DDA Exposes Teachers, Students to 3-D Technology
Sometimes 
students are simply not able to learn through spoken lessons alone, but instead need to visualize a lesson in order to understand or come up with a solution for a problem. In an effort to help, Discreet, a division of Autodesk Inc., has launched the Discreet Design Academy (DDA), which was designed by educators and Discreet to bring new visual communication-based skills and learning experiences into the secondary school classroom.
DDA provides a cross-disciplined curriculum that incorporates the company’s new 3ds max 7 software, which allows students to use visual communication to solidify their critical-thinking, science, math, language and technology skills. More specifically, the software utilizes its 3-D technology to teach complex topics such as breaking down the digestive system, and then allowing students to animate solutions in order to explain and present what they have learned.
DDA also includes comprehensive lesson plans, teaching guides and handouts to support five projects throughout a semester - the equivalent of a fundamental animation course. Other teacher resources included with the program are syllabi, evaluation rubrics and online tutorials. For more information on the DDA program, visit www.discreet.com/dda.
This article originally appeared in the 02/01/2005 issue of THE Journal.