In my class – 4J – we’re experimenting a little with AR and an app I found that links to a great book. If you have 5 minutes, and instead of me explaining everything, just have a look. The kids loved it! (.99 cent app)
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Jenny Brown 4:39 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for sharing Kent, it was a good example to show how engaged the students became. With carrying out this exploration with AR, I have been left wondering if all of the cool hidden videos/features etc discourage student imagination or augment it?
stammik 4:45 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The kids love it is right. I’m guessing most teachers and administrators would be rather impressed by the level of engagement offered by this implementation of AR – thanks for sharing it Kent, I’m going to ask my daughter if the book is available in her library!
tomwhyte1 7:24 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Interesting video, and yes a great book. My kids have the app version on my iPad right now.
However, I only see one student engaged – the one holding the iPad. The students around her are watching, but they are nothing more than spectators, and the poor child holding the book is not receiving any educational value.
Yes I agree, that AR can increase engagement. But increased engagement of new technology has a very limited shelf life, and does not replace good instruction, and engagement does not ensure that actual learning takes place. But, when we see students, sitting, behaved, with smiles, we assume they are learning… when in most cases they are having fun. Do not get me wrong, I think learning should be fun, but I try not to mistake all smiling kids as learners, and those not smiling as not learning…
I think AR has potential to enhance the learning environment, and right now we are seeing flash and bang, with little substance. Therefore, I ask, what would pedagogically sound AR learning look like…
I myself will give this one application a bonus over the others, in that it allowed the girl holding the iPad to interact with some of the virtual objects presented.
Thoughts?
tomwhyte1 7:26 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
In addition, I applaud you as a classroom teacher for exploring how technology might enhance the learning environment, therefore, please do not take my opinions on AR as a reflection of the efforts you are putting forth, and the obvious dedication you have to your students and school.
Kent Jamieson 7:33 pm on October 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
No worries Tom, I too am quite sceptical of the overall value of this type of technology. I just wanted to try it out. I’m sure if all my students bought the app the experience would bemore individualised, but still…is the learning any better? To tell you the truth, I found the experience distracting from what the book’s actual message was. In some parts I could tell the kids weren’t even listening to the narration, but waiting for the next virtual action to take place.
The kids were definitely interested and engaged, but substance-wise, it seemed pretty skin deep.
tomwhyte1 7:43 pm on October 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Did the book app you used, have the characters be able to exchange hats like in the strictly app version… that section is my children’s favorite.
Peggy Lawson 8:12 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I’ll have to try that one. Just finished with Aura. Made my own Aura – not really impressed, but I’ll spend more time with it, and try your suggestion Kent. I’m pretty much in tune with Tom I think. Currently a neat little novely item – I could see kids becoming engaged, but not for a long spell in it’s current state (speaking only for those I’ve tried so far). And as Tom said, engagement does not guarentee learning. Neat new things pop up so frequently these days that any one thing is not likely to hold a student’s attention for too long. It’s got to have more than just a “WOW!” factor to have any real impact.
Peggy
Jonathan 9:28 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Peggy —
You’ve got some good points with it needing to have more than just a “WOW!” factor. Then I think about embracing the “WOW!” and running with it. If you think about how we can use technology to capture the attention of our students — using WOW doesn’t seem so bad.
For example, say we are teaching some math concepts and we use AR to make some of the numbers jump out of the page to teach a concept (let’s say for the sake of argument how to add numbers), this could be really engaging. Sure it’d like watching a movie (by the way, I’m against the edutainment stuff) but if the student is engaged even for that split second the concept could be transferred in that moment. Perhaps even watching more of these AR demos could possibly help? Embracing the ‘WOW” would’ve achieved the purpose.
Again, it doesn’t seem pedagogically sound in the long run — but for a temporary burst? Do you think that it could/would possibly work?
Just some thoughts 🙂
— Jonathan
tomwhyte1 7:00 am on October 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
My concern with what you are proposing is the simple fact that in a short period of time, we become desensitized to the event. When I grew up it was the Rodney King beatings, the students I have taught recently was 9/11. Research has shown that repeated exposure to an event, lessens the impact of the event… Something in the drug community known as Chasing the Dragon – trying to get that initial excitement back (had a presentation recently).
For myself, what educational value does AR bring to the classroom? If it is being simply used to briefly engage students, tell them a story, make the information relevant to their real world experiences. But do I feel it is a tool we should ignore? No, I think it has a time and a place, but not all the time, and not in all the places.
Thoughts?
Kent Jamieson 7:47 pm on October 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think your comment, “it has a time and a place” is true, but i’m sure that could be said for many many things. My experience with AR in the class was a once off thing, to engage the students, but to also share with them that this sort of thing is possible nowadays.
I always look at my Grade 4’s as the future leaders – or at least ‘the future’ – and by sharing these tools with them it might inspire them to think about new ways of doing things. They seemed excited about the AR demo, but some of them weren’t impressed and could tell most of the images “looked fake”. Maybe one day they’ll be the ones programming educational technology apps…watch out for that day.
Peggy Lawson 8:02 pm on October 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Sorry Jonathan, but I think that brief WOW that gets kids briefly engaged isn’t enough. As Kent said, WOW often gets students to be engaged with the wrong thing – the technology – and miss the real point of thes lesson. I think it’s very easy for us, as teachers, to also get distracted. We do run a real risk I think when we feel we have to always find a new WOW factor, when really it’s the excitement of the content that should engage students, and an effective teacher can do this without whiz-bang effects.
I think the real benefits to AR are to be able to show things (as others have said in other threads) that cannot otherwise be easily visualize – an atom is a great example someone else had mentioned. Or the structure of a bridge in full 3-D.
Simply having books flying around in a storybook don’t seem to add much in the way of real knowledge formation and can be more distracting than useful.
Peggy
Colin 1:48 pm on October 21, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Jonathan, I have to agree with most what is said. I don’t think that any technology, which are just tools, cause engagement on their own. It is a teacher that causes engagement whether they use technology or not it all depends on how they use the various tools they have access to. I have had very engaging teachers who just talked at the front of the class and never used any technology. However I do think that educating students to the various technologies that exist in the world is useful and for that reason I would use AR.
Colin
Jonathan 9:29 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Kent —
I have this book in my classroom and I just bought the app. Amazing. Thanks for making the video, i’m using it tomorrow (oh no! Pro-D tomorrow) — Monday it is! 🙂
Thanks,
Jonathan
Ranvir 9:42 pm on October 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This app is awesome Kent! I would love to use it with my kids at home to make home reading more engaging for them, its quite a challenge for me. BTW – would you mind sharing the name of this app, could not find it on iTunes…
Kent Jamieson 7:38 pm on October 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Imag.N.O.Tron My son loved it as well. Hope you like it and helps out at home.
visramn 9:15 pm on October 19, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Great example. Thank you so much for sharing. It is amazing how many tools there are out there that we can tap into as educators.
Nureen
sophiabb 3:46 pm on October 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for sharing. Love the possibilities that the app presents. I agree that there is a ‘time and a place for everything”. The challenge for us educators is to use learning technologies in a constructivist way. Sometimes, engaging/hooking our learners’ interest is a start that we can build on.
~Sophia
jenniferschubertubc 5:09 pm on October 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
This kind of reminds me of what I first thought Pottermore would be after anxiously awaiting and watching J.K. Rowling’s announcement video on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5DOKOt7ZF4). My niece and I earned highly coveted spots as beta users, gaining access to the site months before it was open to the general public. We did have to wait a while though… longer than we had originally expected. When we finally received our owls with welcome letters, we logged on right away. We couldn’t wait to officially get sorted into our house by the Sorting Hat and experience all of the enriched content. There was only one problem. Even in beta testing, the user count was so high that the site was forever crashing, leaving us high and dry. We’d try to mix a potion, only to be kicked off and asked to try again at a less busy time.
As a result of these initial hangups and unforeseen technical failures, I think Pottermore quickly became somewhat of a joke. Whereas millions of readers were initially fighting for thousands of beta testing slots, shortly into the experience, most of them gave up. When friends finally got their welcome owls, it was more of a “have fun with that” attitude than a “I can’t wait for you to get sorted to see if we’re in the same house” feeling. As with anything new, especially if it is an “add-on” to something that has a rather large existing fanbase or original following, there are bound to be some growing pains. Pottermore held a lot of promise, but the failure to deliver in a timely and reliable manner marred it a bit in the end.
Peggy Lawson 8:13 pm on October 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Jennifer – something like this suggests/reminds me that I’m sure there are a lot of companies that rush to put out a product or service too quickly. We are now all use to beta products that cause much frustration. I’d guess there are benefits to selling a product/service if you can be one of the 1st out of the starting blocks – but does that do more harm than good by causing ill-will with users? Maybe it’s better to wait just a little longer until a more refined product is ready to be released, and be ahead of the competition in quality rather than just being the 1st out.
Peggy
pcollins 6:39 pm on October 20, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you so much for sharing the video Kent. It really goes along ways to showing how the AR incorporates into the classroom….. here’s the thing. Are we limiting our children by so heavily directing the outcome of their play/activities/reading? Is this type of technology minimizing whatever normal contributions their little minds might have come up with? A good friend of mine, an early childhood consultant, has made me aware of this recently. She makes dolls that are felted and they do not have faces. At first I thought it was strange, and then we were laughing because as kids we made dolls out of wooden spools and chicken feathers- and they never had faces. It’s so that the children can superimpose any relevant thoughts and feelings without the doll directing the play.
I remember my imagination creating the world for Lords of the Ring as I read the book. Now young people are foregoing the challenge of these books for the movies/lego/cartoon/etc. What is the true outcome of such heavily augmented experiences? Do they limit our youth?
PC
melissaayers 11:04 am on October 21, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Love it – that’s really cool, thanks for sharing that Kent. It really does add extra dimensions to a book.
I see it as great for entertainment and perhaps encouraging kid’s imagination and exploration however I am not sure how effective it is for helping students learn to read. As it seems the story gets read to them by the app, more like a movie, than them reading it themselves.
One way I think the app could be improved (educationally speaking) is if voice recognition software was added (and advanced enough) the book could then be viewed in reading or listening mode. For reading the voice recognition software could help the student along, correcting them when they went wrong or providing hints or help when they were stuck.
Still aside from this I think a couple of my nieces will be getting a copy of this!
manny 5:32 pm on October 21, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks for sharing that short video Kent, i don’t think anyone can argue the interactive properties and increase in engagement that augmented reality affords. What was neat about your specific example was that you could also touch different images on the iPad itself. It also let you transition away from the picture while the augmented reality experience continued. These are two neat features that Aurasma cannot do at the moment. Thanks for sharing…
Manny