EON Reality at the Educational Technology Event BETT in the United Kingdom

IRVINE, Calif., January 18, 2012 – Last week European Managers from EON Reality Inc., the world’s leading interactive 3D software provider, were at the BETT conference in London, UK – BETT is regarded as the world’s leading event for educational technology.

It was a thought-provoking event as the Secretary of State for Education, UK made a keynote opening address that demands a big shake up of the education system in schools across the country (and beyond). During his opening address he referred to the fact that many changes were needed across the breadth of education and even referenced the fact that 3D in the classroom had highlighted huge improvements in recent learning experience.

EON Reality attended two seminars hosted by Texas Instruments that examined the impact of 3D in education at primary and secondary schools across Europe with outstanding results. The study was called the LiFE project and was a detailed research investigation of the impact of 3D on pupils’ learning. The goal was to determine the most effective type of 3D experiences in the classroom and to measure the value and impact of these experiences on their learning and achievement. Improvement in academic results and student behaviour were significantly improved, right across the board. Please see the full results at http://www.dlp.com/projector/dlp-innovations/3d-projectors/3d-classroom-research.aspx

After the research study was complete, all of the participants including the teachers, students and parents were enthusiastic about their 3D learning experience and wanted to continue using the technology in on-going education including building their own 3D applications.

“The priority for us is that we can run 3D content to help our pupils learn using the best possible resources.  ….  Children taught with traditional 2D methods created flat, two dimensional models, but pupils taught using 3D instinctively built three-dimensional models,” stated Kathryn Macaulay, Deputy Headmistress at The Abbey School.

Just before the BETT conference EON announced the launch of its ‘3D Ecosystem’ initiative for education, EON Experience Portal (www.eonexperience.com), with free access to the website and its interactive 3D content downloads. This was a very appropriate initiative as during the conference every school we spoke to indicated that they were desperate to access additional 3D material – for science, math, geography – even English, art and music examples were frequently mentioned. Sharing and collaboration of 3D learning materials and lesson plans in the classroom were said to be key drivers moving forward.

As a result of the high demand for more interactive 3D content EON are encouraging all schools, teachers and students to create a free account and access this new material and then share their creations on the cloud based website with other educators around the world.

Throughout the event EON Reality had several strategic meetings with key global organizations in the 3D hardware sector and after announcing the “EON Interactive 3D Ecosystem” initiative for education with its free access and content downloads, they expect to generate the global roll out of the virtual 3D learning content demand in the coming months.

At the end of the conference everyone from corporate global education managers, professors, teachers and students agreed, that interactive 3D is going to change the way we learn, the way they teach and classrooms of the future will be very different – challenging, engaging and delivering better results year on year.

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Education, UK – extract from opening address:

“It’s clear that technology is going to bring profound changes to how and what we teach. But it’s equally clear that we have not yet managed to make the most of it.

What can technology do for learning?

First, technology has the potential to disseminate learning much more widely than ever before. Subjects, classes and concepts that were previously limited to a privileged few are now freely available to any child or adult with an internet connection, all over the world.

Games and interactive software can help pupils acquire complicated skills and rigorous knowledge in an engaging and enjoyable way. Adaptive software has the ability to recognise and respond to different abilities, personalising teaching for every pupil. With the expert help of a teacher, students can progress at different rates through lessons calibrated to stretch them just the right amount.

As well as choosing what to study, schools can also choose how. Technology can be integrated and embedded across the whole curriculum.

The Abbey School in Reading has already been piloting 3D technologies for teaching Biology, showing 3D images of the heart pumping blood through valves, and manipulating, rotating and tilting the heart in real time. As Abbey School Biology teacher Ros Johnson said, the 3D technology “has made me realise what they weren’t understanding…what I can’t believe is how much difference it has made to the girls’ understanding”.

This isn’t a finished strategy – but it shows our ambition

The use of technology in schools is a subject that will keep growing and changing, just as technology keeps growing and changing.”

Full article at http://digital-literacy-michael-gove-speech

About EON Reality
EON Reality, Inc. is the world’s leading interactive 3D solutions provider for businesses and education based on Virtual Reality technology. EON Reality provides state-of-the-art 3D display technology for immersive and stereoscopic viewing, from portable tablet PCs and glass free stereo display systems to curved-screen and immersive rooms consisting of multi-channel projection walls. The technology foundation for developing interactive digital content includes importing the most common 3D animation formats into EON’s authoring software and creating modules and applications that can be viewed on various display systems. EON’s technology solutions enable all organizations to more effectively visually communicate, collaborate and accelerate knowledge transfer.

Industry leaders, including Atlas Copco, Bechtel, Boeing, Bombardier, Hon, Intel, Lexus, Lufthansa –Teknik, Lowell Manufacturing, Peterbilt, Samsung, Siemens Medical, Suzuki, Tobyhanna Army Depot, Toyota and Whirlpool use EON solutions to enhance the interactive user experience to effectively increase sales, better communicate product functionality and decrease the cost of service, training and technical support. Some educational institutions who have adopted EON’s technology solutions include: the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology (located on the campus of the Florence-Darlington Technical College), Old Dominion University, Marquette University, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Discovery World Museum, Oklahoma City Community College, Concord University, North Dakota State University, Texas State Technical College – Waco, El Paso Community College, University of Alabama, Hazard Community and Technical College, University of Hawaii, Lansing Community College, University of Kentucky, Maysville Community and Technical College, Miami University, Red Rocks Community College.

For further information, visit www.eonreality.com.

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