Teacher’s Corner
Augmented Reality? In Education?
YES
By Christine Danhoff Educators are constantly looking for resources and tools to get students engaged and excited about the content they are teaching. Augmented reality can take that engagement a step further by empowering students to design and create content. The hidden possibilities can provide students with the opportunities, experiences, and skills to take into their future careers or workplace. They can apply it to other experiences such as their own passions, interests, and share them with an authentic audience. Augmented reality can change how we really “see” the world!
CleverBooks takes the experience a step further by creating a webbased, interactive experience called Augmented Classroom. In this space, students can explore and interact with a variety of activities, listen and learn about curriculum, as well as check their knowledge on topics from geography, weather, animals, geometry, and space. An innovative feature of the Augmented Classroom is that students can collaborate and create with other students around the world. These opportunities provide the necessary skills for our students to better navigate their way through their future workforce from an early age.
In K-12 education and beyond, empowerment can be attained by utilizing and integrating augmented reality with students. Augmented reality allows students and teachers to utilize a mobile device or tablet, along with an app, which will then utilize projection-, location-, or recognition-based experiences that bring objects, artifacts, or media into our real-world. Students interact with that content by moving around, getting closer to it, and manipulating the content to research and learn more information.
No matter if students are in-person or virtual, augmented reality can be a hook to get them excited about content, and to inquire and ask more questions. When students can see artifacts, animals, and can interact, listen, watch, and create with augmented reality, their excitement level, collaboration and communication with their peers, as well as creativity levels increase, making the content more meaningful and memorable. Some students may never have the opportunity to leave their country, state, or hometown to visit different historical landmarks, and augmented reality brings artifacts, and the landmarks right into their world in front of them. It also allows students to view content and models of things we can’t see without a microscope or by scuba diving into the ocean. Augmented reality gives students the opportunity to see and interact with plants and animals, sea creatures that live on the ocean floor, as well as many other ways to make learning more meaningful and create those memorable experiences.
Studies have shown that engagement increases with students’ ability to create experiences utilizing a mobile device or tablet to demonstrate their understanding of a particular concept or standard. When students utilize augmented reality during a lesson, they want to dive into the content and don’t want to stop learning or exploring. They are more willing to use critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills to explore what else may be “hidden” in the lesson or activity. In order for educators to achieve this, students can create using web-based sites utilizing their Chromebook or device, as well as create and experience with a variety of apps that correlate with curriculum standards and concepts from PreK-12 and beyond! Not only can augmented reality create empowered students, but it can also spark student curiosity and interest and boost their engagement. Some examples of how augmented reality can successfully be integrated into the classroom and curriculum range from exploring the water cycle with the Merge Cube, re-creating and interacting with scenes from a novel using CoSpaces, exploring ocean animals and space using Assemblr, retelling the story of The Three Little Pigs with Quiver Masks, practicing letter and number writing with Narrator AR, interacting and reading stories with Wonderscope, identifying historical artifacts using Google Expeditions AR, and exploring the world, countries, vegetation and animals using CleverBooks Geography and map.
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STEM TODAY | FALL/WINTER 2021
As educators, we want to provide our students with opportunities and experiences that they may never have and/or that will be vital to their future. We can bring these opportunities to our students with augmented reality just by being willing to step outside the box and give it a try. You have nothing to lose, and can only gain student interest, engagement and excitement! For a collection of augmented reality resources to try with PreK-12 students, go to https://wke.lt/w/s/ zUbhOP. CHRISTINE DANHOFF is K-12 Technology Integration Specialist, Genoa Area Local Schools in Genoa, OH. She has a passion for integrating AR/VR and computer science into the classroom for student engagement, and to provide opportunities to students that they may never get to experience.
