You were once punished when caught using your mobile phone in class. But the scenario now has changed. iPads and iPhones, Kindle, rooms with 3D printers, smartboards, educational computer simulations and gaming are some of the technological devices and solutions that you’d find in today’s modern classroom.
Several educational institutions are getting accustomed to using technological adaptations of the previous version of educational materials (text books and print materials). However, there are many challenges that the education industry, especially in higher education, is facing today which can be addressed by adopting technologies like mixed reality.
Educating students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) is becoming difficult. Students require a practical, rather visual material as a proof of the written thesis. Moreover, they aren’t sure of how to deploy them properly in the real-world scenario. To present the live examples for students pursuing architecture or modern history or automotive engineering, would be expensive.
HoloLens addresses the issues faced by education industry
We engage with students across many disciplines to push boundaries in the state of the art at the intersection of software and hardware. – Microsoft.
Mixed reality merges the virtual and physical worlds to create a new reality whereby the two can coexist and interact. Microsoft’s HoloLens enables viewing and interacting with 3D holograms brought to life right in front of you. It has several benefits that an educational institute can leverage. With the use of a HoloLens the students can fully immerse in a simulated environment by:
- Using 3D holograms for high-level interactive training.
- Using mixed reality to make large data sets easier to navigate and understand.
- Remote training and support for distance learning.
- Narrative storytelling, artistic expression and interactive reports.
Leveraging HoloLens for education
Mechanical engineering
Having a well-equipped lab to showcase the aerospace concepts is expensive. Moreover, it is not as effective to show the students a 2D model of the machines or tools that they are going to study in detail. HoloLens education apps can be developed to display parts of the aircraft or machines to be studied in the form of holograms. With this they will be able to see design schematics as life-size 3D visualizations.
Medical education
Implementing HoloLens for medical education enables students to investigate, walk around, and delve inside their subjects. HoloLens helps to increase students’ engagement and understanding of abstract concepts.
The holograms produced by HoloLens enable anatomy and medicine students to learn better than the traditional way of learning by dissecting the cadavers. Moreover, if something goes wrong in a medical simulation, nobody gets hurt. Bodily organs can be viewed and interacted with in isolation from other parts of the body, helping students to learn how they look and function. Hence, if students want to study the heart of a person, HoloLens education app enables them to view it separately from the entire body.
Automotive engineering
HoloLens education app enables the students pursuing automotive engineering to get 3D visualizations of different auto parts. Usually, design specifications are implemented using clay models of the vehicle. However, it takes a lot of time, and isn’t much effective. Microsoft HoloLens enables to augment the design process of auto parts efficiently for the students to learn in an interactive manner. HoloLens education app helps to make design more accessible and collaborative.
Remote education
Education industry is ever changing and challenging. More classes are being taken online, giving more opportunities to people in rural areas without physical access to institutions. However, remote classes aren’t viable for hands-on learning and trades. HoloLens proves to be an effective tool on this front. It gives simulated environments for students to learn in, and also giving teachers the means to offer hands-on instruction from a remote location.
Universities leveraging HoloLens
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western University along with Cleveland clinic has partnered with Microsoft to enable the students to study through the holographic human anatomy video. Instead of a brief glimpse of organs in a body or single look inside a translucent brain, the new app from Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Clinic allows viewers to explore the human anatomy in 360 degree view with organs labeled for better understanding. Microsoft prepared a video that got over 90K views within no time to demonstrate the working of HoloLens for CWRU.
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
The university is running a pilot project aimed at leveraging mixed reality to solve challenges in nursing education. They use Microsoft’s holographic video capture capability that films the actors to simulate patients with various health concerns and then transform that video into holograms. This gives the student nurses an experience to virtually see the procedure in detail in a clinical setting.
Final insights
HoloLens education apps are not restricted to a particular course or field. They can also be developed for teaching geography, physics, chemistry, biology, history and related subjects. Any academic course featuring strong visual concepts can be suitable for HoloLens development. Hence, HoloLens in the education sector is certainly set to be a very big thing and it will definitely bring a revolution.
We, at Softweb Solutions, have partnered with Microsoft and have hands-on experience in HoloLens app development. Our skilled developers are adept with the technology and are exploring areas that we can cater with our capabilities. We are beyond the world of proof of concepts and have had opportunities to provide AR, VR and MR solutions to our clients. To know more about adapting HoloLens for your educational institution, contact our experts.
