that great and much of the great work being done by the museums of the world still relies on high tech (albeit getting more affordable and accessible) solutions to push closer to the dream of virtual museums.
Regardless of the tech, the real question learning designers in universities now face is how can leverage these technology waves to improve learning, research and outreach. Come along to a talk by Michael Rampe from Macquarie University who has been working in all these areas and pushing forward with bespoke learning and teaching tools in an effort to answer this question.
If 3D printing is so much a part of our future, shouldn’t it be possible for a UTS student to have access to a 3d printer, the same as to 2d printers?
[…] activities that have been popular have included a 360degree video demo, a demonstration of how 3D printing can be applied to learning contexts and a playtime with digital literacy tinker kits from the UTS […]
I will defiantly try to attend the event, I attended a similar session at W’Gong uni and it was unreal.
Thank you so much for sharing it