Modern education brings with it an interesting dilemma. The focus on measurable academic studies at a government and regulatory body level means schools have little incentive to teach soft skills, art, design, and other creative topics. Yet, being imaginative gets us noticed in the sea of social media, with personal branding, composition, creativity, and more becoming crucial to future success.
Planner 5D – a 3D home design platform – has launched a free educational version that will help schools teach kids design, architecture, and engineering, three of the disciplines currently lacking in many educational establishments. With Planner 5D, teachers can set group assignments and design challenges for their classes. Any teacher anywhere in the world can apply and get up to 100 free educational licenses for their students.
“We are committed to allowing everyone to create a comfortable and inspiring home, landscape, and other spaces they’ve always dreamed about,” Alexey Sheremetyev, co-founder and CPO at Planner 5D, said. “With this free educational version for schools, we not only provide students across the globe with access to the platform but also help teachers to encourage them to foster their creativity while learning basic design principles needed to make their dreams come true.”
The announcement doesn’t just foster design and engineering abilities. Planner 5D teaches the importance of computer-based design and engineering tools and helps kids develop STEM skills. At the same time, teachers can encourage students to foster their creativity while learning basic design principles through color combinations, lighting effects, landscape design, visually appealing graphics, unique sketching, and more. Previously, Planner 5D was only available to schools as a paid product, but the demand and testimonials from the users pushed the team to make it free.
“I use Planner 5D with my high school Residential Interior Design students. They instantly catch on, using the program to design specific specs and create floor plans and homes with great detail. I have used the program to do individual and group design challenges”, said Sandy Cormier from Brattleboro Union Highschool in Vermont. “They like seeing their designs come alive through 3D view and the ability to add large and small details that give their homes personality. There is excitement when they discover something new about the program. This has changed the way I teach and look forward to its continued use in the classroom.”
Planner 5D has over 69 million users who have created over 300 million projects, improving their living or working spaces, renovating their homes, and changing the look and feel of places they belong to. The educational version of Planner 5D provides virtually the app’s full functionality, including the immersive editor and the catalog of over 6 000 objects. Teachers can integrate the interior design software into project-based activities. Students complete their tasks and then share their work with the teachers who’d be able to see and assess these projects in their personal dashboard. Planner 5D is available on Google Chromebook, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android.
This move, along with other free resources that help kids gain education in new ways, is welcome and – in a post-pandemic world – highly necessary for all our futures.
