Our 3D Classroom

8-11yrs

Ease ****

Overview:

Photosynth is a powerful set of tools for capturing and viewing the world in 3D. You can share your creations with friends on social media sites, publish them to the web or embed them in your own blog or website. In this activity, learners create a 360˚ photograph of their classroom and publish it on the school website.

Description:

Explain to the learners that they’ll be taking a set of photos of their classroom in order to assemble them in one continuous, panoramic 360º image. It may be useful to show them examples on the Photosynth website. Explain to them that in order for the software to create the image, they will need to provide the material in a specific format e.g. each photo must have some common points (overlap) with the next one so that a 360˚ photo can be made. They will need to take 10 photos per 3m.

Divide the children in groups and explain that each group will be responsible for taking the photos of a specific part (3-6m depending on number of learners and groups) of the classroom.

Show learners how to take the photos and how to use the picture viewer on the camera to asses the quality of each photo.

When they’ve done this, upload all the photos to a folder, delete the ones that are not required (there will always be one or two unusable photos!)

You will need to install the Image Composite Editor and Photosynth Application in order to get started, just follow the instructions on site. Once installed, go to the create page and follow the instructions to create your image. More detailed guidance and help is available here: http://photosynth.net/help.aspx

When you’ve finished, publish the photo on the school webpage or class wiki/glog. Pupils can share their classroom with parents, friends and children in other schools. Find other 360˚ class photos by typing “class” into the search box on the Photosynth webpage.

What do I need?

Digital camera
Internet access
http://photosynth.net/default.aspx

Added value:

This software allows learners to create sophisticated 360˚ single location images and multi-angle ‘Synth’ images which they can use in projects, presentations and social media sites. Some of the site features are unique to Photosynth.

Hints and tips:

Remember to charge the camera(s)! It is best not to hurry the process and maybe allow learners to experiment with the camera first. It helps a lot if learners understand the importance of having a ‘continuity’ of photographs, so it may help to place a marker on the floor to indicate where they should stand whilst taking each of their photographs.

Set the zoom function and the camera and inform learners that this does not need to be changed!

Safety:

If learners appear in your images, ensure you have parental permission before uploading to the web.

Other opportunities to use the same software: