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'Hologram' Lecturers To Teach Students at Imperial College London (bbc.com)
Imperial College London will be using holograms of lecturers to teach students from afar. "Imperial will initially limit its use to its Business School's activities but expects the technology could eventually become common," reports the BBC. From the report: Strictly speaking, the illusions are not holograms but neither are they the Pepper's Ghost effect used by politicians including French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well the entertainment industry. Instead, they use a technique developed by a Canadian company, Arht Media. "The problem with Pepper's Ghost is that it can be intricate to set up and can cost about $200,000 to run an event," said Dr David Lefevre, director of Imperial's Edtech Lab. "This is simpler -- you project upon a glass screen, and a backdrop behind it uses software to give it an illusion of depth. "It runs at the low thousands each time, so for the first time universities can afford it." To send their image, lecturers need to use a "capture studio," which involves filming them against a black backdrop while being lit from both sides.
Could people PLEASE stop calling these 2d projections 'holograms' and learn what an actual hologram is??
Unless something radical happened lectures tend to just be some guy droning on about a subject, often as not with his back to the audience so he can read off the power-point presentation. How does this benefit from being in pseudo 3D?
The University of You Tube
With YouTube, I can pause, watch again, skip the parts I found easy, repeatedly watch the challenging parts
Real time learning is non-optimal
The bit where it's of any additional value to anyone but the company selling this junk.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Cool, but is this really any better than a video conference? Why would you simply not use an online video instead? Students can watch it multiple times to grasp harder concepts and they can watch it literally anywhere with mobile technology. I even did one for my physics students explaining Pepper's ghost. It might not be as cool as a hologram but I bet it is at least as effective pedagogically and since we had all the equipment already the cost was pretty much zero.
They are simply projections, holograms do not require a surface project light on to.
Not Science... You are asking far FAR too much of such a department (and probably too much of both the administration and a science department also, sadly..).
They should however not be doing this on the basis that there is little or no cost/return benefit over using a standard camera/big screen (ie: video conferencing).
This is just gimmickry.. not the BEST thing to be promoting to business students (or perhaps it is, teach them how to extract money from over-funded universities with BS ideas..)
As a student in London in the 80s, I attended a few lectures over CCTV. The only good thing about them that it was easier to fall asleep than in standard lectures. This aside, they were pretty much as useless as standard lectures.
is there something wrong with just saying pepper's ghost
So it just costs a few thousands more per lecture than a video and it gives the fantastic bonus of almost being 2.5d?
What a progress for the learning experience that must be for those schools who swim in money.
I still remember my quantum physics professor giving two hours lectures without ever taking a break, with no written notes at hand, surfing among hamiltonians, fuchsian singularities and spins, and using nothing but chalck and a blackboard. For his research work he missed a Nobel prize nomination by a hair, and he left a vivid impression in all his students.
Now a student gets nothing but a virtual assistant...what will they remember of this after a few years ?
From the near future
EEH mk1.:Please state the nature of your educational crisis
Student: All the lectururs are gone even the department deans are MIA/AWAL
EEH: What about the lecture archives?
Student: Off lime and the it departmet is on strike
EEH: (sigh) I seem to be at the University of the damed
(freely modifed from EMC MK1 Voyager: Cartaker. no intelectual property violation intended)
Om e serious note tho without the lecturing fees how can the researchers fund that part of the reserch now funded by those fees?
Can't just watch it on YouTube for free?
No money for essential services but let's spend a bunch of money on faux holograms that don't really add much to the teaching experience over a projection TV. With the projection TV you can save the lecture and post it on YouTube so the students can watch it later.
Put the money into the basic essentials and leave the fancy light shows for the entertainment industry or even CEOs introducing products.
Help me Professor Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!
Given that it's Imperial College and they're going to be teaching by hologram... I wonder if this ( http://www.oocities.org/~speci... ) might be one of the professors.
I also wonder, neat as this idea is, is there a clear advantage to doing this over a simple video recording shown on a conventional TV or hosted on the course's website for students to access on their own devices?
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