Abstract:

It is becoming more and more common the fact that digital contents are created and adapted to be used in digital boards, tablets or PC, although the truly Immersive Teaching is yet to come. Virtual Studio technologies employed in the broadcast industry so far, could now be transferred and applied to education sector enabling teachers and students to immerse themselves in a three-dimensional environment. These advanced technologies will allow teachers not only to interact with 3D models (objects) in real time but also students will be able to better understand complex contents, by simply watching on the screen the topic explained in the lesson while this is rendered in a virtual or augmented reality environment.

Furthermore, these technologies bring the possibility of fostering and strengthen other student´s abilities which are usually underdeveloped in curricula such as oral expression or communication strategies, through the execution of collaborative projects or different sort of alternative activities as the setting up of a new school TV channel. Students, always counting on their teacher´s support, could create documentaries in which different roles will be required throughout the project life span; these functions may vary from information searching and script-writing, to the presentation and production of a TV program, selected among a variety of formats like documentaries, news, debates or quiz shows. Students would learn by doing, preparing the contents and presenting them.

The main ambition of this initiative is to achieve transferring this technology from broadcasting to the education sector decreasing its cost in order to make the technology affordable for educational organisations like universities and schools. Brainstorm Multimedia, supported by the European Commission under Horizon 2020 framework programme, is currently adapting this pioneering technology for small creative industries and education both lowering the cost and making it more intuitive and easy to use by non-expert personnel or technicians. SmartSet is definitely going to represent a revolution in the traditional teaching and learning approach, offering advanced and real time immersive environments.

Keywords:

Immersive teaching, collaborative projects, flipped classroom, hands-on learning, e-learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, smartset.