By Marlo Steed [email protected] Faculty Of

by Marlo Steed [email protected] Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Dr., (403) 329-2189 Paper presented at the ATACC conference, Mission Possible: Surpassing Our Past Success, March 15 - 17, 2001, Jasper Park Lodge, Jasper, Alberta 1. Introduction This paper suggests that 3D tools may have a place as a learning and teaching tool for students and instructors in a variety of disciplines. Visual-spatial forms of expression require new skills, critical perspectives, and may foster fresh insight and understanding. 3D images and animations have long been the purview of professionals who had expensive equipment and sophisticated software. Recent advances in technology make super- computer architecture available at affordable prices for educators. 3D software requires considerable computing power and hefty memory requirements to model and render complex scenes. Current computers now have that kind of memory and power. Another advance has been a recent announcement by Strata Inc., making available a free version of a sophisticated 3D modeling and rendering application, Strata 3D. It is a watered down version of a professional package (Strata 3D pro) but still has incredible possibilities. This now makes it feasible for students to do sophisticated 3D modeling and rendering. However, why would such a tool have educational value? 2. Spatial learning There is value in seeing a process rather than hearing or reading about it. Video and pictures have been a traditional way to address this. This article introduces a new set of tools that can be used to portray concepts through 3D visualization. From a constructivist perspective, students build their knowledge. 3D modeling reflects this construction of knowledge. One benefit of student-generated visual portrayals is that it provides a means for students to reflect on the process of knowledge construction. It also presents the teacher with valuable insight into students’ thinking processes. Perhaps students that have new forms of portrayal tools will be able to communicate and understand new ideas or old ideas in new ways. The tool then becomes influential in engaging knowledge to solve problems. 3. Virtual Reality as Science Creating 3D models is a form of virtual reality. Virtual reality is the notion of representing a referent from reality in digital form. Virtual reality can be a way of presenting simulated environments. The value of alternative representations has been demonstrated in environments where students created their own simulations (Steed, 94). Medicine and aviation seem to be natural areas where this kind of tool has applications (Hoffman, H. Irwin, A., Ligon, R., Murray, M., & Tohsaku, C., 1995). It was found that mental manipulation of two- dimensional and three-dimensional objects were influenced by working with virtual reality systems that are capable of displaying and manipulating three-dimensional virtual objects (Merickel, 1992). Visualization has long been noted as a significant tool in many problem solving situations (Rieber, 1995). However, education on the whole is less likely to accept a visual portrayal than a verbal or written argument. For instance, educators typically use reports, essays, short answer and multiple choice questions for assessing - 2 - student understanding. Graphical constructions are rarely encouraged. Some individuals are naturally attune to the visual so to deny them this avenue of expression could be doing them a disservice. As an example of how 3D can be used to enhance a student’s experience, Davis (1999) describes a number of projects that have reconstructed ancient locations in 3D. These virtual civilizations provide a portal into the past whereby students can maneuver and explore ancient sites by navigating in a virtual reality environment and even interacting with virtual citizens of that age. 4. Why 3D? There are many abstract concepts that students have to deal with that are difficult to understand by reading or hearing a verbal description. Some of these concepts are visual-spatial in nature and lend themselves to 3D representations. Later in this document specific examples are given that illustrate how 3D technology can be integrated into the curriculum. 3D imagery is a way of representing certain dimensions of the sensory world that might be difficult to understand in any other way. For instance, describing how an object moves through space might be difficult to visualize. I can explain that a planet moves around the sun in an elliptical orbit. Assuming you understood the terms planet, space, ellipse, and orbit, you might be able to conjure up a mental projection. If you haven’t had physical or visual experience with these terms, it might be difficult. Even then, the words are problematic in that the mental image might be quite different from the referent because the information is ambiguous. The listener has to assume the size, relative distance between the objects, the shape of the elliptical orbit, the speed of the orbit, whether or not the planet is rotating on its axis, the color and shape of the planet and sun, and so forth. Yes, it is possible to painstakingly describe it in verbal terms. The problem is that approach is sequential and by the time you get to the end of the explanation, the audience may have forgotten some aspect of the description or not understood an important element. Much of this ambiguity can be overcome when a 3D animation is viewed. A visual animation comes through our visual sensory system and activates knowledge simultaneously. It also has the potential to activate alternative knowledge structures specific to 3D, those that deal with the visual spatial orientation and kinesthetic movement. For more information relating to the background and theoretical perspective, see the web supplement (Sidebar 1). 5. 3D - When? When will it make sense to use 3D applications to portray ideas? Not all visualizations lend themselves to 3D applications. There are many processes that will just be too complex or easier done in other ways. For instance, the action of a volcano may best be illustrated with video footage. However, 3D animation might be the best way to illustrate what happens underneath the surface which is not readily visible and is something that - 3 - cannot be video taped. As another example, consider pollination of a flower by bees. To understand what a bee does during pollination, one can look at video footage. 3D would take forever to model bee movements and simulate the natural environment. However, what happens to the pollen once it has been left on the plant by the bee, is something that is difficult to see because of its microscopic nature and because the process takes place over time. This lends itself to 3D illustration. 3D can simplify the representation by removing extraneous elements that are not pertinent to the process and can speed up the process to illustrate the rest of the pollination process. Generally, 3D tools are best used when communicating the spatial orientation of simplified objects and their change over time. 6. Tradeoffs Visual forms of expression are not without problems and limitations. A huge issue is sensory overload. Our visual sensory system can become overloaded with the presence of too many visual actions or objects. This can result in attending to unimportant details. Keeping illustrations simple is a new perspective that students will need to understand. One has to make compromises between creating detailed portrayals in an attempt to simulate reality and creating simplified portrayals for the sake of understanding. Another potential shortcoming of the 3D representations is that they are taken too literally. Students need to understand that these are only as good or accurate as the person who creates them. 7. 3D Tool: Strata 3D 3D software typically has four components, modeling, texturing, animating, and rendering. The modeling tools provide the means of constructing objects in a virtual three-dimensional space. One can place objects in this virtual space, move them, change their shape, their size, and combine them with other shapes, see Figure 1 as an example. Figure 1. Objects in 3D space (preview rendering) Texturing tools cover the objects with images. For instance, one can give a door a wood grain texture to simulate the look of wood. The animation tools are used to move objects through the 3d space over time. The rendering tool - 4 - creates pictures or movies of the objects and generates the appropriate textures, shadows, and depth of field to give the scene the illusion of three-dimensional space. This can create very realistic looking images. Strata 3D was the 3D application selected because of its ease of use and affordability. The cost of 3D modeling and rendering applications can be prohibitive. It is not uncommon for a high-end application to cost thousands of dollars (Maya, 3D Studio Max, Electric Image, Lightwave, etc.). Strata 3D is a good choice for educators because it is a free download or inexpensive if ordered on CD. It is very similar to the professional version, Strata 3Dpro, but has fewer tools. The company sees this as a marketing strategy for their professional version. However, for educational use, the free version has many useful features. It is the only 3D software that I am aware of that is free, is somewhat full featured, and has a user-friendly interface. For a more detailed description of the tool set within Strata 3D go to the Web Supplement site (Sidebar 1). An illustration - solar eclipse model This next section will use an example of the solar eclipse to illustrate how 3D construction could enhance understanding. Why use a 3D approach when video or a photograph can display the real event? Creating virtual objects in space will generate thinking that might not be there by watching a video or a photograph. While a video shows a bright object being blocked out by a dark object, student understanding of this event may vary.

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